Activity for System
| Type | On... | Excerpt | Status | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Question | — |
How much would it cost to build an orbiting "Princess"? Constructing a network of luxury spacestations around Earth should be next 'space race' endorsed by every government as a gesture of good faith. Corporations such as Princess-Carnival and Walt Disney have successfully managed with minimal political developments. The question: "What cost factors and... (more) |
— | almost 8 years ago |
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Encountering the Accountants : Spreading Numeracy in the Neolithic World The BBC in the UK are currently screening a archaeology series exploring the idea that the Neolithic peoples in the Orkney Isles (North of Scotland) were the cultural capital of the British Isles. There's evidence to show that the high standard of culture predated Stonehenge. I have this fictiona... (more) |
— | almost 8 years ago |
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Can I kill a cyborg with magnetism? I am an average person being hunted down by a homicidal cyborg. He is about 90% metal, with his only remaining organ being a brain and all other meat on him being tissues which serve only as an anchor for cybernetics. I have exhausted just about every method of killing or hiding from a person, but I... (more) |
— | almost 8 years ago |
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What would be the immediate climatic effects of having a continent appear out of nowhere? I am writing a story where a freak magical accident causes a fully-formed landmass to pop into existence like it was there all along. For the purposes of this question, let's assume: the continent isn't very large, a bit smaller than Australia the continent appears shortly southwest of Cape of Goo... (more) |
— | almost 8 years ago |
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Breeding smaller humans Suppose in the future (about 3-4 decades in the future), we start preferring smaller people as mates. The average size of a human would go down, maybe as far as or further than average heights from the middle ages, peaking not far above 140cm. This would mean that everything could be made smaller to ... (more) |
— | almost 8 years ago |
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How do I Create a Privacy Shield? I don't trust anyone when I conduct my special line of business. I do my thing, face-to-face, verbally. I hand over a sealed envelope of cash and I'm done. I don't want to be recorded, I don't want to be observed from a distance. What I require is a portable device that can be constructed to cont... (more) |
— | about 8 years ago |
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Efficiency of Aquaculture in a Neolithic Society Being inspired by the lovely concept art of Star Trek's Nibiru, I have long thought that the Nibirans would use the tiered pools for aquacultural purposes, and would like to implement tiered aquacultural pools in the setting I am working on. The idea is that these farmers would build (slowly moving) ... (more) |
— | about 8 years ago |
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Finding Signs of Life from afar If I were to attempt the colonization of a planet with preexisting life, how would I manage to pinpoint a candidate planet from the comforts of Earth's orbit? I am interested in the stars somewhere within 40 light years from Earth, and with relatively realistic technology (no FTL drives or time machi... (more) |
— | about 8 years ago |
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Standardisation of Time in a FTL Universe Here on Earth, time standardisation was enabled by the invention of accurate time pieces which allowed us to create a global constant (GMT/Zulu time) and regional offsets. If we travel outside our time-zone for a meeting, we can be sure to know when to leave to arrive there at the right time. In an... (more) |
— | about 8 years ago |
| Question | — |
Physics Plus: Artifical Gravity in Space This is the next piece in my question-series, you guys have been absolutely awesome in your answers to the first question: How to solve the old 'gun on a spaceship' problem? In this series, I try to find a number of questions bugging me while working out my current (awesome) project :) All answers ... (more) |
— | about 8 years ago |
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Building an Ethics Framework for use of Uploaded Personalities Five years ago, our company reached the stage where we were able to create, maintain, and communicate with digitized brain transfer images. These trials were conducted on patients with life-limiting conditions under the supervision and support of their families and their physicians. These trials we... (more) |
— | about 8 years ago |
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Where on a tidally locked planet with a 25 °C maximum is the 0 °C isotherm? I am writing a novel. In that novel, humans have settled a tidally locked planet. That planet is positioned at just such a distance from its sun that the sun heats the planet to an average of 25 °C at the substellar point, that is, at the center of the side facing the sun. The planet is like our Ear... (more) |
— | about 8 years ago |
