General Q&A about worldbuilding and other speculative developments that can be extrapolated from science.
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An Orbital is a miniature ringworld used by the Culture in Iain M. Banks's Culture series. Wikipedia has details on their basic structure, but to simplify, the main difference from a Niven ringworl...
I wonder if it possible for human civilization to evolve into two different civilizations. One is controlled by artificial intelligence (or by uploaded human minds) and the other is biology-based ...
In a new self-sufficient human colony, what are the minimum requirements of the local environment (i.e. what resources would it need) for long-term survival? Let's suppose that the colony land on...
How would plants be affected by a 48 hour day, instead of 24 hour? Would plants be larger to store more energy for photosynthesis? Also, how about the temperature of the earth be different on bot...
In this question, the most "realistic" idea is to have the human have an oxygen tank strapped to his back and connected to his nose at all times (preferably through a mask of some sort). However, t...
What would it take in terms of impact size to interrupt or stop Earth's (or an Earth-like planet's) magnetic field?
I wanted to ask about the system described in the following scenario... A villain has built a system consisting of a telescope connected to a computer that runs some autonomous object recognition ...
I have a head-world idea where one of the planets in it has four magnetic poles. It is a desert rocky planet with carbon based lifeforms on it (mostly underground or in bio-domes). What would the...
I'm trying to figure out realistic futuristic jobs for my characters. We're in a verge-of-singularity world, 15-25 years in the future. Convoluted neural networks and their even more awesome near-...
While we develop space travel technologies, the Moon will always be the first destination. By its proximity to Earth is the obvious target to test our technology. Before we can establish some kind...
I'm considering making a novel about something weird that really happened sort of: an island that was on every map of the world, but never really existed. The real deal is called a Phantom Island,...
Think of HAL9000 playing a chess game with Frank Pool: Thank you for a very enjoyable game. Would that have been literally enjoyable? In a world where A.I. exists, as depicted in this kind o...
Is it possible for humans to live on a world with the following conditions? Atmosphere: 50% nitrogen; 30% oxygen; 20% carbon dioxide. Climate: The rain in some areas is acidic. (Is there som...
Imagine that you lived in this world: The planet has a diameter of 5000 km. The rotation time is the same as the orbital period. And here it comes: the orbital period is 1027 years. The planet's ...
A question about portals from the 'portal' games. In the games, pairs of flat, identically sized and shaped, effectively for simplicity rectangular, portals, that lay flat on surfaces, link two pl...
The idea of hollowing out asteroids, spinning them on their longest axis, and filling them with air, water, and soil is common in science fiction (Rendezvous with Rama, or 2312 for good examples). ...
Could a Manned Maneuvering Unit-type device provide a few hours of light artificial gravity* for a small person on an object with minimal gravity of its own? What sort of fuel would it need? * Com...
What if, sometime in the next say 600 years, humanity develops a device capable of manipulating the four fundamental forces in the area around it. (For example, a handheld device could work in a ra...
Apologies; it just didn't seem like an appropriate question for Earth Science or Biology. Let me know if I'm incorrect. Maybe Physics? If all the ice, permafrost, ice caps, etc. melted due to glo...
Visiting the Worldbuilding site plays with my creativity and imagination. So I am going to describe the dream I had: I am member of a different (alien) culture, from a different star system. Also,...
I am not a writer. I have never written any story and I have no idea of what it takes to get this idea into any meaningful narrative. It's more of a thought experiment for me and I formally give th...
What underground, for example burrowing or tunnelling creatures on earth, have underground organisation/societies, that are intricate enough for interesting narrative features, for example friendsh...
Suppose a world suddenly is being attacked by frequent tidal waves caused by some event in space. What type of event could have caused this? Any side effects caused by the event, such as the relea...
Instead of trying to tether the Moon, can we somehow harness the Moon's kinetic energy, the same way we do wind? If so, how is this possible?
