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1500 questions
48
votes
14 answers
How to preserve electronics (computers, tablets and phones) for hundreds of years
Let's say you wanted to preserve some electronics for 500 years or more in a museum. What could you do to preserve them in working order for hundreds of years? Deep freeze? Lead lined vaults? Vacuum? I've seen questions about how long electronics…
farmersteve
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8 answers
How dangerous is a 500-year-old nuclear warhead?
Inspired by this question:
For several excellent reasons, a 500-year-old nuclear warhead is not going to produce an actual nuclear explosion. But that doesn't mean it's not dangerous anymore.
Suppose a group of postapocalyptic villagers finds a…
zwol
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48
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12 answers
Time Warp: Modern chemist as court alchemist
Premise
The premise is an adept modern chemist is transported back in time and is to serve as the court alchemist to a wealthy prince in the late 16th century.
Assumptions:
"Transmuting" gold is the chief goal, but the prince would possibly…
Arash Howaida
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48
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1 answer
What would the periodic table of a 4-Dimensional universe look like?
In this question, I asked about a universe with (amongst other things) 4 large spatial dimensions.
In 3 dimensions, we have the familiar periodic table with its familiar arrangement of atoms in the S, P, D, F and the predicted G & H blocks.
However,…
Monty Wild
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47
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7 answers
How powerful of a computer do I need to simulate and emulate a human brain?
The title is pretty self-explanatory. How powerful does a computer have to be before it has the hardware capability to simulate and emulate a human mind in real-time?
I'm leaving the question of the software needed for later, but feel free to…
Serban Tanasa
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47
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8 answers
Could humanity survive the sun going dark?
The sun inexplicably ceases to give light. It's still there and continues to have a gravitational pull keeping us in orbit. The solar system continues to operate as normal, but the sun has gone dark and ceases to provide us with light or…
Winston Ewert
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47
votes
20 answers
How expressive is a color-based language?
In the answers to this question I learned that some cephalopods communicate via color:
Some cephalopods are capable of rapid changes in skin color and pattern through nervous control of chromatophores.[8] This ability almost certainly evolved…
Monica Cellio
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47
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9 answers
Why is the bridge on smaller spacecraft at the front but not in bigger vessels?
In most sci-fi (graphic) novels and films, they often depict the design of the cockpit or captain's bridge in a rather unusual way. A smaller ship such as a fighter or a transport ship usually comes with a bridge near the nose of the spacecraft,…
user6760
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47
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11 answers
Would a wound from a monomolecular blade instantly heal?
Or, phrased another way, how thick would the blade behind the cutting edge need to be in order to cause significant and lasting damage to a human body?
My question can be considered an expansion of this question, but dealing more with the effects of…
Mike DiBaggio
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47
votes
19 answers
Is there a way to "poison" oil fields permanently without releasing $CO_{2}$ from them?
I have a group of eco-terrorists who want to limit the amount of $CO_{2}$ the world puts out drastically: by poisoning oil fields so that the oil becomes unuseable, or at least forever uneconomical to pump up.
Unfortunately, I haven't yet thought of…
RemcoGerlich
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47
votes
24 answers
Why would the richest and strongest country on Earth consistently fail at Big Projects?
Imagine you have a large, powerful nation. Let's say about 320 million well-educated citizens, occupying the largest part of a rich, fertile continent. It's the richest country on the planet.
For my story, I need it to be utterly dysfunctional. Why…
Serban Tanasa
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47
votes
18 answers
Help! My Mother-in-law got Mind-Uploaded and now pesters me through the surround system
Dear Abby,
My mother-in-law moved away last October. Before then, she was very, uh, involved in my and my spouse's life, so I was if not exactly looking forward to her departure or demise (perish the thought!) at the very least feeling ready for the…
Serban Tanasa
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47
votes
15 answers
How do I sell 100 gold bars without getting into trouble?
Like this question, but cranked up to 11.
One day I'm going about my business, answering questions on Worldbuilding.StackExchange, when all of a sudden I get sucked into a fantasy world. I meet some people, have all sorts of wacky adventures, help…
Thomas Jacobs
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47
votes
18 answers
Where to hide the Illuminati?
Go to the kitchen, open your baking utensils and make yourself a tinfoil hat. Put it on your head before continuing to read this question. Done? Ok:
Let's have an alternate Earth where The Illuminati exist and dictate the main events in…
Pavel Janicek
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47
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11 answers
Could you claim a space station as a country?
Following in the steps of the entrepreneur Elon Musk who created SpaceX (which creates rockets to get to space), an entrepreneur decides to build a space station for visitors.
But instead of just a floating hotel above Earth, the entrepreneur wants…
Thatguypat
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