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Powerful and strong tail If humans hadn't lost their tails and today we had fully prehensile tails as long as 1/2 our body and stronger than an arm, how would the tail of a bodybuilder or just a buff person look? Would tail muscles be as visible as the trapezium or the abdominal and change completely the appearance and morph... (more) |
— | about 8 years ago |
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What would a orbital station and activity look like from the ground? The Setup: We have a highly advanced orbital station. It is designed to be rather stealthy, like a observation post. Is it possible to make it completely invisible to the naked eye, even when in low-earth orbit? Now to the hard part: Computers or similar mechanisms on the ground are controlled by ... (more) |
— | about 8 years ago |
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How to Kill the Thought-Crime Killer Joe Schmoe was six years old when he killed his best friend; it wasn't his fault, it was just the way that he was made... Joe was born with an auto-telepathic telekinetic feedback ability - he has the ability to unconsciously kill anyone who has thoughts of killing him. It doesn't matter if those t... (more) |
— | about 8 years ago |
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What would be the mass source for a futuristic retreat's reactor? Consider the following: We have a city, designed to be a retreat. Everything consumed and needed by the population is created via a machine in the middle of this stronghold. This machine is able to convert matter into another type of matter and into energy. It could be simplified: We have a reall... (more) |
— | about 8 years ago |
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How to keep water out of a trench civilization In my world there is a neolithic civilization of people who inhabit earthen trenches. The people first soften the earth with ... fluids ... and dig out 6 - 12 foot deep trench systems that extend out for many square miles with bamboo and ceramic trowels & spades. Though digging out massive trench s... (more) |
— | about 8 years ago |
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Can charmspeak be scientifically explained? Charmspeak is defined as mind control through the medium of speech - that is, the user tells the target what to do, and the target has no choice but to obey. Is there a way to explain such a phenomenon scientifically? (more) |
— | about 8 years ago |
| Question | — |
Prehensile Hair As I'm sure anyone reading this knows, our body parts move via the brain signaling the appropriate muscles to contract or expand. Now, for hair to function the way it does - its texture, malleability, etc. - it doesn't seem plausible for prehensile hair to happen with a humanoid with muscles all the ... (more) |
— | about 8 years ago |
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Can a cube world have magnetic poles? Say that you have a cuboid "planet" that can retain its shape. Can it have a cubical iron core (as opposed to the spherical one described in this question) and generate a magnetic field? Would the shape of the core affect the shape of the field? Does the fact that the core isn't spherical even make a... (more) |
— | about 8 years ago |
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Evolution of Bearfolk What animals and in what conditions would evolve into something resembling a bearfolk like this one A ''bear'' humanoid of 600"“800 pounds standing in two legs, divided in many sub-species with different diets, habits and civilizations. How long is estimated the time for something like this to ... (more) |
— | over 8 years ago |
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What event could cause atmospheric oxygen to slowly be replaced with hydrogen, and what would the major effects of this be? First question What event would cause hydrogen to slowly replace oxygen in the athmosphere? it can be something natural or artifial. it doesn't have to cause too much mass extinctions. Some sacrifices are ok but not an apocalypse. So it must be slow enough so living organisms adapt to it, but... (more) |
— | over 8 years ago |
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Earth as moon of Jupiter I'm making five habitable planets the size of earth as moons for a gas giant the size of Jupiter. Then I want to add many more smaller moons, Our Jupiter has 67 moons, I want as many small moons possible and 5 earth-sized moons for mine. What conditions of this planetary system would threaten h... (more) |
— | over 8 years ago |
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Why would a species of subterreanean worms consume metal? In my latest draft, a worm-like species buries itself deep below the crust of their world and consumes/gathers tiny amounts of heavy metals. Can you think of any plausible reason why a wormlike creature would do so? Why would they spend time and energy digging deep and gathering small pieces of meta... (more) |
— | over 8 years ago |
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Is Game of Thrones realistic: food supplies during extended winters in medieval England In Lyman Stone's fantastic blog post about George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series, Stone mentions that the seasonal cycle of Westeros is very unrealistic. Here's the truth: Medieval societies probably could not survive 6 winters in a row. Even modern societies would be hard-pressed t... (more) |
