#scifi technology

[tokumei1ka]

Cyber City

(Again)

I really like how this map isn't over-the-top with its sci-fi; it's realistic, as in most of our big cities will probably start looking like this soon.

[feuer-in-soho]

Its your kids favorite!

[whatcha-thinkin]

One version of teleportation technology is now available to everyone! Which would you want the most?

multiverse hopping - can always go somewhere new, can't return where you've been

planetary scale - can go to new planets but can't transit within a world

teleporter network - transit between constructed hubs that must be reached first

personal teleportation only works over line-of-sight distances

anywhere any time but no living creatures, only objects

anywhere any time but it costs you energy as if you'd walked

anywhere anytime but it's always a 24-hour process

anywhere any time but requires a vehicle proportionate to distance

teleportation moves at the speed of light but no awareness of transition

anywhere any time but a constant 0.1% chance traveler dies

this technology is too dangerous for anyone to use it responsibly

this technology is too dangerous for anyone to use it responsibly except me

Voting ended onSep 1, 2024

[infinitiastra]

Star Wars / Star Trek

So everyone has their own take on which is better (Star Wars or Star Trek), or who would win in a fight (Enterprise v. Star Destroyer), etc. I’d like to throw in my two cents. To start of my analysis, I’m going to assume that for all intents and purposes Star Wars and Star Trek exist in the same universe to maintain constant physics. I will also be ignoring statistics available on respective wikis for each fandom, as they are arbitrary at best and drastically misleading at worst. Hyperdrive - If you consider the mechanics of the hyperdrive relative to Star Trek technologies, I believe that the hyperdrive is approximately the same technology as a Quantum Slipstream Drive, seen in several episodes of Voyager. This eliminates the argument over which is faster - clearly ships in Star Wars are significantly faster to allow galactic scale transportation and economics. As such, civilization in Star Wars must have either skipped or developed past the warp drive.  Power Generation - Considering the reactors seen in both Star Wars and Star Trek, it is clear to me that Star Trek has the superior power generation technology. Star Wars requires a massive multistory power plant to run a Star Destroyer, while Star Trek uses a linear tube four or five stories long and a few meters in diameter to power a roughly equivalent (armament-wise at least) ship. This indicates to me that Star Wars likely utilizes advanced fusion technologies to produce power, while Star Trek extensively utilizes antimatter in numerous aspects of technology. As such, Star Trek likely has a technology that allows for easy production of antimatter that Star Wars lacks. This also explains the tendency for Star Wars ships to be either much larger or notably smaller than Star Trek ships - Larger ships need progressively larger reactors to power them while smaller ships use a lot of space to house their reactors (compare the Ghost to the Delta Flyer). 

-- More to come at a later date

[tokumei1ka]

Ice Horizon

[happter-n-friends]

Since mass and energy can be directly converted to one another, I think it could be cool if at some point in the future, we can figure out how to control enough energy well enough to make reliable 3D printers that can create things at the atomic scale that use pure energy as filament to print anything we can imagine where the only bounds are our imagination and the fine text of the universe's laws. We'd likely have to make a dyson swarm or two if we were to do this, because it takes an insane amount of energy to make a little bit of mass if I recall correctly. If we can get to this point, exploring the universe should be very easy.

Also on the topic of sci fi tech based on e=mc² energy/mass conversion, if we could harvest black holes' mass and convert their mass into energy, then black holes would be the ultimate battery since they're infinitely dense and can hold basically infinite energy. Like, if we could compress an entire galaxy cluster into a black hole, we'd probably have enough energy to reshape the whole universe however we want.

And since I'm already on the topic of super advanced future tech ideas, if we can master using wormholes, we can time travel to the past, almost. The first step, before we install the wormholes, is to develop a telescope that can perfectly analyze things hundreds of millions of lightyears away to the cubic millimeter or centimeter throughout the entirety of a planet. The next step is to install many wormholes many lightyears apart. Third, we send a telescope through every worm hole and point them all at the desired object. And finally, we install satellites to transmit each telescope's signals to Earth through the wormholes. Ideally, there'd be only a few seconds' delay from the furthest telescopes. It would work because, since things x light years away appear how they were x years ago, and with wormholes you could theoretically instantly pass objects and signals across millions of lightyears, then telescopes positioned 70 million light years away could look at Earth and show us what dinosaurs really looked like.

