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Q&A

General Q&A about worldbuilding and other speculative developments that can be extrapolated from science.

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Are there *plausible* planetary conditions where jet aircraft just don't have much advantage over propeller-driven aircraft?

I've seen Which is easier to develop: a piston prop engine or a jet engine? and my own Effects of ~10atm pressure on engine design neither of which answers this. Would different atmospheric densit...

2 answers  ·  posted 4y ago by Tristan Klassen‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by Tristan Klassen‭

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Plausibility of a six limbed, four legged giant

So, I'm creating a fantasy setting, and because why not, I decided to have giants. Not giant giants, just roughly 2 times the height of a human. Now, because physics is dumb, a giant species would ...

2 answers  ·  posted 4y ago by The Humbug‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by The Humbug‭

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Is my planet realistic?

Is my planet realistic? It doesn't need to be able to support life as it's just another planet in my solar system, but is a planet with such a high density and gravity really possible? I calculated...

4 answers  ·  posted 4y ago by LonelyCryptid‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by LonelyCryptid‭

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Humanity is doomed because of succubi

The first two answers in the anatomically correct succubi question suggest a parasitic approach to the concept of succubi which snatches off human organs, either the tongue or the vagina and feed o...

2 answers  ·  posted 4y ago by Kay‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by Kay‭

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Creature that increases its own lifespan by killing other animals

An intelligent creature who's natural life span is around 50 years in which they need to feed to not die of starvation after which they naturally die. But killing other beings of their own species...

1 answer  ·  posted 4y ago by Kay‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by Kay‭

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What might cause a civilization to be unable to colonize a large moon but live in space stations around it instead?

In my world a moon is reached and colonised but only in space stations for a long time. They gain the ability to reach the surface and then story happens. It needs to be something that can be bypas...

25 answers  ·  posted 4y ago by Topcode‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by Topcode‭

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Net shift of humans towards introversion?

Extraversion and introversion are a central dimension in the Big Five personality model (or OCEAN model). Being introverted or extraverted may not be mutually exclusive, but, when averaging out ove...

2 answers  ·  posted 4y ago by subdermatoglyphic‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by subdermatoglyphic‭

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What is the tallest mountain possible in any gravitational environment?

In world building it is often interesting to consider extreme landscapes "“ how tall can a mountain be on Earth for example. But what is the tallest mountain possible in any gravitational environme...

2 answers  ·  posted 4y ago by Slarty‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by Slarty‭

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What laws of physics would need to be broken in order to travel in space faster?

I have a spaceship which I want to have travel very quickly around a system like our own solar system -- let's say about 10 million miles per minute, which would go from Mars to Earth in ~15 minute...

4 answers  ·  posted 4y ago by LukeN‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by LukeN‭

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What events would trigger linguistic hyper-evolution in a spacefaring civilisation?

Let's say that in an alternate universe, humans developed on a relatively small supercontinent, so their languages and cultures were somewhat similar. After a while, all of the nations merged into ...

1 answer  ·  posted 4y ago by System‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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The most suitable martial art for birdpeople?

Tengu are a race of upright, humanoid creatures with the ability to fly and other avian characteristics to a varying degree. Konoha-tengu (foliage tengu) are six-limbed humanoid avians. The bird s...

6 answers  ·  posted 4y ago by Mephistopheles‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by Mephistopheles‭

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How much energy would be needed for a sentient plant species

Let's say humanity is a type 1 civilization, ( essentially a civilization that can control there entire planet and harness its energy ), now let's also say humanity wants to make an intelligent spe...

1 answer  ·  posted 4y ago by RotNDecay‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by RotNDecay‭

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Would it be possible to build numerous spaceships that could transport 10 million people in the late 2100's?

The crafts would have to contain large farms in order to sustain the immense amount of people, and they'd obviously have to be large and spacious to have good living conditions. I did some research...

2 answers  ·  posted 4y ago by Niobium_Sage‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by Niobium_Sage‭

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Binary Star System Build - Alpha Centauri

I'm not sure if this site or Astronomy would be better, but I figured I would try here instead. I am attempting to create a [semi]plausible star system in Alpha Centauri for a series. The system w...

1 answer  ·  posted 4y ago by user72655‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by user72655‭

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What binary poisons could work when ingested?

What are two non lethal substances that will combine to create a strong poison when ingested close together? Hopefully my character would be able to drink one of the substances mixed in to a wine ...

5 answers  ·  posted 4y ago by Mais‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by Mais‭

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Could a "multicellular" virus exist?

When I say multicellular I mean it's made of more that one viruses. Basically it's a bunch of viruses that act like viruses but use the viruses made by infected cells to build a "multicellular" lif...

6 answers  ·  posted 4y ago by Topcode‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by Topcode‭

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toilet for mermaid?

I want to know what kind of toilet design for mermaid is, considering they live surrounded by water and they poop through the anus (or whatever the organs name is) that located in the front rather ...

2 answers  ·  posted 4y ago by Li Jun‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by Li Jun‭

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How much brain power per KG/volume?

