SRM

general recent conversations

Discussion on question by IMP9024: Ho…

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SRM

Jan 6 19:13

How can you stop a triceratops charge? Take away its credit card!

Discussion on answer by Monty Wild: H…

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SRM

Sep 11, 2024 02:16

I like to remind people that if the Turing Hypothesis is true (that a Turing Machine is capable of representing all possible states of human thought), then a monk moving around index cards according to a rule book is a sufficient computing substrate for intelligence, albeit very slow. Sentience might be everywhere and we wouldn’t notice if it’s “frame rate” (for lack of a better term) is measured in decades.

Discussion on question by KeizerHarm:…

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SRM

Nov 8, 2021 11:53

I think any wave moving through the water would trigger the collapse.

Discussion on question by Sync: Best …

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SRM

Dec 9, 2020 20:34

Have you tried diplomacy? :-)

Discussion on question by Tal: How to…

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SRM

Jun 10, 2020 13:19

Pretty much the reason for 21st century climate change is that the planet has no place to dump heat once we wall off space with greenhouse gasses. If you come up with a place, please share! :-)

Discussion on question by Rav mills :…

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SRM

Mar 9, 2020 17:49

@AlexP I’ve actually had reasons to compare ancient and modern maps of the region. There’s not much drift in most natural landmarks— rivers changed course, mostly. But if these guys have detailed maps in their heads, I think that would be huge. ... particularly if one of them had ever compared against an ancient map even casually earlier in the story.

SRM

Mar 9, 2020 17:49

”age appropriate items” ... I was thinking Nerf guns at first because that’s a particular phrase I usually see with kids’ toys! :-)

Discussion on question by user6760: H…

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SRM

Mar 7, 2020 17:15

@user253751 I forget how limited the rest of you are. ;-)

SRM

Mar 7, 2020 17:15

This question is a great question. It is a variation on the rabbits from Watership Down. The rabbits could only perceive up to four. But they could count higher. Their conception exceeded their perception. It’s like humans trying to imagine six dimensional space. We can do the math, but not really map it in our minds, though some mathematical geniuses say they can conceive it after lots of training.

Discussion on question by Gilad M: Na…

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SRM

Feb 25, 2020 20:27

I don't want to start any sentence with, "Back in Universe 36A_ver7;Toyota_claim803" But there is a universe where that naming convention really excites you! :-)

Discussion on question by Azumentris:…

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SRM - Reinstate Monica

Feb 13, 2020 11:17

In Dallas, the local citizens all draw and start shooting: instant response time but with likely huge friendly fire casualty rates, especially if there’s any ricochet from those golems from small caliber ammo. Eventually the Dallas Borg protocols kick in to coordinate the citizens into a single hive mind, and resistance becomes effective. (Of course Dallas has Borg protocols. You don’t think the old beehive hairdos were by choice? Or that the highway layout can be learned except by injected shared memories? Do you?

Discussion on question by Alexandra E…

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SRM - Reinstate Monica

Jan 30, 2020 09:56

Almost no technology? Swim! List of successful English Channel swimmers: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/…

Discussion on question by galactic_an…

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SRM - Reinstate Monica

Jan 30, 2020 09:39

@jamesqf Depends upon culture. There are many human cultures where it depends upon the specific dog — similar to rabbit in the USA. The somewhat famous “Pets or Meat” rabbit shop in Flint, Michigan (documented in the movie “Roger & Me”), for example.

Discussion on answer by Starfish Prim…

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SRM - Reinstate Monica

Jan 19, 2020 19:12

I think it would make a great book title: “A Multi-Trillion-Dollar, Multi-Century Suicide” It would be the story of this epic colonization effort that ends abruptly upon arrival for want of one engineering part.

Discussion on question by FruityB: An…

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SRM - Reinstate Monica

Jan 19, 2020 19:12

500 years of Earth time or subjective time for the colonists? Makes a major difference to the answers.

Discussion on question by KeizerHarm:…

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SRM - Reinstate Monica

Jan 9, 2020 01:08

@sphennings Lots of edge case questions tonight. I'm going to leave this one open. In essence, it's no different from "how long do I need to make my space elevator" or "how long does the runway need to be for this plane to fly" type questions. Yes, it's plotish, but if the answer is as many pillows as I am estimating, that makes it a notable world feature. Maybe I'm overestimating?

