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Activity for AndyD273‭

Type On... Excerpt Status Date
Answer A: To dwarf all inhabitatable objects
A Bubbleworld would meet your specifications, especially if you encased Jupiter. Bubbleworld A bubbleworld is an artificial construct that consists of a shell of living space around a sphere of hydrogen gas. The shell contains air, people, houses, furniture, etc. It was invented to answer ...
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about 9 years ago
Answer A: How to render Venus semi-habitable?
I proposed something like this in another question, but it might work better here. Put something in orbit between the sun and Venus to cut down on the amount of sunlight. If you can block it completely, then the atmosphere would basically freeze, and you'd be able to scoop it up or seal it away. ...
(more)
about 9 years ago
Answer A: Life on a planet with no land near poles
Building off @DustinJackson's answer, I'm going to posit a few ways that this planet would be different from earth to avoid an ice age. First the orbit is a bit closer to the star, this adds more heat into the system. Second, the axial tilt is greater than earths, meaning more of the ocean (and pol...
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about 9 years ago
Answer A: How would a person with modern knowledge of chemistry and medicine fare in Ancient times?
We have a lot of foundations that we kind of take for granted. There is kind of an expectation that once someone enters med school they have some basic understanding in anatomy, biology, math, medical theory, etc. You can do on the job training, but going from apprentice to master takes a really long...
(more)
about 9 years ago
Answer A: What kind of environment would lead to dominantly yellow foliage?
Your planet could be really low on iron. There is a tree condition called chlorosis that is caused by low iron in the soil, and leads to light green/yellow leaves. It could also be that the PH in the soil is to high, which keeps trees from absorbing the iron. Or just go with Tom Andersons idea.
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about 9 years ago
Answer A: What directive would cause an ASI to put everyone in a benevolent Matrix?
If you think about it, even something as positive as the three laws could lead to something like this. Sort of like they did with the I, Robot movie. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm. A robot must obey orders given it by human beings ...
(more)
about 9 years ago
Answer A: Is it possible for the earth to have an eternal solar eclipse?
A soletta/solar mirror could work. In Green Mars a giant solar mirror is put in Mars L1 point, and magnifies the sunlight to make Mars brighter and warmer. It's held in place by stabilizers and also through a solar sail type effect. Another is put in Venus L1 point to block all sunlight and freeze...
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about 9 years ago
Answer A: Planetary Habitability at twelve to seven billion years ago
Couple ways it could work: Magnetic fields The planet could have a really strong magnetic field. Earths magnetic field protects us from a nuclear furnace that's relatively close by. Likewise, the sun has a magnetic field which would offer some protection. Water Some theories say that early earth wa...
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about 9 years ago
Answer A: Uproot, Lift Up and Replant a City
Float the city. Dig under it and put in structural bracing to support the buildings and then tons of pontoons. Then let the ocean in to let the city float up, and then tow it up the coast to the new destination. You haven't described the city at all (building height, materials used etc) so this m...
(more)
about 9 years ago
Answer A: How might one create a room in which time flows faster?
So time dilation isn't the way to go, because that just makes time slow down, not speed up. I think the only way you're going to be able to do this is by getting into String Theory (M Theory?) a little bit. Which is tricky, but I believe that it does allow for pocket dimensions where time doesn't fl...
(more)
about 9 years ago
Answer A: How might a superhero gain heat control powers?
I don't know about moving heat, but seeing and generating it would be interesting. We all produce heat, and our bodies let off infrared light. If you had an IR camera you could see someone in the dark. So the guy is out snowboarding, loses control and smacks his head. This causes some damage, and ...
(more)
about 9 years ago
Answer A: Making Part of the Planet Completely Inaccessible
You could just make it out of adamantium or some other space-age indestructible material and let the natives do whatever they want with it. They can walk right up to it, bang on it with clubs or axes, but nothing they do will even scratch the surface. After a couple generations people won't even noti...
(more)
about 9 years ago
Answer A: How can a space "radar" work?
How about using gravity instead of radio waves? Gravity has detectable effects over great distances, and we currently have sensors that can detect and map fluctuations in gravity, so if you had a detector that was sensitive enough you could send out some kind of graviton pulse and then register where...
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about 9 years ago
Answer A: How to effectively deliver a flu virus that destroys the brains ability to absorb serotonin?
Since the virus is airborne, you could spread it using a chemical fog. The Tom Clancy book Executive Orders has terrorists using a modified spray can at convention centers to spread a virus. That would get it out into the general population. Depending on how the symptoms presented, it could be sel...
(more)
about 9 years ago
Answer A: Evolutionary Explanations for Dragon Firebreathing: Interesting uses of indigestion
Fire breathing developed as a way to help raise their young. Being reptilian, dragons lay eggs, but eggs need warmth to mature. Because dragons are solitary creatures, and because dragons will eat other dragons eggs at every opportunity, and male dragons will consume their own eggs if given the ch...
(more)
about 9 years ago
Answer A: Asymmetrical animals
You need to figure out what environmental reason there would be to not be symmetrical. The asymmetric earth creatures I can think of are crabs and lobsters, where one claw is for crushing and the other for cutting. Lobsters for instance don't have much of a mouth, and no teeth, so they use their crus...
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about 9 years ago
Answer A: An exotic yet portable powersource
So I remember a story with a submarine that was powered off a big flywheel, and every once and a while they'd have to power up the engine to spin the flywheel back up. Lots of other people have mentioned black holes as a way to generate power using gravity or whatever, but what if you just used th...
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about 9 years ago
Answer A: Are flying plants possible?
You could have plants that fly instead of float. Something like a biological spring that winds up, and when the plant has produced enough seeds and such the root releases and the spring unwinds spinning some kind of propeller like a Deku. The flight would be short, but one interesting use would be as...
(more)
about 9 years ago
Answer A: Fire Resistant Flora
There are fire resistant plants on Earth that you can model it after. Redwoods are pretty hard to burn. I recall seeing a video of a guy holding a blowtorch to a piece of redwood, and it not catching. I haven't found the video yet. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BIWc8jntIl0 has a little informati...
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about 9 years ago
Answer A: How would humanity enter a Dark Age?
Multi-national corporations get to the point where their income rivals the GDP of 90% of the worlds countries, while at the same time because of greed in the financial and banking markets world currencies go into a recession. For the first time, a corporation purchases an entire bankrupt country, ...
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over 9 years ago
Question Building and powering a computer in a bronze age world
A character needs to build a computer out of raw materials in a bronze age. He has a nano scale factory, so manufacturing chips and such from silicon is possible, but I'm not sure of the best way to power it without resorting to something stupid like "And then he built a fusion reactor". I've cons...
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over 9 years ago