When writing a futuristic story I always try to minimise the impact of computerization. Its rather uncomfortable writig a story when technology is advanced enough that humans arent in a position to...

3 answers  ·  posted 4y ago by Demigan‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by Demigan‭

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Despite almost zero energy consumption why does my spaceship scheduled cryostasis in shifts?

In the distant future a breakthrough in cryostasis technology can put healthy people into frozen state so that all metabolism halts and cells never age a bit, the spaceship is carrying them across ...

12 answers  ·  posted 4y ago by user6760‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by user6760‭

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Meteorological consequences of walls reaching into the sky, enclosing a large area

Suppose we walled off a 1000 km square. These walls would be made of unobtanium (so they don't break), and have no cracks or holes that go all the way through. They are also around 15 kilometres hi...

1 answer  ·  posted 4y ago by Mark Gardner‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by Mark Gardner‭

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Through Uterus/Reproductive System

Early life, and many modern organisms have what we call 'blind guts'. Food enters and exits via the same opening. However, that is inefficient and has been widely replaced with 'through guts'. Fo...

4 answers  ·  posted 4y ago by Aezyc‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by Aezyc‭

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Mountain Destruction by mining

I have a mountain in a story that basically needs to be taken down (inadvertently) by human action in a world with premodern (so mediëval/ early renaissance at best) tech levels. I have been thin...

1 answer  ·  posted 4y ago by Blue Devil‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by Blue Devil‭

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Could there be a complex creature with a flatworm-like pharynx?

I'm designing a creature which possesses a decently unusual trait: despite having a developed head, it's mouthparts are attached to a tentacle that retracts into the creature's belly when not in us...

0 answers  ·  posted 4y ago by Ichthys King‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by Ichthys King‭

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How can I prevent the invention of skyscrapers?

Introduction I want my story, set in the modern day, to have a unique architectural feel. Part of my strategy - no skyscrapers. Wikipedia: The term skyscraper was first applied to buildings o...

27 answers  ·  posted 4y ago by subdermatoglyphic‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by subdermatoglyphic‭

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Could Meridiungulates Colonize The World Before the Opening of Panama?

The last time I asked something similar, I asked if it would be possible for xenarthran mammals (armadillos, sloths and anteaters) to be thrown off of South America from life-giving rafts to other ...

1 answer  ·  posted 4y ago by JohnWDailey‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by JohnWDailey‭

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Is it possible for a planet to only support liquid water at the poles?

Could a planet be hot enough that oceans could form at the poles, but would boil at the equator? And would oceans form at all on this planet?

2 answers  ·  posted 4y ago by Ichthys King‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by Ichthys King‭

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What does it look like inside a transparent glowing gas?

If you were inside of a gas that was producing its own light (for example, air at 900°C), what would it look like? Would it look foggy, or would objects that aren't the same colour as the glow sti...

3 answers  ·  posted 4y ago by Ichthys King‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by Ichthys King‭

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Naturally altering the climate in order to create lush areas in a wasteland - Is it plausible, and if so how?

In essence: I'm playing around with a few ideas relating to a post apocalyptic United States, and one of the concepts I've come up with is a world of mostly dusty deserts and other regions mostly d...

3 answers  ·  posted 4y ago by Yayguy‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by Yayguy‭

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How could a ballistic mask provide full protection without compromising the wearer's singing voice?

So, I'm having trouble with one of my character designs. Guardian angels are former humans who died in such dumb ways that Heaven simply couldn't let them in, not before they proved they can preve...

1 answer  ·  posted 4y ago by Mephistopheles‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by Mephistopheles‭

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Are flexible digits viable for both running and climbing?

I'm basically designing a quadrupedal digitigrade alien, which has evolved from a predominantly arboreal animal into a predator with more cursorial adaptations, capable of running fast, but still b...

2 answers  ·  posted 4y ago by ProjectApex‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by ProjectApex‭

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Could triangular DNA exist?

This is sort of a follow up on my question Could a "multicellular" virus exist? in which part of the consensus was that viruses simply can't hold enough DNA. In theory, could DNA form in a structur...

2 answers  ·  posted 4y ago by Topcode‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by Topcode‭

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How could an underground city hide its existence for potentially thousands of years?

After the fall of the lizard empire, most of the lizard people fled to Node to avoid genocide (This is in the Lovecraft universe, racism is mandatory). In short order, this former bomb shelter beca...

3 answers  ·  posted 4y ago by Mephistopheles‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by Mephistopheles‭

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A semi-habitable Mars and the differences between the plains and the craters

I'm developing a world based on a terraformed Mars, which was cut off from interstellar society and regressed to a pre-industrial level of technology. Mars has an ocean, but most of the settled peo...

1 answer  ·  posted 4y ago by Geraintosaurus‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by Geraintosaurus‭

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(Semi) Believable way to quickly submerge a large landmass

I once before asked a question on how to quickly submerge a large landmass/continent. The answers there basically concluded that literally ''Sinking'' (a la Atlantis) is pretty much impossible to...

