Questions tagged [technology]
For questions about the technology and its usage and knowledge of tools, techniques, crafts, systems or methods of organization in order to solve a problem or serve some purpose. Must be related to an on-topic work. Use this tag in conjunction with the tag of the work in question, e.g. [star-wars].
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Why are some space sci-fi movies have their tech look like from 1990s or 1980s? [closed]
In some spaceship/space sci-fi movies, I noticed that the tech seems old. They are thick heavy-looking hardware, while they should have been gone smaller and thinner considering what we experience in ...
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Does Star Wars have the technology for Matrix-style simulations?
I was watching a video from the Youtube channel, Modern Day Eratosthenes and the Youtuber gave an example of Star Wars style prosthetics as the technology necessary to create a simulated reality like ...
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Embedded black hole in a manned spaceship counteracts the propulsive force
A colleague of mine explained this concept in the early 1990s; he sounded like he read it in a (printed) sci-fi story: whether novel, novella, short story or radio-drama script I have no idea.
The ...
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How does magnetic sealing work in Star Wars?
In the original Star Wars, the trash compactor walls were magnetically sealed and when Han Solo tried to blast the wall, the blaster bolt ricocheted off the walls until it hit some detritus in the ...
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Earliest Depiction of Cultivated Meat in Science Fiction
I often see Mizora from 1880 thrown around as the earliest title where artificial/cultivated meat makes an appearance but I'm wondering if it was really the earliest. For instance, I know Winston ...
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What happens if a very heavy impact hits a person's Holtzmann shield?
The basic purpose of a personal shield is that it's bulletproof, transferring so little impact to the wearer that unlike modern body armour, the wearer isn't even knocked back or winded.
But ...
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Did Wells consider how the Martians would survive the trip to Earth?
Trying to answer this question, I was looking into how long the Martians' journey took in the first place, but the book seems to be quite vague about it - chapter 1 mentions that the construction of ...
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Why did Poké Balls not work in the seventh movie?
In the seventh Pokémon movie, Pokémon: Destiny Deoxys (2004), Poké Balls stop working after Deoxys fully awakens and his presence starts interfering with electronics.
I remember that there is a scene ...
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What are the names and scope of the components shown in these images?
I have noticed that on multiple images or miniatures, some tubes appear on the sides of a vehicle. I do not know the names or the scope of these items, but they appear on the vehicles.
Is it an ...
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Do Babylon 5 Starfuries shoot out radially?
I was rewatching some good old Babylon 5 episodes at the weekend and realised something I never thought about before.
It looks like the Starfuries shoot out radially from Cobra Bays at launch, like ...
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Looking for a specific book containing a collection of sci-fi stories and articles, one of which was about space cables
I have a vague recollection of reading about space cables in a chapter near the end of book which was a collection of stories. I think that this was at least 20 years ago.
"Space cables" are ...
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Story about a spacecraft that crash-lands on a planet with a civilization resembling Pre-Columbian era
I have read this book around 20 years ago, and the book was already quite old at that time so was likely written before 1990. Highly likely I have read it in Hungarian, but I'm unsure if the novel was ...
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Why do (Federation) starships need Bussard collectors in front of their warp nacelles?
Ever since Zephram Cochrane's first human-built warp-capable vessel, the Phoenix, Human ships with warp drives have had Bussard collectors placed in front of their warp nacelles.
Why are the Bussard ...
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How is Batman's grappling gun always loaded and ready to use, and never runs out of ropes?
One of the most identifiable gadgets of Batman is the grappling gun ("Bat-Rope"): a launcher that shoots a grappling hook and enables Batman to pull himself up to the rooftops.
However, in ...
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Book about a British boy from a futuristic world
It's a story about:
a boy called "Jay"
he has a sister who is apparently a hacker and can block the WiFi in specific places
and a mom who works for rich people
and a dad that works in a ...
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Batman cape as a glider and a bulletproof shield
In the most recent incarnation of Batman, namely in the film "The Flash" (2023) where he was portrayed by Michael Keaton, Batman has the most sophisticated and useful cape. The cape can turn ...
