General Q&A about worldbuilding and other speculative developments that can be extrapolated from science.
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Okay, so while I'm fairly certain this is possible to do, I wanna know if it actually makes sense to do so. Imagine you have a fleet of ships, each of them so large it takes megatons of antimatter ...
I have a "simple" question that is the basis for an idea I'm developing: Is it possible to terraform the moon and, if so, what type of technology would be needed? I understand that this isn't th...
In the marvel universe mutants are much more fortunate than in our world; they often have extremely useful powers; ranging from telekinetic abilities to wings. As interesting and plain fun as this...
Let's say that hundreds of years from now our posthuman descendants finally do good on NASA's promises and build an Alcubierre drive or a true reactionless drive (either one works for this example)...
What would it look like for a ship with an Alcubierre drive to drop out of FTL both for the passengers, and to an observer (assuming they aren't obliterated)?
This is a spin off from this question here. I want a spaceship or several spaceships to be able to move a planet out of its orbit around another planet. How big could the planet realistically be...
I want to have two planets orbiting each other, and there is a ring around both of them, is this possible? I know rings are formed inside the Roche limit, so if the ring lies outside the planets, ...
Had a random thought. I was wondering if a uranium deposits underwater could result in radiotrophic plants or bacteria to sustain an ecosystem. One issue with this, is radiation has very short att...
A common problem I have with modern science fiction and fantasy (Halo, Mass Effect, Narnia etc) is that the aliens and animals are somehow able to speak in perfect human speech. How does an alien o...
Since I'm getting plenty of great for my other question "How can a nine tailed fox catch its prey? Thought I might try to get ideas for both fox-fire and illusions. So far I've thought of biolumin...
I'm interested in asteroid mining, but don't have the infrastructure in place to process ores and the like in space. However, I've got a nice planet-based refinery setup where I could easily proces...
I've created a new question and worded differently to help me get the answer I want. Click here to view A planet is in orbit around a larger planet, and I want to push it out of orbit. The plane...
Basically what I'm picturing is a slight variation of the usual model that relies on flux pinning (a.k.a quantum locking) to resist damage. The swarm has a macroscopic "core", some sort of electrom...
I have a native tribe in pre-Columbus America that has successfully domesticated small, omnivorous bears. They are similar in size to Sun Bears [120"“150 cm (47"“59 in) / 27"“80 kg (60"“176 lb)]. I...
I have planet with twice the radius of Earth, with its core being the same absolute size as Earth's in order to provide magnetosphere, and the rest of the planet made of silicates like Earth's mant...
Being inspired by the lovely concept art of Star Trek's Nibiru, I have long thought that the Nibirans would use the tiered pools for aquacultural purposes, and would like to implement tiered aquacu...
Given advanced enough telescopic technology, would it be possible to detect that a planet in the order of 50 light years away is inhabitable? (i.e. without having to actually go there) I'm just lo...
I have got a fictional universe, where a humanoid lifeform evolved on earth not from apes, but from bears. The humanoid bears are like humans; they walk on their legs only, wear clothing, have vari...
I'm creating a world opposite of Les Visiteurs, where modern age structural engineer accidentally time travels to 13th century. When guards of the local lord arrest him on suspicion of being a spy,...
I'm designing a city built to take advantage of valuable mineral deposits in a large polar desert. The city is built around a Yellowstone-esque region of hot springs and geysers, where underground ...
I'm really excited that this topic actually exists here. For the past weeks I've been thinking about creating my own fantasy world - because there are not quite enough yet. My primary aim is to mak...
Humans as Ambush Predators Homo sapiens and many of our ancestors practiced a form of hunting known as persistence hunting where we just walk after an animal till it keels over dead from exhaustio...
The scenario is the following: a civilization with technology level similar to humanity's current, on a planet similar to Earth, shall be hit by a massive celestial body in approximately one year. ...
Given that a ship is a torus embedded in the plane of a vast solar panel arrangement in a sun facing orbit around Mercury, is there any means by which to protect the ship's systems from coronal mas...
If the gravity on earth was different, how would our bodies change? For this question, assume that gravity was five time stronger (5G) from the beginning of the Earth. Would a human-like body stil...
