Posts tagged technology
So I've got this civilization that doesn't have electricity, but does have municipal power distribution via compressed air lines. Now, you can do a lot of useful things with compressed air. Even i...
Introduction See background information here. 1000 years after darkness fell on Old Earth, humanity is scattered throughout the solar system. Apart from the Harmonious Republic of Mars, there are...
I'm trying to setup a non-real scenario that doesn't break suspension of disbelief too much past the original idea. But so long as things keep consistency it should be fine. So you are flying a fi...
Many sci-fi words use anti-gravity or artificial gravity to manipulate the weight of their ships making flight much easier. Wikipedia even has an article on it which discusses several attempts to m...
We have a fleet of sub-light speed generation ships and associated engineering devices/ships. Their original world can no longer support their species, and they must move to survive. The fleet of c...
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...
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...
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...
Let's say that a patient is in hospital suffering a terminal disease or at least a physical injury that's very expensive to treat. The only hope of salvation is to have artificial, or cybernetic, ...
It's been a good year for me as an Evil Overlord. Lots of princess kidnapping turned into sizable ransoms, several of my Doomsday Devices were sold for high prices at auction, and my Minions have b...
My question is pretty simple, if the steam locomotive were invented during the middle to late medieval period, what would it look like? We are just going to ignore how it was invented. My guess i...
In my book series (link here), Aurea (a planet based on Byzantine Anatolia) is conquered by a group called the Tatians, who have access to technology that would not be out of place in Star Wars (fa...
Okay, so I'm an engineer who's been tasked with transforming Mars. I don't need to make it perfect for people to be able to walk around free with no life support. But I do need to make life, espe...
My planet is tidally locked to its sun. It has a slightly thicker atmosphere than Earth. Over the planet's sun-side surface, there would be no wind because that area is in the middle of a big cyclo...
What examples are there in science fiction of molecular shields that can cancel out or "eat" certain molecules--and are they plausible? Is it hypothetically possible to create a giant levee that is...
Think of a giant hemispherical shell, constructed of spaceships, sitting just far enough from Earth to be too far for Earth-based defences and close enough to effectively cast a shadow on the entir...
So I my question is quite simple. With current technology or technology that we are likely to gain this century would it be easier for Lunar colonization programs to develop wheeled vehicles or wal...
This is a fairly simple question with a likely rather complicated answer. Basically, I worldbuilding a planet that has become a complete wasteland of ash, rock and flowing rivers of magma. The civ...
Currently I am working on how to explain a character that can "phase" through objects in a similar manner to Martian ManHunter. His abilities are negated by certain (rare) metals. His ability cou...
Assuming a world where there were no steam engines available, would it be possible for large passenger or cargo trains to exist? Would it be possible to use horse-engines to power a locomotive? I...
My question is very simple, I want to know if the Martian atmosphere is too thin to hold planes up and, if it is thick enough, how high planes could reasonably go. This is considering heat manageme...
So, in this world, the future's wars are fought by drones and recruit teenagers with attitude, who control and repair drones in a temporary base near the front, and are frequently targets of surpri...
Magnetic fields behave in many of the same ways as electric fields. Could a society develop a magnetic based system of computation before they invent an electric method like modern integrated circu...
I'm writing a Colonization story, and I'm trying to determine which propulsion system would be the best option. The destination is Kapteyn b, 12.76Ly from Earth, and our 40K colonists will be in Cr...
Lengthy Explanation of Why I'm Here: TLDR; "force field" made of electromagnetic radiation. Recently, I've decided to compile a list of possible technologies available in the 22nd and 23rd centur...
Suppose an evil genius (in 2015) wants to kill as much of humanity as possible. But he's on a budget; despite his years of stealing priceless historical artifacts, and despite having been selected ...
So, I've wound up in jail again (not my fault - I didn't start that fire, honest!) and I need to get out of here before the mayor has a chance to check his safe. Unfortunately, I left my lockpicks ...
Ok so first of all, let's imagine a civilisation on a planet. The planet has a relatively low escape velocity, say 6 km/s and maybe an atmosphere 30% - 50% the thickness of earth's atmosphere. Now...
Consider a group of humans at a bronze-age to early iron-age technological level colonizing a new earthlike planet. There is just one difference - there exists on the planet something which change...
The talaria is the name of the winged sandals or shoes famously worn by Hermes in Greek Mythology. If someone were to make a high tech gadget which the attached beating wings to a pair of boots, ho...
There exist numerous theories on why the Moon lacks a layer of air if any, however the main culprits are gravity and the lack of Geo-dynamo simply put the Moon does not have the necessary mass nor ...
Throwing big rocks at planets is so passe and any asteroid tug can do that now. The Intergalactic Arms Reduction Treaty forbids the intentional bombardment of a planet's surface with large asteroi...
I have a scientific research vessel that is exploring an alien galaxy. I would like this vessel to detect and then explore a planet that was not previously known about, which means it (or potentia...
An underwater stone age tribe of merfolk captured 2 baby whales and killed the adult beast for meat. My sea people would like to tame the young whales and use them as transport when the babies rea...
In this society, the citizens are given a bracelet-like device that is connected to the radial artery in their dominant hand. The device monitors their health, offers advice, etc and also serves as...
Imagine a human observation and research facility being built on a planet in a distant solar system. How could an alien colony exist beneath the planet's surface, staying completely invisible to h...
This is in regards to the Tyranny of Rocket Fuel. Summed up: Heavier ships need more fuel which makes them heavier, etc. You end up with diminishing returns. This is compounded by higher gravity - ...
A futuristic entrepreneur wants to start a cruise line company and needs to build a cruise ship that will not only float on a gas giant, but be habitable throughout a 7 day trip (for the uber-rich ...
I'm not a smart guy, can't find an answer to a question: Everything I see involves a large construct spinning at a slow speed to create gravity. Instead of something large could you not use a, le...
I'm making a fairly hard Sci-Fi story, and I was wondering what the most scientifically plausible 'energy shield' (for ships and stations) would be. My world tries to remain true to basic physics, ...
I want to know what kind of effect a large circular space station would have on the planet if it went completely around the equator in one giant circle? Would it impact gravity or anything? And wou...
My civilization is highly advanced Type III and wants to conduct an experiment on a red dwarf. They want to artificially cause it to become a blue dwarf, then a white dwarf and then finally a black...
There is an empire expanding from the Netherlands to Western Russia, the empire is enthusiatic about turning rivers into canals for transportation. They don't care about the environment, they jus...
I'm building a world which has, apart from the 'usual' stuff, 2 types of stones (haven't really decided on a name yet). Stone A holds some form of energy but when prompted by Stone B it will rele...
What planetary conditions would have to exist to make computers and other complex electronics useless or at least difficult to maintain? Would ionised atmospheric conditions, constant solar flares...
My question is how a species, given sufficiently advanced technology - could block out all - or most - visible light to a generally earthlike planet without rendering it uninhabitable. The only c...
We have successfully put 37 trillion nanobots the size of a red blood cell into the experimental group test subjects' willing participants' bloodstream, but without a power source, the nanobots clo...
I've been wracking my brain about a world I'm writing in, how to make some group of regular people able to survive in space for extended periods with or without a suit. I can reduce the amount of t...
We all know how fiction likes to play fast and loose with nanomachines. But really, what would they be capable of in real life, assuming you had an utterly arbitrary amount of them? What would the ...
While working on my story, I just came up with this doubt. Is it possible to know or to detect something like a submarine in an ocean from an aircraft with our current technology? I mean to detect ...