General Q&A about worldbuilding and other speculative developments that can be extrapolated from science.
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I am working on the realism of a fictional planet which has an average temperature lower than that of the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), and possesses a single large supercontinent rather than distrib...
Our teeth are prone to fractures when dry due to their crystalline internal structure. Because of this, a majority of terrestrial animals with a similar tooth makeup have lips to keep the teeth moi...
I'm not talking about the ISS. I'm talking about larger stations such as Bernal Spheres, O'Neil Cylinders, Stanford Tori, good old-fashioned hollowed-out asteroids, and so on. We have a sci-fi gam...
In my universe, spaceships use a device that can generate a bubble of gravity that is homogeneous and unidirectional. You can manipulate the direction and intensity of gravity in any way you want. ...
A secret society of inventors has been hiding for years. Finally, they have designed their Mars base in the year 2019! Unfortunately, they "borrowed" most of their supplies. If they were to build a...
My planet is highly volcanic, as such the atmosphere is filled with gases put off by the volcanoes: Like Earth Nitrogen also makes up most of Marhdii's atmosphere at 43%. Also like Earth, Nitrog...
In Kim Stanley Robinson's new novel Red Moon the first few pages describe a method of Earth-to-Moon transportation that I had not encountered before. The idea is to use a magnetically levitated and...
My colonizing business found a small planet with about 0.8G. They would like to build the colony in the giant caves under the crust of the planet, due to the conditions of the surface,(little atmos...
Computer scientists have created an AI that they hope has intelligence far superior to a human being. But they do not know how intelligent it is ... a bit more than humans, or unimaginably more. Th...
Some hundreds of years ago, all humanity was removed from the Americas. In fact, most humans are gone from the world altogether. In the intervening time, nature has overrun the formerly human domin...
I'm the city designer for a new city we're calling Morrowville. Having some of the worlds top minds, flying cars have been invented, but can only fly a few feet (2-4) from the ground and not everyo...
Let's say we have a group of high IQ individuals of a sizeable number. In what manner should they reproduce in order to maximise the odds of creating a genetically high IQ population over several g...
This is not a question on whether or not floating, balloon-like organisms are biomechanically viable - I already know the answer to that, which is yes. This instead deals with the plausibility of s...
I have found this idea on a discussion on /r/worldbuilding. Anyway, the premise is as follows: The planet is earth-like in terms of size and mass. The planet has a very large amount of small, act...
Let's say there are billions of asteroids in the galaxy, varying in size from baseballs to hunks of rock almost big enough to be dwarf planets. If someone wanted to set up a habitable location on o...
I'm current planning a story which includes a race of diminutive humanoid aliens, one of whom crash-lands on Earth. They're fully sentient, and have the same average intelligence level as humans. T...
Imagine a large room, perhaps 50 metres in length and 35 in width, with its ceiling 40 metres above the floor. On this ceiling, there are LED lights, rendering the brightness of the room to look so...
Scientists have discovered an Earth-like planet in another solar system, with the same gravity, atmosphere composition, etc, and they decide to colonize it. There is only one problem, though. It is...
I'm an advanced AI in far futuristic sci-fi setting. To give you the size of how advanced we are, I'll just drop here a short list of our accomplishments: We have discovered cold fission-reactor...
Starting in 541"“542 AD, the Plague of Justinian and a series of subsequent outbreaks killed between 13-26% of the world's population. The plagues were caused by Yersinia pestis, the same microorga...
One species has two genders, like humans, the other has three(essentially male, female, and one without breeding capabilities that first appears as a genetic quirk but quickly becomes more prominen...
I am currently working on a magic system that involves Thermokinesis, which is the ability to manipulate temperature. This power involves controlling the rate of movement of molecules, which is inv...
I am a writer trying to build a fantasy realm relatively similar to our world. The only difference between this world and ours was that every creature and animal was significantly larger, potential...
I have a planet that is tidally locked to its sun. The ocean is shallow (a few hundred meters) and was artificially created in the past by harvesting the system's Oort cloud or outer-system ice a...