Let's say I have a character whose body stopped aging at say 7 years old, prepubescent; just say a wizard did it. The individual is now into their 20s, but their body never ages and, in particular...
I have a world idea (and definitely not the only one with such an idea in which the main location is a moon of a gas giant, that has life like on Earth. What are the effects of the presence of the...
Human have begun colonizing the solar system using the ablative laser microwave drive, our next target is Proxima Centauri and inbetween there is basically nothing except dust and occasional astero...
An alien race wants to test out its new technology that modifies the atmosphere of Earth and other terrestrial planets, they decide to center it over Central Park, NYC. One of the first things they...
The story So Bob, the multi-billionaire, is a wealthy person today but in a not so far away future he will lose quite a chunk of his wealth and become just an ordinary millionaire. Future Bob is ...
Lore: "Not much is known about the past of Unus Solum. What is known is scattered and fractured. Unus Solum was a planet that was subject to colonization efforts. The Ark ships that came were pre...
If a bank wanted to operate branches in multiple cities, possibly separated by large distances, how would they prevent a fraudulent customer from double-dipping on a withdrawal? For example, if I ...
Humans require a 20 degrees environment. that's 250 degrees warmer than Pluto. So, if humans lived there, their structures would melt the surface and sink. −200 cracks all common metals. most sp...
I'll keep this one brief. I have an alien from a planet which has extremely cold nights and extremely hot days (the day and night cycle may be short or long, I haven't decided). When the alien get...
Would it be possible to recreate planet Earth and it's ecosystem on a desolate planet that has with similar basic properties? This planet has a similar temperature range to Earth, has no soil, onl...
In my story, Earth follows an alternate history where this civilization has reached the same level of development as us, today. Assuming that this civilization can lift a second moon half the size ...
In the background for my book, I'm looking for an alternative way for space travel. What I'm currently considering: A starship travels to the center of a star by using the natural downwards flows t...
I'm writing my first sci-fi novella and I'm looking for a bit of guidance from some scientifically literate people. My main premise is that an alien space ship similar to the death star enters Eart...
Gargantuan carnivorous worms with layers and layers of flesh rending teeth are a pretty common sight in some science-fiction stories. They tunnel through earth and sand as fast as a car, sensing th...
Is there any hypothetical way that a crazy advanced civilization could convert matter to digital form (or energy) and back? How far away might such technology be from our current tech level, if th...
For my science fiction universe, I need to mine a lot of deuterium and helium-3. I have 10,000 intake fans each capable of 3,000 gigaliters an hour pushing atmosphere through 5 billion diffusers. ...
Assuming humans live in dimension 3+1; 3 spatial dimensions, length width and height, and one dimension of time, Is it possible to move matter from our dimension 3+1 to another, such as 4+1 (addin...
Let's say that a race of aquatic merfolk have managed to achieve sapience, they are basic hunter gatherers, living in relatively shallow waters of up to 100 meters deep. As I have begun designing t...
Imagine a species that evolved almost identical to our own, except for one difference. A child's sex is not decided by the presence of a Y chromosome, and all embryos have the potential to evolve ...
One thing that necessarily happens on a generation ship is that people die of old age. Now that poses a tension: On one hand, you need to handle the dead with dignity. On the other hand, you probab...
It seems like Dyson Spheres are always brought up in the context of harvesting power. However, another use for a Dyson Sphere may be to cloak your solar system/inner planets. If the star's output d...
I'm looking for biological explanations for some traits I want to give to an alien creature. Description of the Creature It looks like a five foot tall praying mantis, or perhaps a centaur. It ha...
Lets say that somehow a cube world came into being, on an axial tilt around its sun, four of the sides are in-habituated by intelligent life, one of these sides (relatively) quickly realized that t...
What are the effects of introducing 2600 sharks of the primitive Edestus Gigantus specie* in modern waters in different places on earth? Will they survive, how ? for how long? can they destroy the...
I need a planet that is a combination of chlorine world and vitriolic world. The planet is extremely hot and under high pressure, covered in oceans of pure sulfuric acid and a chlorine/fluorine atm...
