General Q&A about worldbuilding and other speculative developments that can be extrapolated from science.
Filters (None)
In an alternate Earth, there are no bats. Instead, there are "flying monkeys" (which are actually lemuriform primates, rather like bushbabies or lorises.) And even though they have batlike ears, ...
The mad scientist community is...mad, to put it kiddie-appropriately. Their logic has the tendency to make 0% sense 100% of the time (provided, of course, that they ever bring it up.) So you can ...
Of the living great apes, humans are most closely related to the chimpanzees and bonobos. We retain quite a few features from that side of the simian family, and it got me thinking about what a hu...
Background: In the year 2204, humans have colonized most of the inner solar system. During the first explorations of the vast outer system, a team of researchers uncovers a series of alien artifact...
I have a species of megafaunal carnivore that are extremely mobile with territories spanning hundreds of square miles and lifespans of 120-150 years. They lay clutches of 2-3 eggs every 20-30 years...
In my story, an advanced alien civilization that can travel to other universes has created an infinite energy source, named "an amvelian core". This core resembles a small sphere in appearance (abo...
I apologize if I continuously ask different questions about different concepts for stories. It's just that I can never make up my mind on what to write, and sometimes, my ideas change. But anyway...
So, I've decided that in my fantasy fiction, I want to have Megabara riders. Massive Capybaras, being ridden into a battle. I've done some basic research and I came across this extinct species tha...
Let's say there is another planet in our solar system that harbours sentient life and this sentient life can build castles, buildings, and other such structures. When would we notice that? We ca...
For context, I was reading about various research groups installing implants and cameras onto insects to use them as reconnaissance drones in high risk areas. I'm wondering how feasible it would ...
A planet much like Earth orbits a star much like the Sun, but with one difference: the energy from the star is magically transformed into sound within the planet's atmosphere. There is no longer st...
It's the future. The setting is about as "hard-ish sci-fi" as it is possible to be, with the one big exception of a viable FTL engine. Humans have began spreading out into the galaxy, colonising n...
So, gods. What are they. Gods are a race of various creatures that share a two important characteristics: They're connected to The Source. They can successfully produce offspring (though without ...
How fast could run a humanoid being, how much damage could resist, how much weight could lift, how strong could hit, under the indicated evolutionary conditions? is there a limit? I have always tho...
in the Cthulhu mythos, yog sothoth is depicted as a mass of splitting and fusing orbs, it is the past, present, and future and seemingly knows everything. but for the sake of trying to make it real...
Strange! this question does not seem to be on site with a search (only what to wear). I am concerned about the psychological aspect of food production and eating. Clearly tube food is out and I thi...
I'm making alternate more realistic designs of Kirby characters. I'm working on a version of Escargoon the "snail" here. Due to his movement in the Kirby anime resembling more of a shuffle I've...
Assuming a passenger was sitting in an elevator in a rotating wheel space station, as depicted in the movie 2001:A Space Odyssey and based on this question Elevator on rotating wheel space station...
In this universe, Earth had a couple orbital rings during the construction of the colony ships that were sent to Alpha Centauri. Humanity has achieved fusion power and efficient space flight (1g ac...
There were many questions in this site about slaying dragons, butchering dragons, but never one about restraining them. Poor Gyvaris managed to avoid all those fates but the last. Gyvaris is a dra...
My creature looks like a Psittacosaurus, with spikes all around its body, it hisses and uses its tail whip as a first. As last resort it will squirt an aimed stream of blood from its eyes toward it...
I've been working on a sci-fi series set about 1000 years in our future. The discovery of an alien threat leads the ruling government to conceive of a doomsday machine, which they hope will be so p...
This question answers the issue I was wondering about of how well an exoskeleton suit could help my characters move as normal in higher and lower gravity Could a robotic exoskeleton give humans Ear...
Okay, so I want you to think of someone similar to Clayface here, only he's not limited to just clay. What I got for him so far is that he was once an ordinary man until a cluster of specifically...