SRM - Reinstate Monica

Jan 9, 2020 01:08

@Halfthawed HOLY S****! You're right! Someone did it as an actual stunt!!! I had no idea! Here is video: newshub.co.nz/home/entertainment/2016/08/…

Discussion on answer by IndigoFenix: …

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SRM - Reinstate Monica

Jan 9, 2020 01:07

@JanHudec Who cares about the thermal signature? It's the nightly presence in the sky that is the point of the theft.

SRM - Reinstate Monica

Jan 9, 2020 01:07

@JohnDvorak just need mirrors angled away from Earth. All you’re trying to do is make the moon not shine on Earth. So you can manufacture them here and ship ‘em up. Installation should be straightforward. If budget isn’t a limitation (per the question) then the plausibility of this method is pretty high, IMHO.

SRM - Reinstate Monica

Jan 9, 2020 01:07

I think the plausibility for “hide it” is much higher than 15%. We have the tech for a system, as long as the materials are manufactured on Earth and delivered to the Moon for installation. Manufacturing on Moon is the implausible part. The question with Earth manufacturing is time and effort. But given enough time? Totally viable.

Discussion on question by Li Jun: Cou…

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SRM - Reinstate Monica

Jan 3, 2020 07:51

I just mean, if that horn is sharp, it could pierce internal soft tissues. The location is fine, if awkward. You say they’ll fence for mating rights. But then the male has to kneel down and the female back onto it pretty willingly, in my opinion. You can make her entry passage be thick leather to minimize chance of piercing, but if the horn is made for piercing leather (ie, skin in combat), that won’t help much. So the couple has to be careful. And if they’re spooked, he might bolt and hurt her badly.

SRM - Reinstate Monica

Jan 3, 2020 07:51

@Separatrix As an English teacher of mine once said, “Is it longer than wide? Then we should look for sexual imagery. Authors of this period commonly add such things.” “Which period exactly?” “The Paleolithic and later.”

SRM - Reinstate Monica

Jan 3, 2020 07:51

I see nothing wrong from the male point of view. The female, however, may object. That point is going to have to slide in carefully. Dangerous if the couple is surprised midway through the act.

Discussion on question by Quartz2: Is…

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SRM

Dec 20, 2019 07:30

I removed the hard-science tag because it contradicts the science-based tag. No question can have both.

Discussion on question by Halfthawed:…

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SRM

Dec 13, 2019 12:24

@bklassen that doesn’t solve the “needs to be separate location so it doesn’t get damaged at the same time as original heart” requirement.

Discussion on question by Celestial D…

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SRM

Nov 28, 2019 18:40

@CelestialDragonEmperor I started a discussion about questions like this one in the meta chat: worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/7628/…

Discussion on question by P. M. B.: W…

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SRM

Oct 30, 2019 00:13

@P.M.B. Yes, I understood your point. And I noted that that theory appears to be rejected by the original question text.

SRM

Oct 30, 2019 00:13

@user28434 If they cannot reproduce more than 2 per female, they didn't live for a long time in a small community because they never became a community. The first Eve and Adam only had one kid, and that kid married no one and the species died. Even with speciation happening later and gradually weaning from the source population (the vampire precursors), you still have a point where vampires quickly vanish. Stable population requires at least two births per female, and that's assuming no one ever dies without reproducing (unlikely)!

SRM

Oct 30, 2019 00:13

@GamerGypps Purebloods are born vampires; newborns are humans turned into vampires.

SRM

Oct 30, 2019 00:13

@user28434 No. Pureblood is defined in the original question simply as those who are born vampires. Newborns are humans that are turned. It's not a Harry Potter thing.

SRM

Oct 30, 2019 00:13

Only one birth per female isn’t enough to replace the population. They’d go extinct. No species will have generated a large population if they can’t breed more than replacement rate. They wouldn’t have evolved in the first place. So whatever the reason for low births, it has to be new, probably environmental.

Discussion on answer by Starfish Prim…

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SRM

Oct 1, 2019 19:12

“Congressman, can you explain to our TV audience why one generation ship is named The Intrepid Explorer and the other is Canon Fodder?” “Well, we are going to need statistically significant interaction testing...”

Discussion on question by Incognito: …

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SRM

Aug 15, 2019 11:56

You end with “negative consequences”. Does that mean you’re ok with disruptions as long as they’re positive, like “more paid vacation time as we get closer so people spend more time with families”? Or do you really mean “no disruptions”?

Discussion on question by Henry Taylo…

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SRM

Jul 22, 2019 18:52

I did some digging into sunspots... doesn't seem to be viable to just make them really big, but they can be a lot bigger than I thought... visible to the naked eye such that Chinese astronomers starting in 364BC were recording them! web.archive.org/web/20110702095337/findarticles.com/p‌/… Maybe you can make something work in that vector. I decided to go a different way for my answer.

