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Rigorous Science

Posts tagged technological-development

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Q&A Rifle and Bullet Technology

I'm currently working on something where breechloading rifles and cartridge shot are developed very quickly over matchlocks and flintlocks. What major technological hurdles need to be overcome for...

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

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Q&A 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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Q&A Building a spaceship alone in the wilderness

I am currently working on a character backstory for somebody whose fictional character gets sent back in time an era before his species existed (essentially to bronze-age times or even earlier, it'...

11 answers  ·  posted 4y ago by TCC‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by TCC‭

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Q&A Civlization with no domestication

Let's have your typical fantasy world, with many races. During searching what I could do to make humans a little special, someone give me idea of letting them to be only race that have ability to d...

4 answers  ·  posted 4y ago by Guy with jewels' names‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by Guy with jewels' names‭

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Q&A Bare Minimum Tech for Spaceworthy Vessel

In my story, a planet of low-tech natives in the midst of war are abruptly brought into contact with a much more advanced empire. There are many historical precedents for this kind of event, and oc...

18 answers  ·  posted 6y ago by Megalonychidae‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by Megalonychidae‭

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Q&A Earliest viable modern battery

I'm building a world where high-density, low cost batteries are discovered far, far in advance of modern times, leading to a decentralised power grid. It has become convention for homes and buildin...

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

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Q&A Why Colonize a Planet Without the Continued Benefit of Modern Technology?

I'm new to science-fiction and I'm intrigued by the consequences of "Plan B" in the popular movie Interstellar. "Plan B" means transporting a supposedly sustainable population to a habitable planet...

7 answers  ·  posted 6y ago by H3R3T1K‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by H3R3T1K‭

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Q&A Building an "animal punk" nation

With a group of friends, we are trying to build an RPG in a quite specific setup which I have a hard time to find elsewhere in order to get some inspiration/information. So what I mean by that is...

1 answer  ·  posted 4y ago by Alexandre Leonardi‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by Alexandre Leonardi‭

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Q&A How long would it take for another species to help primitive humans evolve?

I am creating a fictional universe where humanity's evolution followed a different path that it did in ours (evolution might not be the best word, but bear with me). Long ago, in said universe's e...

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

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Q&A Civilization self destruction prevention

In 1950 physicist Enrico Fermi wondered why we have found no alien civilizations even though there are about 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 stars in the observable universe. Among other things, h...

5 answers  ·  posted 8y ago by Fermi paradox‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by Fermi paradox‭

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Rigorous Science Can transistors be made in the stone age? (Spoiler: Dr.Stone)

WARNING: This post contains some spoilers for the anime/manga Dr.Stone. As I'm watching Dr.Stone, I see Senku and the gang trying to make vacuum tubes for their circuits. The vacuum tube is an anc...

1 answer  ·  posted 4y ago by John Zhau‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by John Zhau‭

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Q&A Doing chemistry under water?

Aquatic races are usually assumed to be stunted in technological development by the inability to create fire or forge metals. But what about doing chemistry at all? The development of chemistry i...

5 answers  ·  posted 4y ago by Logan R. Kearsley‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by Logan R. Kearsley‭

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Q&A Space travel without knowledge of relativity

A civilization has begun its space program without any knowledge of general or special relativity. How would this affect the program? Would this establish any limits on where/how they could travel?...

2 answers  ·  posted 4y ago by RowanBot3000‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by RowanBot3000‭

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Q&A How to improve the speed of ancient mariners

My world is set in ancient times on a planet similar to Earth, but with a different civilization and different geography (and lots of canals). I need to find a way of giving the inhabitants better ...

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

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Q&A The most secured, completely untraceable mobile phones in the world

I'm writing a story about a company similar to Google, i.e. which wants to know everything about everyone and which wants to trace everything that is traceable out there. But which, at the same tim...

19 answers  ·  posted 7y ago by trejder‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by trejder‭

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Q&A What would be a good reason for space colonists to lose their technology?

In my universe, humans nuked themselves in a war so thoroughly that the Earth has been rendered uninhabitable. As a result, they have to leave Earth and find a new home. They briefly tried to settl...

10 answers  ·  posted 4y ago by The Weasel Sagas‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by The Weasel Sagas‭

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Q&A What kind of/How a secret language could be developed in middle ages by a secret society?

1350 AD. A secret society is recruiting adepts in Rome, Florence, Paris, Wien, Prague and London; well-educated people in high ranks of nobility, catholic church, engineers, professors and knights....

14 answers  ·  posted 9y ago by guido‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by guido‭

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Q&A Is there any likely reason why personal DNA tinkering machines would become widespread?

Say we're in a world where it is possible to tinker with biology as easily as it is to tinker with programming nowadays. For feasibility, refer to How soon will tinkering with biology be as simple ...

