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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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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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How much volume does a liquefied human take?

A group of aliens are off to save the human race from extinction caused by a Lovecraftian monstrosity. In order to accomplish this feat, they go to Earth in order to harvest as many humans as po...

8 answers  ·  posted 4y ago by Seraphim‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by Seraphim‭

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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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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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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 is the best form of powered vehicular flight within a McKendree habitat?

Background A McKendree cylinder is a spinning space habitat in the style of an O'Neill cylinder (below), but orders of magnitude larger. McKendree habitats are hundreds of kilometres in diameter a...

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

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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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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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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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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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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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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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Is it possible for a moon to stay on the same side of its planet relative to the sun?

I'm building an earthlike world that has a moon orbiting a gas giant. Is it possible for the moon to always be between the planet and the sun? Also, is it possible for a moon to rotate around its o...

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

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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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Why would a sleeper ship be designed to only wake one person in case of emergency?

Starliners are huge colony ships. They carry enough equipment, building materials, embryos, colonists and nutrient rich rations to permanently establish a sizeable colony on a far-flung world. Alth...

36 answers  ·  posted 4y ago by Joe Bloggs‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by Joe Bloggs‭

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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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is it possible for quadrupedal or hexapodal flying monster to fly well while their limbs retracted?

just suddenly struck by curiosity, i vaguely remember that big quadrupedal or hexapodal (if you count the wings) animals cant fly well basically. I dont remember why, but i think it was related to ...

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

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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 would a biological brain be updated with its digital memory?

In my story characters can go into perfectly simulated virtual worlds where their memories have been replicated down to the individual neurons and their protien structures. In these worlds time pas...

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

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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 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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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How can I make the supporting pillars of an underground city less obstructive?

Node is the last active city of the lizard people. Node was built to be a self-sufficient city and a nexus of an interconnected bunker system. It was a vanity project from the peak of the lizard em...

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

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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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What would happen if someone could remotely manipulate atoms?

Those of you who are familiar with the DC Comics hero Firestorm know that he can alter the chemical structure of any form of inorganic matter, provided he knows the chemical equation. In my story, ...

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

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Landing on a new planet in Earth's near future, how long before they can reproduce the technology they came with?

So given an Earth in our near future, year 2100 or so, where some of our tech has improved to the point where we have robots and the usual sci-fi devices for interfacing with computers. A colony i...

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

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Effect of an asteroid impact on a nuclear power plant?

I want to write a story about a thought experiment that I have on the other day : What kind of catastrophe will happen if an asteroid, let just say about 70 meters in diameter, penetrated Earth's a...

2 answers  ·  posted 4y ago by Mister OwO‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by Mister OwO‭

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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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Mechanism behind ocean-containing ice caps

I don't fully understand the mechanisms behind an ice cap that contains all the water in the oceans. Just to be specific, I have a planet that resembles Mars, i.e. desert at the equator, ice at pol...

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

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Could sentient mitochondria evolve?

Hideaki Sena's cult classic novel, Parasite Evil and it's video game sequels revolve around the premise of mitochondria gaining sentience and usurping mankind after aeons upon aeons of multicellula...

2 answers  ·  posted 4y ago by Arbiter Elegante‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by Arbiter Elegante‭

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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 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

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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