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Looking for title of story, probably sci-fi, about mentally declining man who built prompts allowing him to perform daily functions. Any help here? [duplicate]
I have no idea when it was written, nor when I read it, but it's been at least a couple of decades My memory is very vague on particulars, just that it seemed to be pretty prophetic, bringing to mind ...
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How could Mr. Fantastic’s computer see distant planets in real-time in Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer?
In Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, Galactus devastated a few planets before he came to Earth. Mr. Fantastic sees the surfaces of these planets in real time. That’s not really how telescopes ...
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Has there ever been a depiction of a futurist in Star Wars Legends or Canon?
I love futurism and even though Star Wars is more science-fantasy than sci-fi; they DO have technology and science and scientists are often featured in various stories. Philosophers are also mentioned....
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Short story by Ray Bradbury, man comes home to smart house, can't cope, takes a gun and shoots up the consoles, gets taken away by men in white coats
I'm looking for a short story by Ray Bradbury, in which man comes home to his "smart" house, he is greeted by the door, his living room offers him a drink.... Overwhelmed, he can't cope ...
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Who is responsible for making the time machine in the Terminator movies; humans or Skynet?
In the Terminator movies, Skynet is trying to kill Sarah and John Connor, sending various terminators from the future to hunt them down.
So my question is: who made the time machine to go back to past?...
user64716
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Please identify an Asimov short story that has a miniature typewriter
I recall an Asimov short story from the 1950s or before, in which a reporter character hides a mini-typewriter in a pocket, so he can surreptitiously type notes during an interview. It's a great ...
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Has transporter technology ever been used to fight Borg assimilation?
The transporter technology in Star Trek has been used in many fantastic plot fixes. People are stored in some kind of pattern and rebuilt. This process has been used to cure diseases such as the aging ...
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Earliest use of a prosthetic-integrated gun in speculative fiction?
We see this trope in comics and manga, and also in cyberpunk fiction, where characters have weapons integrated onto prosthetics, like arm cannons. It can sometimes even be a bit absurd, where guns are ...
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How do female Comonwealth citizens continue to have kids after rejuvenation?
In the Commonwealth saga, where as humans get older they start to seek rejuvenation to return to their biological twenties and effectively live forever, and in the Void trilogy where Biononics allow ...
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Are there sonic faucets?
Sonic showers are of course a well known and accepted technology in Star Trek, perfectly capable of replacing traditional water-based showers or baths (which may still be used recreationally.)
What ...
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Does Heinlein ever elaborate on the physics underlying Shipstones?
In Friday, Heinlein describes a device called a Shipstone, which is essentially a non-rechargeable battery with extremely high energy density. They are manufactured by some proprietary process, which ...
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Can the navigation shields resist lasers of any strength?
In The Outrageous Okana, it is described that lasers are ineffective against the Enterprise:
WORF: Still no response. Captain, they are now locking lasers on us.
RIKER: Lasers?
WORF: Yes, sir.
PICARD:...
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How fast does bacta heal cuts and minor injuries?
I remember that bacta was applied to the Mandalorian by IG-74 and he seemed healed almost instantly. Also in Star Wars Resistance; Katz applied bacta to a weak alien and he seemed good to go.
My ...
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If magic doesn't agree with Muggle technology, how does Arthur Weasley have a flying car that can turn invisible and drive itself? [duplicate]
I don't quite know the extended lore, but I'm pretty sure that it's established that the reason why we don't see modern weapons being used in the series is because magic and Muggle technology just don'...
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Even in the 1960s, was the UI/.computer systems of The Enterprise being criticized?
I am sure modern youngsters if they have the patience to watch STOS find the limitations of the Enterprise in some respects hilarious -- Yeoman Rand actually hands Kirk reports; the transporter seems ...
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At what point did Starfleet starships start recycling their waste in the Star Trek universe?
On the ISS (International Space Station), astronauts recycle some of their waste — only the kind they can yield water from. However, on the first Enterprise, this was clearly not the case. They ...
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What are droid brains made of?
