Posts tagged society
In my universe there is a human civilization that is advanced enough to have computers, computer networks, and robots, however they have a relatively rudimentary knowledge of medicine/biology. The...
Time period is renaissance, with the most powerful culture being in a area geographically similar to the middle east. So a cleric was trying to combat a drought in his kingdom using the power of a ...
Aka: What I am asking is: what are the basic elements a society capable of space travel needs? What key factors determine a species'capacity to become spacefaring and what cultural and societal asp...
In this world a secret society "farms" people with desired features (personality appearances etc.). They have ectogenesis of course; but they can't afford personnel to take care of the "products" u...
Not too far off in the future, maybe 20-50 years from now, an anomaly is detected a little ways outside our solar system and it's like nothing we've ever seen before. Researchers begin studying it ...
Suppose a planetary system works in such a way that there is a rotating planet in the direct centre of a binary star (the star system's centre of gravity, also known as barycenter), such that the t...
Suppose we have a group of organisms (I am not sure if its a society). These organisms are characterised by their ability to reproduce within themselves. That is, every member of this society can ...
Let's consider a multi-polar world where exchanges between the differerent poles are nearly in-existant (the other sides are considered decadant, too far away and previous interactions often escala...
Primate evolution has led to the loss of a heat cycle. This has allowed us to have children at any time of the year. But imagine a world where humans never gained that ability, perhaps even evolvin...
In my pre-bronze age city, there are roughly 20,000 individuals. 9,000 sexually mature males, 9,000 sexually mature females, and 2,000 children. For a variety of unimportant reasons, they have been...
Deposing the new Robot Overlord Some people just can't leave well enough alone. The Robot Overlord has executed its programming of the Zeroth Law and the Three Laws of Robotics for the previous t...
I have two binary pairs of planets in a planetary system. All of the planets are habitable, and similar in mass and composition to earth. Each pair is identical, or nearly so. The planets are tidal...
Suppose technology becomes available that allows bad people to be "cured". Instead of going to prison for decades or being executed, for example, a murderer has his brain adjusted. Now cured, there...
I was watching a television program recently about Naked Mole Rats and how they are they are one of the only known Eusocial mammals. They have a single queen who produces offspring as well as warri...
So I'm writing a story on a population of lizardmen who have subdued all the human population. Since lizards spend lots of their time soaking in the sun, I'm not sure how should I go for the night...
Related to this question, which deals with the no-papers visitors. However, in my case, instead of a character with no paperwork whatsoever -- we're dealing with someone from an alternate reality ...
Earth, far future: We built multi generation ship which can get 20 000 people to another solar system in next 20 generations (600 years) For scope of this question assume that ship itself is well ...
Setting The US is waging a failing War on Drugs where cartels are quickly gaining power. Scenario In the near future, say 2030, with current technology, the Texas state government is implementin...
Space exploration is great and amazing, and I want my fictional US government to fund it to the tune of $1 trillion per year, instead of the (comparatively) meager \$17.5 billion it is getting now....
The Setting Imagine a generation ship of 10-20 generations (200-400 year trip). The generation ship is divided into living crew and frozen eggs. Upon reaching the destination & for genetic d...
Assumptions Space travel is hard. Interstellar travel takes a long time. Chances for a successful trip and colony becoming self-sustaining are not considered super high. Therefore, each colony ...
A genetic mutation is causing people to have a cerebrovascular accident as soon as they think or do something considered immoral by the society in which they live. For instance, in most countries...
I have an idea about a person, who knows exact date and time of significant future events. But does not know what is going to happen. And the dates such person knows are significant for culture tha...
It is 1970. Planet Earth is uninhabitable - the Cold War got very hot. The Earth's entire population is floating through space in giant transport ships. They've found another habitable(ish) world....
Plausibility check of the whole "insect race". As background, I want some poor astronauts to "crash" (safely land, but because they had no other option, possibly some engine malfunction) and meet w...
I have an AI character who has determined through simulation that, though "greed or the lust for money is the root of all evil" is a valid statement, it does not necessarily logically follow that m...
In a civilisation similar to humans (although not necessarily humanoid) living on a planet the size of Earth, could the whole civilisation (no limits on size, although I was thinking a few thousand...
I've built a device. It can change matter to energy and energy to matter with 100% efficiency. I've built myself a global presence, and populated the ranks of my employees with people such that I c...
Grab the popcorn ladies and gents, I'm gonna talk about a movie real quick. In the movie Total Recall (2012), the main character and his friend step into a huge earth elevator/public transportati...
Setting Humans have spent centuries investigating human consciousness, brain physiology, AI, and other technologies. We've finally figured out how to "upload" a "consciousness" (these are quoted b...
I'm going to use the US model for the simple reason that I'm most familiar with it. Constraints and assumptions In the US, legislative representation is by region (state) and population levels. ...
There is a cold planet (maybe a moon of a gas giant) far out in a solar system. It has a solid core and the surface is a thick layer of ice. Because of nuclear fission in the planet's core it is w...
Some scientists discover that plants have humanlike feelings. Now it becomes unethical and immoral to have mass production farms for plants as it is yet for animals. As there are animal-right activ...
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 ...
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 ...
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...
So for the purposes of this question, the following items are already determined by our world: The humans and human society are in very beginning of an Industrial Revolution almost identical to o...
Okay, I will make a little premise/context to give the question a decent background. I know that the scenario could look rather "handwavy", but take it as the framework on which the answer should b...
Let's make the following assumptions: Artificial Superintelligence (ASI) is inevitable, much like Y2K was. People assumed that this ASI would have the power to prevent any other ASI from being cr...
The government of Futurestan has finally decided to hear the voice of her people. It would seem that the protriotors access to malware, EMP-otovs, and weaponized angry glaring (and thermite. Lots o...
Okay, there are two habitable worlds in the Solar System. One of them is Earth. Human history goes mainly the way it really went. Then, there is another planet with a sentient, equally advanced spe...
The humanzee is the theoretical hybrid of human and another primate. No such humanzee has ever been documented in the modern era, though genetics suggest in our distant evolutionary past primitive...
Let's say scientists created a pill, that would satisfy our daily nutritional needs. It would have all vitamins needed, all calories, minerals - everything that a human body needs in order to funct...
Assuming only plausible advancements in science, a Martian colony is established before the end of the century. (Sooner if possible). What materials would be needed in regular shipments from Earth?...
So, it's happened. We have a robot overlord who follows the 3 Laws of Robotics + the Zeroth Law of Robotics. How we got such a thing or the process by which it makes its decisions is outside this...
I read in this question that the minimum viable population without causing large problems in genetic diversity is about 50. If we have a larger population (say a hundred) and genetic diversity beco...
I've been interested in binary systems lately, and I was recently wondering what Earth would be like if it was in a binary orbit with another Earth-like planet. Both planets exhibit the following ...
Being on the autism spectrum is often described as a feeling of being on "The Wrong Planet" So I'm wondering what the right planet might be like... For those that are unfamiliar: Social conventi...
When you mention livestock you think of creatures such as cows, pigs, sheep, chickens and so on. We've been domesticating animals for like 17,000 years or so and have used them for a variety of mea...
Our omniscient God has decided to intervene for (arguably, if you ask some religious people) the first time at least in a very long time. For matters unknown to us, He has frozen all time on Earth...