Given that you can travel back in time and have a baby there, or alternatively, send your baby back in time, would it be possible that this baby one day becomes your own mother (gives birth to you)...
I have done some research and so much contradict one another or I simply fail to understand. Do seasons occur on a tidally locked planet that isn't tilted on its axis?
Many planets out there will be water worlds. Those generally come in two flavors: either the oceans are so deep that the water turns into high-pressure ices like ice-six, -seven, -ten and -eleven o...
We often see, in Sci-fi, food being produced from, say, algae or yeast. What could be the effect of such a limited diet on the gut microbiome? Would there be any believable side-effect that would h...
We've just started 36th century, humanity is colonizing stars right and left. Technology is well developed, you know, typical Sci-Fi stuff. In 23rd century we finally were able to create true AI. ...
Previously, I asked about the plausibility of a sulphuric acid dragon. As it turns out, the answer was right on Wikipedia, namely a. thiooxidans and the snottie Snottites are highly acidic biof...
If the polar cap of a tidally locked planet was all ocean, what weather patterns would emerge? The ocean couldn't be half frozen/half boiling, right? I need a weather pattern so the planet isn't ju...
I'm working on an earht-like map and I'm having a hard time understanding where to put the high and low pressure zones. Here's some background info first. Axial tilt: 25 degrees Tropics latitude:...
Inspired by One Piece by Eichiro Oda. from https://onepiece.fandom.com/wiki/Nikyu_Nikyu_no_Mi Fiction has many examples of humanoid animals - things like lycans or werewolves, cat/dog/rabbit fo...
In my book series, I'm worldbuilding a planet whose culture is based on Celtic mythology and history, and in order to be consistent with real life I feel like the whole planet's environment needs t...
In most future sci-fi settings, it is apparent that laser weapons (or as Star Wars likes to call it, blasters) and energy weapons in general would have replaced most standard ballistics for main in...
Movies like The Matrix and video games like The Evil Within have popularized the idea of a simulated reality. I'm talking about a human connected to a computer and able to experience similar thing...
For starters, I'll describe what I'm going for with this species (I'll call them White Hairs because, you guessed it, they have white hair) They are humanoid with pale gray skin, tall and pointed, ...
So the Plasma Cannon proved to be a bust, now to the next weapon, what which is commonly associated with 'Exterminatus', the Atmospheric Incineration Torpedo. This bomb is far more powerful than a...
Would an organism that evolved on a world with a short day length have a faster metabolism in comparison to one that evolved on a slower rotating world?
So, I've heard that while Alcubierre drives might present a semi-plausible way of getting around the light speed limit (if you can get ahold of negative energy), they do so at the expense of creati...
"Imagine that. A planet teeming with life, entwined with one another with mere thought and nothing more. A silent harmony, a quiet world." Context Through some still unknown science, and on this ...
This is something I'm thinking about. Now, these would be wings that are not powered by the person themself, since we do not have the strength for it (and I don't want to use legs). They'd be power...
I'm writing a fictional story where non-primate mammals (and marsupials) evolved into different species of humanoids which roamed the earth. In my world humanoids have evolved from animals such as...
I am working on a story where I will take the geography of our world but install new peoples, cultures and histories. This will likely include fantastical elements as well as mundane. In working ...
Space explorers have landed on an Earth like planet and, to their surprise, the place is luscious and covered in life, to the point of resembling some earthly tropical atoll. What they don't know ...
With a group of friends, we are trying to build an RPG in a quite specific setup which I have a hard time to find elsewhere in order to get some inspiration/information. So what I mean by that is...
Set in the not-so-distant future, interplanetary travels are the norm. Most spaceships are powered by fission reactors, and accidents do happen due to negligence or flaws in the system. It will pro...
Roughly how long could an 'Oumuamua type object get if created naturally or if created artificially using fused rock? What would be the limiting factor governing the length of such objects? Oumaum...
Is there a way arachnids legs could have finger like appendages at their ends in a way that makes sense for their structure and wouldn't look like a cheesy design? This creature wouldn't be insect...