5 answers  ·  posted 9y ago by Sheraff‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by Sheraff‭

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Q&A Could stone be used in place of metal for certain items?

For certain categories of items, namely weapons, armor and machinery (that's pretty general, I know), how well would stone fare vs metal? Assume that any complications with shaping the stone are go...

5 answers  ·  posted 7y ago by awenonian‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by awenonian‭

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Q&A Steam powered space generators

At 260 Fahrenheit in the Sun between Mars and Earth and -280 F in the shade could 2 large tanks rotate slowly in and out of its own shade to transfer steam backwards and forwards past a turbine?

4 answers  ·  posted 4y ago by Muze the good Troll.‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by Muze the good Troll.‭

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Q&A Sprawling climbers: how will they develop tools and civilization?

Say we have an intelligent species whose body plan is inspired by walking insects (ants, beetles, etc.) and reptiles (particularly lizards). More specifically, let's say they have four legs (I th...

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

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Q&A Making techology for a society on other planet

I am having some trouble reasoning out some ideas, if any of you could help. So I have in mind a planet, where there are many human cultures, but one of them is more advanced then others. So they...

3 answers  ·  posted 4y ago by Sebastjan Kovač‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by Sebastjan Kovač‭

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Q&A Minimum tech level to invent core memory

Magnetic core memory was a critical innovation in the development of computers. Per https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic-core_memory it was the most advanced form of memory from about the mid-fif...

1 answer  ·  posted 5y ago by rwallace‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by rwallace‭

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Q&A What technologies and sciences are needed to detect a star going supernova?

What technology (at minimum), devices or minimum civilization development is needed, so that an individual member of this civilization would be able to detect that some star is going supernova? My...

3 answers  ·  posted 9y ago by trejder‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by trejder‭

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Q&A What is the minimum size of a self-sufficient industrial country?

Imagine there is a country in which there are all important natural resources (oil, gas, metal ores, wood, etc.) in their natural form and which lies in a temperate climate region. There may be som...

7 answers  ·  posted 9y ago by Irigi‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by Irigi‭

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Q&A How primitive should the alien technology be to exchange knowledge and culture?

In almost every sci fi alien trope there will be a directive whereby one of the general order states no spacecraft may interfere with the normal development of any alien life or society and is puni...

2 answers  ·  posted 8y ago by user6760‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by user6760‭

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Q&A How could a hive-mind without true individuals create technology?

Imagine a species in which the ego never developed. There is no self-direction. This species is always making noise, however, and it is through this noise that the society itself experiences the ...

3 answers  ·  posted 5y ago by Michael Stachowsky‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by Michael Stachowsky‭

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Q&A Forging with geothermal heat: Possible alternative to fire in alien species' technological progression?

A world idea I'm playing with for a sci-fi idea I'm working on has an atmosphere similar to the composition of Earth's atmosphere during the Carboniferous Period: Lots of oxygen, so while a human o...

3 answers  ·  posted 5y ago by BonnetBee‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by BonnetBee‭

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Q&A Without having to deal with the gravity well, at what tech level could you build spaceships?

Let's say we have a society that for some reason (a MacGuffin, Unobtanium, Handwavium, whatever) have found a way to travel off the earth without having to fight gravity along the way. They can tra...

10 answers  ·  posted 8y ago by Erik‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by Erik‭

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Q&A How long would it take for nuclear energy to become adopted in a world on the brink of collapse?

For reference, I'm going with the accepted answer given here: How would technology adoption of Lithium Air battery work?. In my world, it makes sense that governments would be very interested in ge...

1 answer  ·  posted 5y ago by Cuervo77‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by Cuervo77‭

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Q&A What would the effects be on a earth-like planet if the magnetic field was much stronger

The hypothetical world is for all intents and purposes earth or very close to it. So what would the effects be if the magnetic field were either stronger from the start of the planet, or if the ma...

3 answers  ·  posted 9y ago by Vakus Drake‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by Vakus Drake‭

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Q&A Plausible futuristic infrastructure for an underwater micronation built 300-500 feet below the surface

My story takes place hundreds of years in the future after global warming has made life at the surface uninhabitable for most life forms. What's left of mankind survived because it became popular t...

3 answers  ·  posted 5y ago by HR Allsop‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by HR Allsop‭

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Q&A Plausibility of another extremely intelligent species evolving who finds the remains of our existence and emulates our society

I've been thinking on the concept of the human race dying off (the reason doesn't matter), but most of the other living species on the planet survive. Although we die off, the remains of books, the...

2 answers  ·  posted 5y ago by Mr. Smith‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by Mr. Smith‭

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Q&A Unplanned Colony: what industrial level could be recreated in the short-term?

