Activity for Systemâ€
| Type | On... | Excerpt | Status | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Question | — |
Making Beaks More like Hands For a highly intelligent avian dinosaur whose grasping and manipulating appendages have all but vanished, there are options : for the species to evolve beaks that are better fine manipulators, or continue to writhe in abject mediocrity. So the question is - which type of beak might the birds evolve t... (more) |
— | almost 9 years ago |
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Brain to body mass ratio vs general brain mass On my fictitious planet, a 1/2 pound mammal had a brain to body mass ratio similar to that of a human , could they have human - level intelligence, or would the brain be too small the develop that level of intelligence? Edit: Human intelligence being defined as an high level of problem solving skill... (more) |
— | almost 9 years ago |
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What environmental pressures might cause rodents to evolve social behavior? Continuing from this question: The rodents on the synthetic planet ( which I am now calling Ark ) can now walk/run erect when desired. The scientists continue with biological forging and work on there social behave , and the realize in hindsight that they probably should have worked on this first. T... (more) |
— | almost 9 years ago |
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From mice to men ( series ) A team of alien researchers get bored one day, and decides to conduct an experiment. Seeing that the great ape Homo sapiens sapiens turned out so well ( in terms of technological development and ecological domination ) on earth , they wonder if any other family has the capacity for the same. So the... (more) |
— | almost 9 years ago |
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How might a Kardashev Scale Level II civilization transport energy? We all know the Kardashev Scale , and the energy output required to get to each level , but what would be the best way to transport those amounts of energy? I have come up with ways to distribute energy on the second level of the scale , and would like to know which of each set would be most feasible... (more) |
— | almost 9 years ago |
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Microbial Civilization Precursors Would a creature similar to semi-aquatic slime mold living on a mostly freshwater planet with shallow seas be able to build technology to the extent that modern humans do? Assuming that each individual cell in the slime mold had a form like that of amoeba in the genus Chaos and had organelles that e... (more) |
— | almost 9 years ago |
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How would FTL travel appear through window of ship? How would faster-than-light travel appear through window of a space vessel? All the movies and TV shows like Star Trek and Star Wars seem unrealistic: Star Trek credits: passing stars get bigger and nearly "brush the top of your head", but wouldn't it look more like a flat 2D animation with dots s... (more) |
— | almost 9 years ago |
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Repulsive Universe Gravity in our universe is an attractive force between bodies with mass [citation needed]. This allows matter to coalesce and form all the large scale structures we observe - planets, stars, galaxies, etc. At small scales, however, electromagnetic and nuclear interactions dominate the formation of ma... (more) |
— | almost 9 years ago |
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Geomagnetic interaction Okay, so I'm a fiction writer and I love neo-futuristic tech, but when I write I like to be as realistic as possible. One such technology, which I'm thinking of using in a fictional series, is the QED over-unity generators that are purported to be able to power themselves and produce more power than ... (more) |
— | almost 9 years ago |
| Answer | — |
A: How to Convince Humans to Allow a Machine Take-Over "How to convince humans to allow a machine take over?" - the answer is, of course, "Gradually." Start with putting one machine into every home, say an AI that is so dumb that it is not really an AI, but just a computational device. Then start adding other similar machines, maybe some that will do t... (more) |
— | about 9 years ago |
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Sol economy: What is optimal for production on earth? Follow-up-question to this scenario: 2750 A.D : Quite a few asteroids/celestial bodies have been move to a stable earth orbit and are beeing mined for ressources. I am currently designing the economy (cycle). The economic situation in orbit: Gold-rush style (deregulated, hypercapitalistic 'wild... (more) |
— | over 9 years ago |
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How would humans eradicate an organism that can actively spread through Earth's atmosphere? So let's say that an alien civilization that we have made enemies with decides to use an advanced non-lethal biological weapon on the Earth as a warning. The aliens, while not infamous for any technology, have unfathomable knowledge pertaining to chemistry and biology. Alien engineers create an orga... (more) |
— | over 9 years ago |
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Organic Material able to store massive amounts of energy? I am looking for a (at least somewhat) plausible organic matter, which is able to store massive amounts of energy. After reading up on biobatteries and so on, I am aware that I would need something very similar, but much more powerful. Criteria: Does not need to exist or even be possible But need... (more) |
— | over 9 years ago |
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How to deal with a friendly Boghog without hurting it, and maintaining a positive relationship? In the Hickhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Mostly Harmless, on the planet NowWhat there are the Boghogs, and their way of communicating is to bite each other very hard on the thigh, so my question is, if I were to ever encounter one and I wanted to have some sort of friendship with it without either of ... (more) |
— | over 9 years ago |