SRM

Jul 22, 2019 18:52

Regarding this question -- is deflecting the energy of the sun into a single direction an option for your story? I don't think preventing solar fusion is an option, but I'm wondering about inventing ways to make the sun shine only out of its poles. I can't think of any off the top of my head, but it seems like a more plausible option to search than stopping a star from shining.

SRM

Jul 22, 2019 18:52

@Henry The tag you're requesting is the implied tag of the entire site! We have hard-science, magic, and science-based for when we need to move out of that default mode.

Discussion on answer by Starfish Prim…

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SRM

Jul 22, 2019 18:52

@starfisprime They may have that weakness. Designers may not have worried about another K2 (“We are older than anyone else, and far ahead”) or may not have thought of that. Or this is a runaway process not doing its intended task. Plenty of room to allow for the instinct-only bugs.

SRM

Jul 22, 2019 18:52

@starfish Think of locusts in our world today. Mostly instinctual, wrecking havoc, but the result of eons of evolution. If they were engineered by a K2 civ, they don’t have to be intelligent themselves.

Discussion on question by TheDyingOfL…

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SRM

Jul 20, 2019 19:52

@R.. ah. You said “know where to look”... I read that in the context of “they stumble on Voyager, now where to look for its makers?” I didn’t expect they would ever be “looking” for Voyager. Minor miscommunication between us. :-)

SRM

Jul 20, 2019 19:52

Reading the answers makes me wonder: how long would it take humans to cover up our traces if we had reason to really work at it? Could we even get close to “leave no trace” if we decided to leave Earth and put it back to nature?

SRM

Jul 20, 2019 19:52

@R.. There aren’t many stars in our part of the galaxy, and Voyager is on a fixed trajectory at this point. Barring a run-in with some rock out there, backtracking its path to Sol should be easy for millions of years.

Discussion on question by chasly from…

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SRM

Jan 25, 2019 13:15

Where is the Emporer coming from? Does he have a faster-than-light ship? (Yes, this is relevant to your question.)

Discussion on answer by user49466: Wh…

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SRM

Aug 2, 2018 13:11

All of these four answers are in-story plot answers to the question, not worldbuilding answers. They focus on potential details of the world that might happen to be true, not on any systemic force that would be generally true across any world experiencing this kind of crisis.

Discussion on answer by Legisey: Dang…

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SRM

May 4, 2018 15:48

Also, Asimov’s short story “Breeds There A Man” where mike scientists keep committing suicide after a particular discovery. Real world: extreme rate of suicide among researchers of infinity and cardinality in mathematics. And the problem of studying nihilism and existentialism.

SRM

May 4, 2018 15:48

Hofsteader’s “this record cannot be played on this record player” theory (see Pulitzer Prize winning non-fiction “Godel, Escher, Bach”. Also similar to a Twilight Zone episode I saw once about the ultimate joke: once heard, humans could not stop laughing.

Discussion on question by Chill2Macht…

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SRM

May 20, 2017 21:21

I nominated for reopening. This is a basic world building question on population growth/reduction. "Is X plausible?" is a baseline question, easily answered with "No, science provides no mechanism," or "Yes, and here's one way to do it." This is not a request for a comprehensive list of ways to achieve X -- those are often too broad. This is just a yes/no.

Discussion on question by EveryBitHel…

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SRM

Apr 14, 2017 22:58

@AlexP I don't have citations right now, but I've read about this event... I'm pretty sure crop failures (of varying degrees, obviously) were global. I am guessing the info on Britain just reflects who edits WikiPedia most.

Discussion on question by Redacted Re…

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SRM

Mar 9, 2017 18:43

How feasible is info attack on the Great Computer? I'm not just talking hacking. If you can talk to it over radio/ansible, is it intelligent enough to be confused/goaded/manipulated/tricked? Or is it just a dumb-but-complex machine?

Discussion on question by Pavel Janic…

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SRM

Mar 3, 2017 02:46

I am upset to discover that I cannot add a bounty to a question that already has a bounty. Apparently, this one is already bounty-ful. ;-)

Discussion on question by Deomachus: …

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SRM

Feb 12, 2017 16:57

@dot Type III implies ability to strongly model our actions in response to the book before they give it. So we will do whatever it is that the Type III intended when they gave us the text. There's nothing to model in history that approximates encounter with a Type III civilization.