Sheraff‭

Dragons are a grand classic of fantasy. For this question, let's assume we're talking about the following stereotype: hatches from an ostrich-sized egg and can grow to mountain size if nothing l...

18 answers  ·  posted 10y ago by Sheraff‭  ·  last activity 3y ago by celtschk‭

You see this in quite a bunch of movies / books (think avatar). What could be a reasoned physical explanation of such phenomenon? Would this explanation impact other things on a planet? Like most...

8 answers  ·  posted 10y ago by Sheraff‭  ·  last activity 9y ago by Sheraff‭

Would it be possible for the atmosphere of a planet to reach beyond its planetary ring so that earth-like biology could develop on some of the asteroids there? This question is mainly about whethe...

8 answers  ·  posted 10y ago by Sheraff‭  ·  last activity 10y ago by Sheraff‭

There is this idea that we find in a few books, mainly The Swarm by Frank Schätzing and in the Ender Saga by Orson Scott Card, that some species could communicate via DNA exchange. Technically, y...

4 answers  ·  posted 10y ago by Sheraff‭  ·  last activity 8y ago by Sheraff‭

Let's assume, without revoking any of today's science, that the world is a simulation. What would a bug look like? I'm assuming that "the eiffel tower suddenly being bent at 45°" is rather unlik...

24 answers  ·  posted 10y ago by Sheraff‭  ·  last activity 6y ago by Sheraff‭

Quantum physics today tells us that we may not predict outcomes with certainty. We perceive events as random. So is this old philosophical fantasy of an all knowing computer possible? Meaning that...

10 answers  ·  posted 10y ago by Sheraff‭  ·  last activity 6y ago by Sheraff‭

Say you were to drop a (bunch of) human(s) at some past era of our Earth. I'm assuming they might encounter a few problems such as the composition of the air not being breathable, the water being t...

3 answers  ·  posted 10y ago by Sheraff‭  ·  last activity 9y ago by Sheraff‭

Biotechnology is a big keyword in the industry right now, like computing was a bunch of years ago. Nowadays, anyone can pop up a terminal and start tinkering with their computer, program software, ...

5 answers  ·  posted 10y ago by Sheraff‭  ·  last activity 10y ago by Sheraff‭

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 10y ago by Sheraff‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by Sheraff‭

Could two planets be tidally locked to each other at such a small distance from one another that they share their atmosphere, and material is floating around between the two?

6 answers  ·  posted 10y ago by Sheraff‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by Sheraff‭

Considering that the oceans are rising (and that humans don't seem too keen on doing anything about it) and that population is growing exponentially, is it plausible to imagine that in a not too di...

4 answers  ·  posted 10y ago by Sheraff‭  ·  last activity 10y ago by Sheraff‭

What could be the reasons for climate to be so localized that it could rain in one street and not in the next, be extremely hot in a city and not in the next, have extremely narrow gusts of wind......

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

On Earth today, even though most people speak some English, there is seemingly no reason to believe that future generation's main language will be the same in decades/centuries to come (i.e., we'll...

20 answers  ·  posted 9y ago by Sheraff‭  ·  last activity 8y ago by Sheraff‭

There is this fantasy in fiction that humans meet another species and figure out that it's intelligent. This usually happens with dragons, dolphins, aliens, collectively intelligent plancton... Bu...

10 answers  ·  posted 10y ago by Sheraff‭  ·  last activity 9y ago by Sheraff‭

It's becoming obvious from how could humans recognize another species as sentient / intelligent that recognizing another species' intelligence is very complicated. There are no universal tests, no ...

6 answers  ·  posted 9y ago by Sheraff‭  ·  last activity 8y ago by Sheraff‭