What would be the ideal spots to build/start a colony on Mars? I am looking for. . . Good location; a particular well placed crater, lots of caves nearby, etc. . . Good mix of resources; Ice, ir...
In series such as the Hyperion Cantos and Ender's Game, there exist fictional faster-than-light communication systems allowing either instantaneous, or near-instantaneous transmission of informatio...
Reality check: Protagonists of my story have a scientific device of a peaceful purpose. Unfortunately, despite the peaceful purpose, activation of the device, as a side-effect releases about 100 ...
Using current technology, what could I do to optimize the odds of being located by time-traveling humans a thousand years from now? The accuracy must be such that they could "transport" me out of ...
Being at Anime Expo last weekend got me thinking about all the "trapped in another world" anime I watched as a kid: Inu Yasha, Fushigi Yuugi, Escaflowne, etc. The general plot of these is that a hi...
Force field technology has come a long way. The latest energy-efficient engines can guarantee stable energy output in any situation, making force fields extremely reliable and very cost effective c...
In the relatively realistic (hopefully), near future, scifi book I am writing I am at a point where I am describing the observation deck of a large ship belonging to a wealthy "business man" (see s...
What kind of planetary conditions would be required to make a place with really intense winters and summers? Is it even possible? For example on the poles they can go with out the sun for half a ye...
Many fictional characters,specially in the anime art have shoulders bigger than any other upper body muscle. Normally the obliques,chest and latissimus dorsi are the biggest muscles in the upper bo...
I have invented a large machine that allows me to create monsters out of blood. These monsters are called golems and are very powerful. My plan is to produce a large number of them to include in my...
Question: Could colonial organisms form into a sentient being, something like a human, for example? Could they evolve into beings with thoughts and feelings? A race of colonial organisms taking the...
I am trying to design spacecraft with realistic mass estimates, so that I can "accurately" design fuel requirements and calculate potential speed. Obviously the mass of a ship is going to vary wid...
I have an alien species that while similar to humans in many ways have mouths that are closer to muzzles. In short, they do not have cheeks like humans do. I realize that this will effect the sound...
Initial situation: I have cold planet with an average temperature below the freezing point. There is a magnetic field. The planet is almost as big as Earth and can have an atmosphere. The planet...
I'm writing a novel about a (small) group of people with extraordinarily long lifespans. Now I am wondering on the psychological aspects of that, which has been a side-topic here and there in simi...
Mars has been colonized, close to a million people are now living above (and below) the martian soil, every few months a ship from Earth arrives with more resource for expansion and more settlers, ...
I remember playing this game back in 2010-2011, and In minecraft if you found a waterfall you could actually swim it up vertically, it was difficult but possible. Does this apply to real life to...
In near future a large spaceship is built. It is nuclear powered, has a crew of two dozen, and is propelled by an advanced ion drive like VASIMR. The Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Roc...
What realistic mechanism could be utilized to allow my drone to hover and move around in a visually pleasing and non distracting way? I am currently working on a short sci-fi film, which, among ot...
So I am designing my aliens flash-freeze-on-target mechanism and now I am wondering what would be the more practical use for these flash freezing powers, as a predator or prey. These creatures are...
This is a submission for the Anatomically Correct Series. Image credit: japhers.tumblr.com Originating from Japan, the majority of depictions of Oni (Kijo to refer female Oni/demons) are hideous...
Setting is 20 minutes into future - everything is as we know it, or as we can reasonably predict, except the zero-tau capsules. Capsule is a thin mesh of Unobtanium connected to a portable Handwav...
I'm creating a sci-fi world similar to ours roughly 50 years in the future. Unobtanium, a futuristic metal and fuel source, was discovered in 2020. Its broad utility led to rapid advances across al...
This question is about big trees that can contain an entire city. So generally speaking: What limits a plant's size, anything from a tree to a flowering plant? What environment needs to exist f...
Would it be possible to make a sharpie or a dry-erase marker that would work in a vacuum? Would they already work? To that end could you make a dry erase board or some such?
With a powered-by-phlebotinum (ergo very handy, very powerful) rifle, I am able to shoot high-energy beams which, in turn, can pulverize anything in their path in a considerable radius. The beams c...