TL:DR You and 1000-2000 unprepared and untrained settlers are stranded in an uninhabited area that has never had any human development. If you had nothing but the knowledge of how things work and...

4 answers  ·  posted 7y ago by EveryBitHelps‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by EveryBitHelps‭

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Q&A What's a plausible explanation for a space faring civilization with a "16th century" culture?

As part of a story idea, I'd like to create an alien civilization that colonized different solar systems in a manner similar to how European nations colonized other continents here on Earth. This c...

9 answers  ·  posted 7y ago by Ohndei‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by Ohndei‭

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Q&A Could a species with a lifespan of 20 years achieve enough technological progress to reach space?

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...

13 answers  ·  posted 5y ago by F1Krazy‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by F1Krazy‭

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Q&A How to hinder the development of sea travel until the industrial age?

Instead of Earth as we know it, humans evolved on a slightly smaller, habitable earthlike planet with different geography. Due to the plot reasons, I would like to keep them confined to one (large)...

6 answers  ·  posted 5y ago by Ijon‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by Ijon‭

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Q&A On an Earth regularly ravaged by solar storms as strong as as the Carrington Event, how would technology advance?

The world I'm thinking of is a large moon of a gas giant. It's fairly Earth-like, perhaps a bit smaller, might be a bit magical, but sits about where we sit around a star very similar to ours, exce...

3 answers  ·  posted 5y ago by TomatoCo‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by TomatoCo‭

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Q&A What Could Aliens Do To Devolve Humans With A Germ Line Virus?

The Objective Lots of questions at this site consider how humans could be enhanced with genetic engineering. But, if you are an alien, you may have the opposite priorities. These aliens are civil...

3 answers  ·  posted 6y ago by ohwilleke‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by ohwilleke‭

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Q&A At what minimal technological level would the inhabitants of a binary planet system need to be to communicate with each other effectively?

In the event that both planets of a binary planet system were life supporting, and both ended up developing a sapient, tool using species, at what technological level would they be able to start ef...

8 answers  ·  posted 7y ago by Zak‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by Zak‭

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Q&A Looking for a way to power a locomotive in a pseudo-1600s fantasy world

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...

5 answers  ·  posted 5y ago by curious2220‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by curious2220‭

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Q&A What effects would an Oracle have on society?

So assuming their existed an Oracle, what effects would it have on society. Assume that everyone has access to it similar to using a library where the books can't leave. Properties of the Oracle ...

6 answers  ·  posted 7y ago by Tezra‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by Tezra‭

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Q&A How Advanced can Societies of Hooved Animals be?

Humans have come and gone. Their aggressiveness and pride have caused their own end. War has torn apart all society, engineered diseases pick them off one by one. The last remaining people have fle...

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

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Q&A What would it take to build a bridge that crosses North Atlantic Ocean from Canada to Spain?

I had this idea the other day just for the heck of debating about if it would be feasible to build a bridge that crosses North Atlantic Ocean from Canada to Spain. I mean from St-John's (Newfoundl...

7 answers  ·  posted 9y ago by user178386‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by user178386‭

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Q&A Restricting antimatter - practical rather than legal measures

Antimatter is relatively easy, but heinously expensive, to make using modern technology. I have two universes with the same problem; energy is free and for all practical purposes infinite, this sho...

11 answers  ·  posted 5y ago by Ash‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by Ash‭

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Q&A Can blind people build a spaceship and land on the Moon?

This question is inspired by Could a species develop the tech necessary to land on their own moon without comprehending light? Consider following scenario: a civilization of alien tricksters abduc...

3 answers  ·  posted 5y ago by Alexander‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by Alexander‭

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Q&A Could a species develop the tech necessary to land on their own moon without comprehending light?

Inspired by a brief comment converstaion found here. I would like to investigate the design and development of an alien species whose technological development did not include an understanding of ...

2 answers  ·  posted 5y ago by JBH‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by JBH‭

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Q&A Would future combat submarines come with jet propulsion thruster?

We currently have jet engine in flighter jet, space shuttle, some race cars but nothing underwater where breaking sound barrier(air) is concerned. I'm imagining in near future many manned electric ...

5 answers  ·  posted 8y ago by user6760‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by user6760‭

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Q&A Classification of types of Civilization

In a Galaxy where there are numerous Earth Like worlds, and FTL Travel is possible but only by a small number of species, possibly only by Humans, perhaps they just happened to get there first. In ...

5 answers  ·  posted 5y ago by Blade Wraith‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by Blade Wraith‭

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Q&A Can I trigger supernova artificially?

As far as I know stars are going supernova as a natural process. Can aliens trigger it artificially? If this is possible then: How can I do this (what minimum technology and civilization develop...

5 answers  ·  posted 5y ago by trejder‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by trejder‭