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1500 questions
32
votes
11 answers
How long would it take to remove all trace of a civilisation, with malice and intent?
If you look at the history of the earth today, we've got quite a long timeline - about 4.5 billion years.
We've got a few hundred years of 'good' historical record, and it gets progressively more sketchy the further back we go. There's not much…
Sobrique
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32
votes
6 answers
Is it possible to orbit inside a gas giant?
When we talk about orbits we often imagine a ship or station orbiting a planet outside its atmosphere.
Is it possible a ship could go into orbit inside its atmosphere (perhaps to hide from other craft) or would it be torn apart by the gravity and…
Liath
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32
votes
15 answers
Can the US military seize a country which has the ability to kill anyone based on the victim's name and face?
Setup: Earth, current day. US president decides to attack fictional country of Lalalistan, because terrorism/drugs/whatever. This attack has big support in NATO countries and Russia with China officialy object the attack, but remain neutral.…
Pavel Janicek
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32
votes
6 answers
Does living without access to sunlight for extended periods have known physical or psychological effects on humans?
Humans (even programmers :-) ) are used to having some access to natural light, but in a colony in space, on the dark side of a tidally-locked planet, or underground (for example) this won't happen. Are there known (documented) effects on people's…
Monica Cellio
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32
votes
13 answers
Is there any real potential advantage to having two hearts?
One common way sci-fi writers try to make their aliens seem more 'alien' is to give them an extra heart.
This has been done for example in Babylon 5, Dr. Who and Alien Nation among others.
But: Would a humanoid (note: in this question humanoid…
king of panes
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32
votes
8 answers
How would lighthouses work in space?
In my world spaceships are guided by lighthouses floating in space instead of electronic navigational systems. A lighthouse in space has the shape of a huge sphere emitting intense red light. Like the ordinary lighthouse a space lighthouse mark…
Javert
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32
votes
7 answers
How do the zombies win when they're so weak?
I'm writing an autobiography of my life in the post-Zed world. Now, I think the effects of the Zeds have been obvious – total obliteration of any worldwide infrastructure, severe depopulation, turning most or all major cities and even smaller ones…
anon
32
votes
11 answers
What would need to happen to history to make a 21st century steampunk world?
Everybody loves steampunk. Without reading the Wikipedia page, the main idea of steampunk is a world (usually 19th century or thereabouts) where steam power is used universally, and computers as we know them have not yet been developed, but many of…
Shokhet
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32
votes
16 answers
Why would robots use verbal communication?
Robots (intelligent machines using some form of artificial intelligence), are central to the plot in a snippet I'm working on. These robots do not have to interact with humans on a regular basis: maybe once or twice a year for checkups.
Why would…
Quiquȅ
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32
votes
9 answers
What would modern IT look like if Silicon Valley had been completely destroyed in 1985?
In the 1985 movie A View to a Kill, James Bond discovers--and then foils--a plot by
the main villain, Max Zorin
to destroy Silicon Valley, in a manner that makes it look like a natural disaster. The plot for doing so is a bit dubious, but that's…
JesseTG
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32
votes
8 answers
Can we 'beam' energy from the moon?
Really can't believe I have to edit this in, but this question has no bearing on our current use and generation of nuclear energy on Earth. There are dangers to nuclear energy generation, or we would not be taking all of these precautionary steps…
Twelfth
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32
votes
13 answers
Plausible plasma weapons?
In a lot of science fiction, the advanced weaponry takes the form of guns firing directed bursts of plasma. These searing bolts of fire are classic ways to create weapons apparently rooted in science, but still fantastical and mysterious.
Is it…
Danny Reagan
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32
votes
25 answers
Which shape for an infinite world with usual sun cycles?
In fantasy works, it can be interesting to imagine an infinite world. It means you can travel in any direction for as long as you want, always discovering new lands, new cultures, new landscape, etc.
By infinite world, I mean an infinite habitable…
Kolaru
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32
votes
29 answers
Humanely reducing the human population?
Imagine quite a way into the future, the Earth becomes overrun with humans. Birthrates are similar to where they are now, and the advancement of medical science means that people live a lot longer (say average life expectancy is 150 for the…
Isaac Woods
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32
votes
25 answers
How can the stars be wrong, so that an observer realises they're not in our world anymore?
There is a common trope in fiction: when a character find themselves in a dark place out of this reality (somewhere in the eldritch realms, dreamscapes, lost cities of Carcosa or R'lyeh, etc), at first they do not fully understand their dire…
Olegiwe
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