— | over 8 years ago |
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Smallest possible habitable planet? (also taking density into account) I have seen a few similar questions but none seem to take the density of a planet into account. I'm creating a planet on which several small civilisations develop. The planet needs to have a few biomes of varying temperature such as mountain ranges, deserts, temperate areas etc. What is the smallest... (more) |
— | over 8 years ago |
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Is it possible for life to exist on the core of a gas planet? I was thinking of writing a story and had the idea of having a society exist on the core of a gas planet. The core would be similar to earth with a breathable atmosphere similar to ours above it but still have the outer atmosphere of hydrogen and helium above it as these two gases are lighter than th... (more) |
— | over 8 years ago |
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What size does a subterranean base have to be for "natural" weather? Many planets don't have habitable surfaces, though at least Mercury has good temperatures underground (source: http://www.einstein-schrodinger.com/Mercurytemperature.pdf). So I'm wondering how large would a subterannean nature sanctuary building/dome height have to be, in order for it to have clouds... (more) |
— | over 8 years ago |
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The Reality of a River World In a setting I am presently working on, I have envisioned a world similar to Star Wars' Takodana, in that its water is mainly in the form of large rivers, or smaller seas (I generally picture it being all rivers, unlike this picture; but I'm flexible). See also; Takodana's surface. How realistic is... (more) |
— | over 8 years ago |
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What would happen to life on Earth if the planet had total cover of permanent clouds? Let's pretend the clouds got there via magic or some bizarre scientific experiment gone wrong. The why isn't important for the question. Question: How would the earth be affected if its entire sky was constantly covered in clouds dense enough you couldn't see sky beyond them? Would life survive? How... (more) |
— | over 8 years ago |
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What adaptations would an elephant's trunk need to have human-like prehensility? Useless Backstory In my world, A hurricane has washed a group of 8,000 pachyderms off of Afro-Eurasia and onto a large island cluster. Due to the island rule, dwarfism ensues, and the population is made of of a group of tiny elephants that are 3 feet at the shoulder in adulthood. These elepha... (more) |
— | over 8 years ago |
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A monkey-like creature with no legs? Is it possible that a monkey-like creature, in the mountains, could evolve to have no legs and a really strong set of fore-arms? I was thinking that this might be possible because of the climbing skills needed to navigate the environment. (more) |
— | over 8 years ago |
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Insect-like animal using water for blood? The habitat of the creature in question is most commonly atop mountains (or in moist areas). Such an idea would mean that the creature wouldn't need a heart or stomach to break down things into blood. It would most likely become sick easily, as the water it drinks could be disease ridden. The wings, ... (more) |
— | over 8 years ago |
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Far Future, Space. Most plausible way to store short-term energy? Please assume the following: A spaceship in the far future. Output: The ships systems have a high base demand of energy and sometimes you need extreme amounts of Energy in a very short period of time. Input: An advanced fusion reactor is used to provide baseline-power. There are a range of 'inject... (more) |
— | over 8 years ago |
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Is there a reliable way to store all stable elements? This is a follow-up to question about a transmuting 3D-printer Assume you need to store all stable elements in a spaceship. On board, a chemical assembler is used to compose everything, if you have a blueprint and the right amount of needed elements. Is there a common way to store the, maybe as sal... (more) |
— | over 8 years ago |
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What substances would be really valuable if transmuting material printers would exist? Far Future. Almost every household has a 'fabber'. You put raw materials in it (can be almost anything) and it does what you program it to do. It transmutes the raw materials into what is needed. Then it basically 3-D-prints it. It only works if you have enough and the right quality of input material... (more) |
— | over 8 years ago |
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How to implement a Solar System sports body/federation? Assume there is a point in time when every planet in our Solar System consists of colonies. Each colony is inhabited with civilians that primarily serve the purpose of its colony. Some colonies may specialise in manufacturing, some in resource extraction, some in research etc. Technology would exi... (more) |