3 answers  ·  posted 4y ago by Blue Devil‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by Blue Devil‭

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How to plausibly reanimate a person?

What hypothetical scientific procedure could be used to reanimate someone who is brain dead. I am aware that it is possible to bring someone back if they are clinically dead which is where a vital ...

2 answers  ·  posted 4y ago by DEMI‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by DEMI‭

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Question about Kessler syndrome

I'm writing a novel set in a post post-apocalyptic world, where society on Earth collapsed a long time ago and has rebuilt itself by the time the novel starts. I need a reason to keep the people ...

4 answers  ·  posted 4y ago by Dashane Du Plessis‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by Dashane Du Plessis‭

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Could a species evolve to the point were they cause their own extinction

We know that in biology, a species evolves to better survive its planet and its various climates and geography, which is mainly a result of natural selection. But, sometimes, this natural selecti...

5 answers  ·  posted 4y ago by RotNDecay‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by RotNDecay‭

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How could a dragon-proof toy work?

So I was outlining the part of the story where Gyvaris, a dragon, almost gets killed, when I realized I glanced over something. You see, Gyv had a human friend before and they used to play games to...

10 answers  ·  posted 4y ago by Mephistopheles‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by Mephistopheles‭

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Do chemicals from nuclear reprocessing waste remain radioactive? Are they flammable?

I'm writing a story about a town whose residents all work at a nuclear reprocessing site. Some teenagers begin to hang out near a small body of water close to the site that they call "the swamp". T...

1 answer  ·  posted 4y ago by Julia‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by Julia‭

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Changing humans to their mirror image versions to become immune to infectious diseases

If we could replace DNA, RNA and the ribosomes in our cells by their mirror image versions, then everything would work in the same way, except that the chirality of all molecules would have been in...

2 answers  ·  posted 4y ago by Count Iblis‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by Count Iblis‭

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Minimal mass of an Earth-like satellite to seriously deter space travel?

I want to write a story taking place on the natural satellite of a gas giant, with said satellite being massive enough to prevent, or at least strongly deter, space travel, such that the resources ...

1 answer  ·  posted 4y ago by Udon Nomaneim‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by Udon Nomaneim‭

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Could habitable planets form in an ultracompact galaxy?

I am wondering if habitable planets could form around stars in super dense dwarf galaxies. There are some super dense galaxies such as M60-UCD1 and M85-HCC1 which can have a typical distance betwee...

2 answers  ·  posted 4y ago by RandySavage‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by RandySavage‭

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How to handle transhumanism vs space colonization

Given the difficulties in doing things like constructing O'Neil cylinders or habitats on places like Mars, is it at all plausible that current humans could ever really colonize anything in space? I...

4 answers  ·  posted 4y ago by Adam Reynolds‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by Adam Reynolds‭

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a tribe of neanderthals survive on a tropical island off of the coast of india into the modern day. how might they evolve?

lets say this island is an exact copy of the climate and ecosystem of tropical India. how might Neanderthals evolve in order to survive this environment?

1 answer  ·  posted 4y ago by bigboi‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by bigboi‭

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Human labor required to setup automated mining outpost on faraway planet?

Glossing over the technological implications of interstellar travel, what sort of human labor might still be required in a future where we are capable of setting up nigh-fully automated endeavors o...

4 answers  ·  posted 4y ago by Delirium‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by Delirium‭

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can any animals (example dragons) can synthesise pyrophoric subtances and contain it in a special sac (like tert-butyllithium)?

so according to this website: https://haraldas.wordpress.com/2014/10/21/dragon-fire-ever-wonder-if-its-possible/ it said that it could be possible for any animals to synthesise tert-butyllithium...

2 answers  ·  posted 4y ago by user3556983‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by user3556983‭

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Would the Oceans in This Map Be Freshwater?

So long ago, I asked on how to make Earth's oceans as brackish as Lyr's, one of the many worlds imagined by artist Chris Wayans. The only real answer I got was something that that world had alread...

2 answers  ·  posted 4y ago by JohnWDailey‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by JohnWDailey‭

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Anatomically Correct Giant Seahorses

This is a submission for the Anatomically Correct Series Giant seahorses are often portrayed in fiction as being ridden by merfolk or other underwater people. I'm wondering if such a creature ...

2 answers  ·  posted 4y ago by Richard Lindahl‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by Richard Lindahl‭

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Could it be possible to quantum entangle particles on a mass scale?

So in the world I'm building, I'm considering to give one of my characters the ability to quantum entangle specific particles on demand. Now although for many years we thought quantum entanglement ...

3 answers  ·  posted 4y ago by Strivs‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by Strivs‭

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Could terrain like this form on Earth? If so, how?

I am creating an RPG and came across an image that I wanted to base my landscape on. It is shown above. Is it possible for terrain like that to form on Earth (ignore the wildlife)? If it is, how ...

4 answers  ·  posted 4y ago by galactic_analyzer‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by galactic_analyzer‭