Questions tagged [technological-development]
For questions about the progress of a society's technological state.
740 questions
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Information storage that would work for a space age culture over centuries [duplicate]
Blogger Ray Hardgrit, in his review of the Babylon 5 episode the Parliament of Dreams, describes the data crystals depicted on the show as a "cunningly timeless storage medium" that "...
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Explaining Cassette Futurism
I am trying to write a Cassette Futurist setting, but I am having trouble at one thing: keeping it Cassette Futurist!
The more I read and write about this subject, the more I realize that eventually ...
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Can a lone robot self-replicate? [closed]
A robot finds itself marooned, alone, and without infrastructure. It knows that its parts will last a couple centuries. Less if it gets damaged. And with no means of self-repairing it needs to come up ...
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Are steel plows still necessary on the Great Plains?
John Deere's invention of the steel plow (steel plowshare and moldboard, iron frame) revolutionized farming, and allowed the Great Plains to be turned into cropland. What I have been unable to ...
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What would make a spaceship "easy" to pilot?
My setting is a far future, softish sci-fi with fantastical elements, but I'm still trying to keep it within the realm of possibility. Being so far in the future, I have a lot of leeway with this.
My ...
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Age of Steel without Coal Mines? [duplicate]
Would a civilisation that has no access to coal mining have a recognisable age of steel (as in, a late sub-age of the iron age, with increased reliance on use of steel) as we know it, or would it be ...
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Can a nuclear accident really ward off all nuclear development?
In many alternate-history questions that I’ve seen, the user wants a piece of technology to survive into the modern day. More often than not, a main setback is that nuclear power does it so much ...
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How would premodern militaries adapt to the sudden influx of modern and futuristic weapons and tactics during a war? [closed]
The Ishgas are a thalassocracy centered around their ecumenopolis homeworld of the same name, similar to Coruscant from Star Wars. Their technology level is an odd mix of Star Wars (FTL spaceships, ...
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Would a lack of metallic ore prevent technological development?
I'll get straight to the point: On one planet of this vast universe, there is a sapient species who, despite being around for even longer than humans have, has not had any technological development ...
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How would a military with advanced tech compared to all others develop differently from those that must deal with genuine equals?
The Ishgas are a thalassocracy centered around their ecumenopolis homeworld of the same name, similar to Coruscant from Star Wars. Their technology level is an odd mix of Star Wars (FTL spaceships, ...
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What would passenger space and aircraft look like that could carry a multi-ton sapient race?
In my story, there are two intelligent alien species that are quite large, but the Orgūr (pictured) are easily the biggest organic species, rivaling a Tyrannosaur in mass and strength, though ...
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Metallurgy in a Sulfur-Rich Atmosphere
Context:
This is a world with high volcanic activity. As such, despite having an oxygenating atmosphere, atmospheric sulfur compounds (mainly SO2, but there is also H2S) are present in significant ...
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Why can't my biopunk nation's advanced biotechnology be reversed-engineered?
In my modern setting, North Korea experienced a revolution. Afterwards, they became the only nation to have developed advanced, biopunk-esque biotechnology through a series of lucky discoveries. The ...
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A new cradle: The best place to kickstart civilization
In this world, a group of experts from our world were thrown to the past by unknown forces. Exactly 12,000 years back. To go back to our world, they need to kickstart the industrial revolution as soon ...
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How would society develop on a culture in a tropical island area, and what would their environment look like in the Stone Age?
I’m developing a sapient race that lives on land, is primarily cold blooded but has adapted some body temperature regulation abilities to an extent, and evolved from an ocean animal so while humanoid ...
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