— | over 8 years ago |
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If Earth was converted into energy by antimatter-matter collision would the energy "destroy" the observable universe? If half the earth was made antimatter and contacted the other half all at once, would the resulting energy be enough to "destroy" the observable universe? I did some math based on the mass of the earth being around 510^24kg and an antimatter explosion given a mass of 1kg being about 43 megatons, and... (more) |
— | over 8 years ago |
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How might microscopic humanoids contain electricity? In my world, there are a race of microscopic humanoid organisms (0.3 mm - 0.33 mm). They live in a variety of biomes, such as leaf litter, stone and on plants and trees. In terms of technological advancement, they are near the bronze age and merely need to find/discover metal. They have domesticated ... (more) |
— | over 8 years ago |
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How do I increase my population of my very small starter population while warding off the negative effects of inbreeding? 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 cut off from the rest of mankind. They need a strong work force as soon as possible, so they resort to ... (more) |
— | over 8 years ago |
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What land based animals lend themselves to domestication? As a variation to my previous question about the domestication of microbes So my question is : which animals lend themselves to domestication? (more) |
— | over 8 years ago |
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Making a plant as energy efficient as possible Essential Question : what adaptations can be made to a crawling vine that would allow them to obtain as much energy as a top level consumer if the vine was on a planet 1 au from a sun sized star? (more) |
— | over 8 years ago |
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Could intelligent life evolve in caves? On a world like Venus, where the surface is unlivable , would it be possible for life to evolve in caves? And if so , is there any reason for intelligence to evolve in a subterranean organism? (more) |
— | over 8 years ago |
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What can prevent moderately advanced humans from driving megafauna to extinction? The consensus (1, 2) is that the reason most continents have relatively few large animals compared to Africa is that humans, even stone age humans, were able to drive them to extinction. African animals survived to some extent because they had time to adapt to us before he had decent weapons. What ... (more) |
— | over 8 years ago |
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How small can an organism get? In my world, I am attempting to design a primitive organism to be the ancestor of life on an artificial planet with all chemicals necessary for life. I want the organism to be as small as possible (say 50 nanometers in diameter). Is such a small size possible? (more) |
— | over 8 years ago |
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AI's and natural selection If a matrioshka brain where constructed specifically for AI , and , say , 1,000,000 AI were placed within it , also with many hostile enemies and various obstacles which may cause the destruction of the AI , might it be possible for the pressures of natural selection to take over , cause the AI to ev... (more) |
— | over 8 years ago |
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Creating a fully aquatic bird I was wondering if a full aquatic bird could exist and not be on, or return to land at any developmental stage, basically, to be completely independent of land. I already know that there are some aquatic animals that can rest one side of their brain at a time, making sleep not an issue, but I can not... (more) |
— | almost 9 years ago |
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A three foot cell? In one of my fictitious planets, there are large cells that reside in the ocean and are 3 feet (almost 1 metre) in diameter. The cells themselves are aggregates of many amoeboid cells, have only one cell membrane, but many nuclei. My question is: is such a large size for a single celled organism pos... (more) |
— | almost 9 years ago |
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Alternatives to DNA I am in the process of creating my universe, and have based it on semi-hard science. The universe that I have created is quite extensive, and I thought that it would be unreasonable for the only kind of genetic material to exist to be DNA and or RNA, and yet I don't just want to come up with some out... (more) |
— | almost 9 years ago |
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Is having an enormous brain truly helpful? In the year 2020 A.D. , the inhabitants of earth are visited by a not-so-friendly race of techno-pathic AI aliens ,numbering about 500,000, and originating from a type 2 ¾ civilization from a galaxy far, far away. They left their old dwelling to see if they could create a new civilization from ( alm... (more) |
— | almost 9 years ago |