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How might it be possible to move a star? I'm imagining a super-powerful spacefaring race which has the capability to build or modify a star system or even galaxy by moving stars around, but I wonder if it's really feasible. Is it theoretically possible to move a star intentionally and accurately from point A to point B? How might this be d... (more) |
— | over 9 years ago |
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Would it be possible to shift Titan from its current orbit into an orbit around Earth for terraforming purposes? What are the challenges involved in such a project? Could you use an asteroid re-direct style mission to do the job, or use some sort of fuel based thrust etc. Please limit answers to those concerning moving and terraforming just Titan, for the sake of my question. What problems might we encounter?... (more) |
— | over 9 years ago |
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Pirates of Earth In a short story that I read (don't have the link, but the short story itself is not relevant to this question), it is set about a millennia from now, where humans have long since made contact with numerous alien species. However, over time, the 'Terrans' are notorious for being the interplanetary pi... (more) |
— | over 9 years ago |
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What planetary conditions would make computer and complex electronics useless, or at least difficult to maintain? 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, and unusual elements affect electronics and would these things damage humans or make human life unsust... (more) |
— | over 9 years ago |
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Lifeform - resistant to gunfire but vulnerable to melee Is there a plausible makeup for a lifeform which is highly resistant to even very advanced firearms (or any ranged weaponry for that matter), but can be injured more readily (albeit still a major feat) by close-ranged machinery/arms? This could be a result of the materials the lifeforms consists of,... (more) |
— | over 9 years ago |
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How would interplanetary transits take place with a "space compressing" system? I have a fictional technology in my world that involves being able to create "tubes of compressed space" -- essentially, you have two stations and a (straight or curved) line of space between them that take much less time to traverse in distance. I'm interested in figuring out how to integrate this ... (more) |
— | almost 10 years ago |
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Life on a Venusian world? I define "Venusian world" to be high pressure, thick atmosphere, and high temperatures. Assume the atmosphere is similar to Venus, but whatever gets the same effect and supports life is fine. I'm envisioning a six-limbed sentient species that's nearly blind and uses sonar to "see", and a primarily f... (more) |
— | almost 10 years ago |
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How to avert AI. as a main player in the future? it's me again :) With the help of the fine people of this place I have been able to find solution for a number of problems and come up with compelling technologies. One question keep bugging me, however: How do I ensure, that people / people's skill are still the most relevant in space based comba... (more) |
— | almost 10 years ago |
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How to avoid 'Geary-Syndrome' at relativistic speeds (in space)? Hello again :) My first questions had some wonderful answers, but brought me to the following problem: Although (in my eyes) really dull, the Cpt. Geary series (the Lost Fleet) tends to depict the relativistic issues with space combat quite well (timescales, speed distortion etc.) Is there anything... (more) |
— | almost 10 years ago |
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Weather on a mini-ringworld/Banks Orbital An Orbital is a miniature ringworld used by the Culture in Iain M. Banks's Culture series. Wikipedia has details on their basic structure, but to simplify, the main difference from a Niven ringworld is that they're much smaller and orbit the sun like a planet instead of encircling it. What I'm inter... (more) |
— | almost 10 years ago |
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Result of terraforming away the deserts The area of the earth covered by desert is more than 20%. (Sites range from 20-33%, I don't know why the wide range). With technology close to providing zero cost solar (not free, but declining each year by a substantial fraction) the ability to desalinate water and pump it over desert land will be... (more) |
— | almost 10 years ago |
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Could a theoretical cube shaped planet have a moon? I'm inventing a constructed world for a personal exercise in writing, and I was wondering if a theoretical cube shaped planet could have a moon. Is that physically possible? I am going on the assumption that the planet is artificial, and I intend on it being a rogue planet. (more) |
— | almost 10 years ago |
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What would be required for a completely self sufficient 1 man habitat? For the sake of this question, let's say that there would be a space mission that would send one man on a 40 year journey that will require him to be in a completely self sufficient habitat for the duration of the trip. What would be required for him to be completely self sufficient, and not need any... (more) |
— | about 10 years ago |
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Can two civilizations on nearby stars develop independently but be at a similar technological level? One thing that a few science fiction films seem to get wrong: it is extremely unlikely for two civilizations to evolve completely independently and yet be within a few hundred years of each other technologically when they make contact. They are more likely to be millions or billions of years apart. ... (more) |
— | about 10 years ago |
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Would co-orbital planets with very similar convergent evolutionary paths be possible? Picture, if you will, four planets sharing the exact same orbit and orbital speed, and separated by exactly same distance from each other. Each planet is the same size and roughly the same gravitational pull and are stable in this arrangement. No satellites and each has no axial tilt. If each world'... (more) |
— | about 10 years ago |