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1500 questions
37
votes
8 answers
Are "planet of hats" realistic?
Planet of hats is the name of a trope where all inhabitants of a planet share a defining characteristic, of which there are many sub-tropes like environment or economy. I'd like to focus on the culture.
Is it realistic to have planets with defining…
congusbongus
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37
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9 answers
How to organize crime?
A middle income country with weak institutions, which is heavily dependent on tourism and trade for its foreign currency, has a problem with rising crime rates. There are many petty criminals from destitute farmers due to flood of subsidized food…
Top5AtLeast
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37
votes
13 answers
Keeping unelectable opposition on life-support?
As a strongman I want to rule my country with iron fist, but times have changed, this days west doesn't look too kindly on autocrats. Oh how I miss the good old days when I could hang people by their genitals just because they dared protesting for…
famaz
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37
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11 answers
Would the capability for Japan to drop a nuclear bomb on the USA have deterred the USA from dropping a nuclear bomb on Japan?
Would the USA have been deterred from dropping a nuclear bomb on Japan if Japan had the means of retaliating with a nuclear weapon in WW2?
Leading on from that, would Japan have used the nuclear weapon against America if they had the knowledge that…
Kian Cross
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37
votes
14 answers
How can hornets be engineered to kill a human with a single sting?
Asian Giant Hornets are particularly vicious and deliver a dose of neurotoxin to its victims. Generally an average of 59 stings are sufficient to kill a healthy non-allergic man
Given a suitable evil empire and access to scientific minds, how would…
user10945
37
votes
15 answers
Non-relativistic FTL is trivial. Why are spaceships mostly pretty small?
In space-trading games like Escape Velocity, Elite: Dangerous & others, cheap FTL exists, but lags in other advancements results in a playable environment that is politically fractured and not a post-scarcity utopia. Pilots can even manage a profit…
Ross
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37
votes
19 answers
How can I keep the computers on my spaceship from temperature related death after a hull breach?
Spaceships are a peculiar thing. We've got them in all forms, sizes & colours. They have vast computers needed to do all the real-time calculations required for astrogation.
Assuming our computers are not as perfect as we designed them to be. There…
dot_Sp0T
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37
votes
8 answers
How can it be bigger on the inside
We have these "magical" items everywhere in fiction; from the classic rabbit coming out of a hat illusion, to the TARDIS from Doctor Who, to Newest Magical Beast Newt Scamander Briefcase. These items all share same characteristic: a container with…
Hariz Rizki
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37
votes
15 answers
What could an aquatic civilization use to write on/with?
As the topic asks, what could an aquatic civilization use to write on/with?
By aquatic, I mean they live in the oceans, breathe water, etc. -- like mermaids and such. And they are trying to create a way to write in that underwater environment,…
Durakken
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37
votes
13 answers
Is a food chain without plants plausible?
Suppose there was a world on which evolution and natural selection took an odd turn and never produced an organism that could be considered a plant by our modern definition, but which still produces viable organisms for that world's ecosystem.
While…
Frostfyre
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37
votes
25 answers
What kind of land transportation can be used for plowing through hordes of zombies?
Set in a zombie apocalypse world somewhere in Chennai, India.
News report shows an estimated 90% of the population here has turned into zombies overnight, soldiers setup a human chain perimeter blockade and a kill order has been given to terminate…
user6760
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37
votes
7 answers
Can 3 planets rotate around each other like this?
I was wondering if three planets can rotate around each other so that:
Two of the planets are smaller and rotate around each other
Both of the smaller planets rotate around another, bigger planet.
It's a bit hard to explain, so I made a…
user22613
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37
votes
3 answers
How many plants does it take to breathe?
I'm working on a space story in which an astronaut is travelling to Neptune to validate our CurrentEarth™ corporation's findings regarding our Solar System. The setting is a moving ship similar to the Mars home base in The Martian, but I came across…
Anoplexian
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37
votes
12 answers
Super Spies Reality Check
It's a common trope that during the Cold War (and afterwards) America, the UK, the USSR, and sometimes nations beyond these developed super spies, capable of acts of espionage, sabotage, and direct military action worthy of a film deal or two. Often…
Ranger
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37
votes
20 answers
10 Commandments to prevent technological development
If an advanced being or group wanted to limit a human society's technological development, they might establish a series of cultural taboos or religious guidelines to influence the societies development.
Assume that the creators of these guidelines…
Josh King
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