The basic question is: When is a location good enough to build a space centre on it? Some info to the function of the space-centre: The space centre has a lot of traffic, also humans. I imagine...
Related to the this question about not going SPLAT. That one was for conventional travel through space at high speeds. Now I want to know about how things would work with an Alcubierre drive. I...
If there are several races with very distinct appearances (e.g. Nordic-pale vs. Arabic-tan skin, red vs. black hair, etc.), how much space / natural barriers do I need between their homelands to ju...
I want two populations to coexist in a world with extensive tunnels carved into the rock. One population lives in the tunnels, coming out to trade and gather food. The other is aware of the tunnels...
In a future where space travel is common, how would access to space be regulated? From what I know, currently the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) assigns slots for geostationary satell...
Is there any conceivable way that a planet with two moons--one being visibly red to the naked eye due to its mineral composition--could align in an eclipse in such a way so that the whole effect lo...
Accept that we had a reason to go to Mars, managed to build a colony there, and what we found on Mars is valuable enough to ship back to Earth. There is now a self sustainable colony living under t...
A long time ago I heard about a Medieval Irish pirate that used a Trebuchet mounted on his ship (no I am not sure what he was or where I heard it). The idea of a ship acting like a double pendulum...
Is it possible for humans to evolve to eat something like wood or stone or something similar? Any hard material you would find or any abundant resource. So is it possible that humans in the past ha...
One possible approach how to estimate extend of space colonization is to define costs of it and then estimate the investments the governments and organizations would be willing to pay. In an excell...
I'm interested in writing a story about inhabitants of a permanent base on Mars, a few decades after all life on earth has (presumably) been wiped out. Preferably, I'd like them to still be there, ...
Could a civilization exist on a planet/dwarf planet like Pluto? It is so cold and barren. Is it possible? What would they live off? They don't have to be humanoid.
Given a planet about the size of Earth, and a moon the Size of the Moon, how could one destroy the moon without flinging the fragments onto the surface of the planet or into outer space? How can o...
Considering that the oceans are rising (and that humans don't seem too keen on doing anything about it) and that population is growing exponentially, is it plausible to imagine that in a not too di...
What is the best method for creating a visual that mimics aerial photography for a fake island. The desired quality is USGS standards for actual aerials, preferably 2 foot aerials. The end product ...
This question was stimulated by the question How would an aquatic race develop computers?. The answers obviously were based on the aquatic civilization being earth based, but what about a totally ...
Biotechnology is a big keyword in the industry right now, like computing was a bunch of years ago. Nowadays, anyone can pop up a terminal and start tinkering with their computer, program software, ...
(First of all, perhaps this is a duplicate of this question, but I'll give it a go since I'd like to focus on something different. Or the answer is there but I couldn't quite catch it. Oh boy... *f...
Imagine we build a space station much larger than the ISS with more or less today's technology. (For example in a scenario in which price of transport to orbit per kg is significantly reduced by te...
Imagine a world covered in a shallow sea (usually only 4 metres or less) that has little land, where there is land its in the form of fairly small islands (less than 1sq KM) This will be populated...
I'm working on modeling how a civilization can progress from some known state making conscious choices about the fields in which to apply its resources. Is there some good / theoretically sound / w...
When doing some research for some of the resent questions proposed, I ran across an article that pointed out a danger of traveling at extreme speeds in normal space as a high percentage of c I was ...
Summary: I am looking for a portal transportation mechanism that is consistent with the laws of thermodynamics. Portals (or wormholes or gateways, something that connects two different locatio...
Terraforming is the process of transforming a celestial body to become habitable by Earth-like life. Even when I try to imagine an advanced civilization, the cost, time and complexity to terrafor...
According to this answer to what the moon is made of, the moon's crust is, among other things, 43% oxygen. Assuming we were to go back to the moon within the next couple of years with the goal of ...
I am currently designing a megastructure which is supposed to provide living- and workplaces for about 100.000 people. It is supposed to be designed in a way that it provides everything the inhabit...
