Worldbuilding Stack Exchange
Worldbuilding Stack Exchange

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1500 questions
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29 answers

What might stop people from destroying navigation satellites that are used for FTL plotting?

The idea is that a number of satellites have been deployed throughout the galaxy and ships use them to plot their FTL jumps. If that's the case, the thought occurs to me that someone could try and destroy one if they wanted to cut off a particular…
Micromanic
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How can I make humans NOT WANT to investigate how a supernatural ability works in an intelligent, non-human creature?

We've had a few questions where answers state, to a lesser or greater degree, "humans would investigate this ability to figure out how it works" in another creature with abilities not readily scientifically explainable and in-universe explained by…
user
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What is a recently obsolete computer storage device that would be significantly difficult to extract data from?

For my story I need a data storage device that will be reasonably familiar to adult readers. My character will have obtained this device and know that vital information is stored on it, but not necessarily in what form. It needs to be obsolete so…
Wiggo the Wookie
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15 answers

Security measures that could plausibly last 150+ years?

So, the world experienced an apocalypse about 150 years ago. Sad times. Me and a couple buddies are the the salvaging business, and hello, recently we found a jackpot, an untouched military base. When we tried to raid it though.... The security…
DT Cooper
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18 answers

How would modern naval warfare have to have developed differently for battleships to still be relevant in the 21st century?

So basically, battleships are awesome. I am interested in creating a setting where they were never superseded in their role of long-range command vessels and fire support by aircraft carriers, preferably without eliminating CVs entirely. But I am…
Cloud Striker
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12 answers

Is there an evolutionary advantage to having two heads?

This is a classic of fantasy/sci-fi stories. A creature with two heads, two brains, two distinct personalities, sharing a single body. An entire race of Siamese twins. But the question is, what environment or constraints would cause this adaptation…
Cobbington
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13 answers

Can a planet be tidally unlocked?

In my answer to another question, I suggested that the Super-Earth in question be tidally locked to its host star for a period of time while part of its surface experienced a bombardment. After that's finished, however, I'd want the planet to rotate…
HDE 226868
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How can Santa defend himself?

The world is full of grinches. Party-poopers who simply insist on taking the fun away from everybody else. They'll do everything they can to stop Santa from delivering his gifts — and too many of them work in militaries across the world. What's…
JBH
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19 answers

How would a tripedal animal walk?

Animals on Earth have 2 or 4 legs they use for walking. On another world, however, animals have 3. I want to know how these animals will walk. How will their legs be placed and how will they move them to walk? For instance, maybe they would have 2…
Mike Nichols
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5 answers

Would a demon be afforded civil rights?

Synopsis For reasons unimportant to the question all divine/infernal beings and deities took a hiatus from interacting with the earth in the dark ages. For reasons equally obscure they are back and busier than ever. Law enforcement, corrections,…
TCAT117
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8 answers

Can two adjacent, life-sustaining planets orbit a star such that they are rarely near each other?

I have two planets and humans live on both of them. Humans need not have developed on these planets, but the planets should support human life with the allowance that the humans have technology comparable to modern day Earth. Planet A is roughly the…
KoaxialKable
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23 answers

Earthborn Inferiority

I fear this may be too broad, but I am looking for reasons earthborn humans would be considered inferior to those born on various space colonies. For example, it is important to reference the distinction when introducing oneself (I am AG Weyland,…
A.G. Weyland
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13 answers

Would the principles of Stack Exchange work in a real-world utopia?

Following on from my previous utopia-based question (Could compulsory experience-sharing make a utopia actually work?), I'm wondering whether a website could ever be a utopia. Firstly, are there any problems inherent in this premise? If I take…
user_629957
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Handling magical rune script copyright

I have a setting where there is an online shop that sells magic script, which sent via email. The magic in this world is activated via a runic script - similar to a program code. The problem is, I don't know how this shop could deliver the rune…
Vylix
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How many people would have to be killed to make the streets 'run red with blood'?

For example, a street this wide to have enough blood run down the length shown in this photo? Assume that the blood isn't going down storm-drains for whatever reason and assume the stretch of road is 100 feet long. There need not be literal 'rivers'…
Friendlysociopath
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