If we could even measure the position and type of everything atom-scale from that far away down to the hundred thousandth of a second, we could also measure the compression waves of the air and turn them into sound for us to hear dinosaurs from 70 million years ago. If we can make a room that's a dome covered in billions of tiny pixels that emit specific light in each direction, then we could make it look like we're really there like with the moon base from Steven Universe. You could buy a dome screen room add-on sold with different time periods on Earth if this technology were to be capitalized.

[ailelie]

If the technology to ever send a single thought or impulse to the past ever emerges, then I'll know I've done it.

When I was about 16, I was in a flirtation with a boy. We spent a lot of time together. He got along with my parents and siblings. We traded books and secrets. We hadn't kissed yet, but it was only a matter of time. I remember him leaning over me in my bedroom and I was so certain he was going to kiss me, but then he didn't.

Then, one day, I was standing alone in the middle of my room when, without any forethought or reason, I thought no. I hadn't been thinking of him. I hadn't been wrestling with the relationship or anything. But still the decision arrived fully formed and so forcefully I couldn't even imagine questioning it: no, he isn't what I want.

If we dated, it'd be something big. He was already too entangled with my family. Dating would only make it so much worse. As irrational as it may sound, dating him felt like deciding to remain in my hometown.

So...... I ghosted him. He was friends with my friends, but when he walked over to join our conversation at a hallway bench before school, I'd stand and walk away. When he approached, I left. Repeatedly. I answered none of his calls. I responded to none of his texts. I explained nothing. I had no idea how to explain.

I don't regret ending things before anything could develop, but I do regret my cruelty.

[scifigeneration]

Sci-Fi inspired tractor beam helps researchers boldly go where none have gone before

A light-driven energy trap similar to tractor beams used to capture spaceships in science fiction movies such as Star Trek and Star Wars has been developed by researchers in South Australia.

by Andrew Spence

The discovery is opening the way for new quantum experiments that may lead to new secure communications or advanced sensing technologies.

University of Adelaide researchers have created the infrared tractor beam – or light-driven energy trap – for atoms. But rather than sucking spaceships into a space station, their tractor beam pulls atoms into a microscopic hole at the centre of a special optical fibre.

Published in the journal Physical Review Applied, the researchers from the University’s Institute for Photonics and Advanced Sensing (IPAS) say this is the first time that scientists have been able to demonstrate a highly efficient ‘waveguide trap’.

The tractor beam works by the infrared light interacting with the atoms to create a change in energy that drives the atoms to the most intense part of the light beam.

PhD student Ashby Hilton developed the technology and said that although tractor beams in movies like Star Trek and Star Wars are green or blue, in this case the trap is made of invisible infrared light.

“The beam grabs hold of atoms that are floating in a chamber that is almost completely emptied of gas – a little sample of outer space on Earth,” he said.

The atomic chamber used to create the infrared tractor beam.

“Every atom that enters the tractor beam is pulled into the fibre – there is no escape.”

Once sucked into the interior of the optical fibre the atoms can be held for long periods of time.

“Our experiments show that we can very precisely control light to produce exactly the right conditions to control atoms.”

Lead researcher Dr Philip Light said the technology enabled the possibility of conducting quantum experiments on the trapped atoms.

“Our first experiments intend to use these stored atoms as elements of a quantum memory,” he said.

“We hope that our work may eventually form part of absolutely secure communications channel that is of obvious high interest to defence, intelligence and industry.”

The researchers are now moving onto the next stage in which the tractor beam is formed from a hollow cone of light rather than a solid beam of light. In this new configuration the atoms will be held at the centre of the light cone where it is perfectly dark.

“This is an extremely powerful idea – we can move and manipulate the atoms, but are able to shield the atoms from the disruptive effect of intense light,” said Dr Light.

The researchers have essentially created a quantum funnel which allows them to guide and trap atoms for longer without disrupting their delicate quantum state.

Institute for Photonics and Advanced Sensing Director Professor Andre Luiten said the researchers were manipulating and measuring individual atoms and molecules to sense the world around them.

“This new era of quantum sensing is opening up diverse new possibilities from attempting to detect disease through finding particular molecules in the breath, to assisting miners and defence by detecting anomalous magnetic fields associated with mineral deposits or covert submarine activity,” Professor Luiten said.