General Q&A about worldbuilding and other speculative developments that can be extrapolated from science.
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It looks human, feels human, can walk and run like us and can even argue with us, but it do not possess DNA. Is it possible to create this homunculus?
What's the biggest building we could build on the world? 90% of it must be air pockets that we can fit humans into Going underground is allowed, but you can't allow your building to turn to liqui...
For my Science-Fantasy WIP I am considering using a single artificial planet (roughly the size of a Dyson Sphere) and its moons (of which only three are large enough to exert any real influence) as...
Much like how certain cultures have adapted to live at extremely high altitudes, what would be the evolutionary effects if humans today were taken to a planet with atmospheric pressure not unlike a...
Gauss's Law states that the electric field enclosed by a sphere, or any other surface is the same as the charge divided by the electric constant. What if in another universe Gauss's law was, "The ...
I am a staunch believer that any near-future permanent colony on the Moon or Mars should be built underground, at least the living spaces, due to the harmful effects of radiation. What is the grad...
What would the implications be for a humanoid species to excrete only gaseous waste from themselves instead of solid or liquid waste? Public bathroom facilities would not be needed, but how would ...
Melanin is what causes the color to appear in the skin, hair and eyes. But in humans there seems to be a limit to this. For example human hair can be orange(gingers) but not green or blue. iris's c...
I've created a world where science has developed a new species of bird (kind of a bird, it's like a Basset Hound with wings) to be used purely as a utilitarian species. (Carrying of small loads, me...
I have to make a map for two planets. For booth two I already have an idea about what they look like, but I don't know how to draw them. They don't need to be really clear, however they should make...
I have an organization that I want to have some kind of HQ without being in a country. I was reminded of Sealand (Thanks Joel), those platforms off the coast of the UK. I want something similar, ...
In many famous alien species you see that the iris is so large that it almost appears that it replaces the sclera. What evolutionary history would support the irises growing to that size. The only...
An alien life form is found that has a pattern of stripes on its back. The pattern is black, red, yellow, green, cyan, blue, and magenta, black, and so on. It is found that for each series of dif...
I'd like to be able to see from my Earth-like planet, a very bright nebula that can even be seen during the daytime. I question, however, whether that is possible, because in order for it to be co...
Let's say that in my planetary system there is a gas giant around the size and distance from the Sun as Jupiter. I need the planet to be similar enough to earth to be able to be inhabited natural b...
Lets say you have a small group of space colonists. They were screened for sickness, viral and bacterial, as thoroughly as we knew how before being sent off to the colony and all were found health...
In 2053 a manned mission to the moon, using seismic sensors, discovers that it is not a natural satellite*. The moon is actually an egg of Vespula ludicrousmegagiganto. Note that the name is not ...
Tidally locking a rock or metal moon isn't too hard and the understanding of how a solid moon behaves while tidally locked is relatively well understood. However, can a water moon be tidally locked...
Hey guys so I've posted on this site before and I've finally made an account so I'd like to ask again about mine and my friend's webcomic WIP. Biology wise, I've made three main groups of animals, ...
I've wanted to work out a world where summers are extremely hot except for two weeks in the middle of summer. Winters would be extremely cold except in the dead of winter when there would be two we...
In mammals - and that includes us humans - the lungs make up 7% of the total body volume. This allows us to inhale oxygen and exhale carbon dioxide, thanks to the pulmonary alveoli. But bird lungs...
I am wondering what are some of the major concerns/designs an intelligent flying species would have in designing a starship? Generally we consider space to be a premium and crew living space is al...
Let's say that a gas giant (around the same size and distance from the sun as Jupiter) has a moon that supports life. The moon is around the size of Mercury (if this is too large please let me know...
Can the oceans freeze (at least several feet below sea level)? I know that the temperature for salt water to freeze is lower/colder than fresh water, and when it does freeze, the ice is mostly salt...
This is a terrible planet for animals to live on, with all the humans around. Someone should just put all of them down. There is a group of radical vegans/animal rights activists that want to kill...