Has a source ever confirmed what droid brains are made of?
Since Artificial Intelligence is likely extremely complex and energy consuming, I have my doubts that it's made of silicon, but I'd like to ...
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What does it mean to "bypass" a plasma relay or EPS conduit, etc.?
At various times in the Star Trek universe, somebody says they should bypass something like a plasma/EPS relay or conduit. What does such a "bypass" entail? Like, physically, what is ...
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What do we know of the technical advisors on ST:OS?
I think there is no doubt that the science in the science fiction of Star Trek in the 1960s was far superior to that found in any competing show. Some "science fiction" shows made no real ...
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Can K feel Joi's touch?
I believe she can actually light his cigarette, probably a function of the same lasers or whatever that project her being focused to cause heat (perhaps this would not work with the portable emanator)....
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What was the earliest fiction to use cloning as a magical ability/superpower?
I've seen media where a character is able to clone/replicate themselves in an instant. These clones help fight off enemies either directly, or serve as a distraction.
So I've wanted to know, what the ...
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What is hyperspace in Star Wars?
Is it teleportation, making a wormhole, or something else? Does it always exist and people just go into it, or does someone create it for themselves when they jump? Does it manipulate time?
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Semi-recent sci-fi movie where everyone is chipped and controlled by an evil corporation or government
I’m looking for a movie I watched within the last year (likely released within the last decade), where everyone is chipped, and is in-turn controlled by an evil corporation or government. People ...
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Scifi novel about two high dimension beings trapped on earth by a "jailer"
Looking for a recent novel about a pair of aliens who fight amongst each other and trapped on Earth as a result.
They try to escape, by nudging humanity towards discovering specific tech, and are ...
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Stargate teleportation vs Star Trek's: very different technology?
It is my impression from what little I know of Stargate is that their method of teleportation does something like warp space: there is no disassembly and reassembly of objects and beings and this ...
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Where did the idea of the ornithopter originate?
This question stems from a commonly depicted mode of transportation, the ornithopter. It is the primary flight tool in the latest Dune movie as well as seen in Black Panther and in several books I've ...
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Could the mobile emitter in Voyager be used by any program created on the holodeck?
In the Star Trek: Voyager episode, "Future's End, Part II", Voyager's EMH, the Doctor, was able to leave sickbay or the holodeck and roam freely with the help of a mobile emitter (the ...
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Do computer games still exist in Star Trek?
I don't remember, other than the TNG episode The Game, of any other types of video games in Star Trek.
Obviously, you can go into the holodeck, load up a simulation, and have fun, but consider the ...
user144649
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How do starships in orbit avoid mundane detection by pre-warp societies?
In the episode First Contact, the Enterprise is in orbit around the planet Malcor III, a pre-warp society that is planning to launch their first warp-capable vessel in a year. The implication behind ...
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What's the first appearance of monomolecular wire or nanofilament (extremely thin, superstrong, hence cuts almost anything)?
There's a pivotal scene in Larry Niven's short story, "The Borderland of Sol" in which Beowulf Shaeffer uses a length of Sinclair monofilament -- a monomolecular wire as strong as molecular ...
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Is the hyper drive a plot hole? [duplicate]
In The Last Jedi, Vice-Admiral Holdo kamakazis' her cruiser by jumping it to hyperspace through the enemy fleet, destroying it in the process.
This seems like an enormous plot hole. Why don't the ...
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In the DC universe, how do Zeta Tubes work?
In the DC universe, there is a means of travel called the Zeta Tubes.
How do they work (conceptually)?
Do they copy the info of what's in the origin, destroy its contents, and paste it at the other ...
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What is the earliest work of fiction featuring spaceships with shield technology?
I'm trying to figure out what is the earliest mention of shield technology in any work of fiction to feature spaceships that are protected by shields or any similar force field technology (think of ...
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Are self-sealing stem bolts a Star Trek in-joke?
During a scene in Star Trek: Discovery season 3 episode 6 "Scavengers", Burnham mentions self-sealing stem bolts. This item has had a few mentions in earlier Star Trek series, beginning with ...
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