Our modern systems are predicated on the existence of electricity, which is a phenomenal discovery that helped propel the human race into our current civilization. However, electricity can be highl...
Follow up to this question: How would earth goverments respond to killing of most of a colony to keep the rest alive long enough for rescue but with a different approach. The same scenario occurs....
Earth in this scenario still rotates once every 24 hours, and the temperate zone still has four seasons, each one lasting three months. But in this scenario, a temperate summer has the sun shining...
There is a place that has a natural boundary that allows all animals and plants to enter that place but any animal that can't fly is unable to leave that place. This place is large enough to have ...
Earth has an iron-nickel core which gives us a magnetosphere. Based on this question that replaces our iron core with a mercury core, would we be likely get a magnetosphere? Mercury is highly cond...
Alice is living on a sphere that has zero gravity and that is in an inertial reference frame. However, she and the sphere have electrical charges that are such that if she jumps she will accelerate...
Ok, so the Earth is filling up, finite resources, and as we all know, there are no plans for us to reduce our resource hungry ways,...and Mars has no magnetosphere apparently which means we couldn'...
Now I know that there are limits technically on size of plants as seen in this post, but what I want to know is what limits a plants speed? I'm guessing it has to do with the soil, but is that all...
Think about a big space station or whatever giant space building. What will be its mass to attract (with gravity): Small asteroids (1-10 kg / 2-20 lbs) Spaceman (100 kg / 220 lbs) Satellites (...
Let's say there is a species of intelligent beings who are indistinguishable from humans in every way - except on average they can jump twice as high as the average human, based on Earth gravity. ...
I have a group that's building a moon colony. The final end goal is a self-sufficient colony of at least 1 million humans. They have access to one million metric tons of lift per week at nominal ...
I am an awesome, famous, self-made billionaire - I started with a mere \$300 million and amassed that into over $4 billion in only 40 years (an amazing 6.75% return). Everyone loves me - the black...
Inspired by this article on Big Think: Genius or Crazy? Pangaea Reborn, how could humanity create a new Pangaea out of our planet? From what I remember of my earth science class, the amount of en...
For those (readers) who have seen the blockbuster movie titled I, Robot (2004 film) there is a humanoid robot who prefers to be called Sonny: Clearly this implies that Sonny is different from the o...
Radio Thinkers Creatures that communicate by biological radio pops up in science fiction occasionally and it's a fun idea. However, there are some practical concerns with regards to evolving a ra...
I know water is required for life on a planet so I got to thinking, is it possible for a world to be a functional planet (plants animals etc.) without polar ice caps and if so, how would it work wi...
According to Wikipedia and this answer, the Moon is orbiting the Earth at a distance around 20 times greater than than the point where it would break up. As far as I can tell, that means in a ficti...
In many SF stories (or fantasy if you replace science with magic), there is one technology that is hyper advanced in one specific field, like robotics in Real Humans or in Extant, but almost nothin...
I asked a similar question (in a SpaceEx manner) on Space Exploration, but here I've made it a bit more ... worldbuilding. We have a nice Space Elevator, and I'm in charge of the luxury guest acco...
Let's assume that there is a way to travel into space that's not in a rocket, and a human can essentially just walk/be carried into the upper atmosphere and beyond. Would there be anything that, p...
Most interested in effects during the first <75 years. Things to consider: What type of organization is building the space elevator? How is the service sold/rented? What is its maintenance/s...
At a crucial point in the development of human civilization, there is a split in the timeline: one where FTL travel is facilitated by jump-drives/wormholes, and another with superluminal speeds (St...
It is simply a matter of time before human colonized our natural satellite and the red planet, so how to lay roads that is similar to ours on lunar and Martian soil? (For now suppose we are plannin...
I am considering a world with a very long light/dark cycle. However, I would like some natural method of measuring out a "day-like" period of time. Could an object with an orbital period of aroun...
I am thinking on a small group in the current Humanity, having only around 2-300 members. They have the most important positions in the world politics (i.e. politicians, media holding owners, key d...
