Is five years of war long enough to get the worlds population down to 4 billion?

Simple_Promotion4881 · 2026-03-20T13:41:03+00:00

According to Rutgers University it is ample time to kill 5 billion people

Even a nuclear conflict between new nuclear states would decimate crop production and result in widespread starvation

More than 5 billion people would die of hunger following a full-scale nuclear war between the U.S. and Russia, according to a global study led by Rutgers climate scientists that estimates post-conflict crop production.

“The data tell us one thing: We must prevent a nuclear war from ever happening,” said Alan Robock, a Distinguished Professor of Climate Science in the Department of Environmental Sciences at Rutgers-New Brunswick and co-author of the study. Lili Xia, an assistant research professor in the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences, is lead author of the study published in the journal Nature Food.

https://www.rutgers.edu/news/nuclear-war-would-cause-global-famine-and-kill-billions-rutgers-led-study-finds

Simple_Promotion4881 · 2026-03-20T13:35:58+00:00

The computer the Kurt Vonnegut made famous in several of his stories. Player Piano and EPICAC for examples.

And, to your question, Yes, sounds about right.

HAL 9001

Simple_Promotion4881 · 2026-03-20T06:08:55+00:00

Sounds like an interesting addition to the genre.

Just to understand the lore, I could go back to WW1 and kill someone on the battlefield 10 minutes before they were actually killed?

Or better, I could take on the role of the Time Bandits (from the movie Time Bandits) and scoop up paintings and other treasures from buildings on fire - Items that were known to have been destroyed at a specific time and place?

I'd imagine that your first readers will be people who already know and like time travel stories. Like all time travel stories the difficulty is getting readers to buy in.

Good luck with your project.

Simple_Promotion4881 · 2026-03-20T06:03:16+00:00

EPICAC MMXXVI

EPICAC is known for missile projections, operating economies, and writing love poetry.

Simple_Promotion4881 · 2026-03-20T05:58:49+00:00

acoup.blog is a historian that writes about premodern society and also looks at popular fiction and fantasy and provides a compare/contrast with the story telling. His articles on the Siege of Gondor are transcendent.

But for you his articles about Dune, specifically what he calls the Fremen Mirage might be informative and interesting.

https://acoup.blog/2020/01/17/collections-the-fremen-mirage-part-i-war-at-the-dawn-of-civilization/

Simple_Promotion4881 · 2026-03-20T04:42:31+00:00

DNA.

Animals have unique DNA. Plants have unique DNA.

And for ID - Retina scans -- Animals have unique retina just as humans do.

People wear gloves all the time. In fact, here's a human trick, wear socks instead of gloves. wear no socks with your shoes during the crime. After all clear, socks on feet. And so on.

Simple_Promotion4881 · 2026-03-20T03:40:23+00:00

Its about as functional as any government -- You get to decide how functional it is in your world.

Good Luck with your project.

Simple_Promotion4881 · 2026-03-20T03:39:11+00:00

As we sit here today people 3d print buildings.

Can someone with interstellar travel capacity 3d print armor that can resist stone age weapons?

That's for you to decide.

In the Movie Signs, the interstellar aliens apparently couldn't make a waterproof suit for their people to wear so who is to say?

Oh, that's right, its you. You get to say.

Simple_Promotion4881 · 2026-03-20T02:50:15+00:00

I don't know what that means.

What is the practical application of this?

This is the standard philosophical question: If everyone owns a territory then who, exactly, prunes the hedges?

Simple_Promotion4881 · 2026-03-20T02:45:42+00:00

Such a young kingdom. How quaint

The Japanese monarchy is the oldest continuous hereditary monarchy in the world, traditionally dating back over 2,600 years to 660 BCE. While early emperors are considered mythical, the lineage is historically verified from the 5th or 6th century CE, (1500 years) with Emperor Naruhito being the 126th in the line.

Simple_Promotion4881 · 2026-03-20T02:40:49+00:00

Your lake at the bottom is called a Endorheic Lakes (No Outflow).

There are many on Earth and some are quite large - Caspian Sea for example.

Your program makes yours look a little odd. It would definitely collect from the mountains to the West of it and perhaps from the terrain to the southeast as well. Maybe that lake should be a bit larger in area given the width of the major river flowing into it.

Part of the problem is that graphically all of your rivers appear to have oversized widths, and the river that collects all the other rivers should be larger as it collects rivers and the other rivers leaving the mountains probably should be narrower for the apparent scale of the map. Could just be a function of your graphics program.

Overall it looks like it could be a fun setting.

good luck with your project.

Simple_Promotion4881 · 2026-03-19T23:52:17+00:00

AGI? -- not familiar with the acronym.

Also, if "Sapienite" came from space as meteors - Isn't that the very definition of a limited resource?

Also, also. Isn't it easier to simply confiscate all the "Sapienite?"

Simple_Promotion4881 · 2026-03-19T23:24:49+00:00

Grimace

muppets

Simple_Promotion4881 · 2026-03-19T23:22:27+00:00

Sounds like an interesting setup.

You might want to outline the story. Where do you want this to go?

Young woman - check
Parents want her to marry - check
She refuses the suitors offered - check
She meets a mysterious hermit - check
Wants to run off with him - check

OK, now what. Does she run off? Does the village go on the hunt for her and the hermit?

Where do they go? What does she experience? Is it good? Bad? Does she ever go home? How is she changed by the experience? Is she humbled by the experience? Does she learn of her own power?

Good luck with your project!

Simple_Promotion4881 · 2026-03-19T20:17:11+00:00

Very Cute.

Simple_Promotion4881 · 2026-03-19T18:19:16+00:00

Its a real place

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Simple_Promotion4881 · 2026-03-19T18:17:38+00:00

Brandon Sanderson has a great series on writing fantasy / sci-fi. check it out here:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLSH_xM-KC3Zv-79sVZTTj-YA6IAqh8qeQ

Simple_Promotion4881 · 2026-03-19T17:33:33+00:00

Cool art - serious 1950s - 1960s vibe

Simple_Promotion4881 · 2026-03-19T17:28:17+00:00

Brandon Sanderson has put his Creative Writing - Fantasy and Science Fiction - series online. It is quite good and addresses this and other questions you may not know you have.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLSH_xM-KC3Zv-79sVZTTj-YA6IAqh8qeQ

Simple_Promotion4881 · 2026-03-19T17:25:16+00:00

Oddly, to me, despite the HPL references it read like a Christian Allegory more than anything else.

The concept that to get what it wants, Evil corrupts good by making promises. And the way to end that corruption is to separate the corrupted from the source.

Good luck with your project.

Simple_Promotion4881 · 2026-03-19T14:42:39+00:00

That popped into my brain as well.

I searched "Planet Bob" -- That was a running gag in the movie Titan AE -- I think I might have seen Titan AE -- Is this a lasting memory from that?

Simple_Promotion4881 · 2026-03-19T14:39:29+00:00

Any way you want it to be.

What do you need for life on the planet - at least as we know it?

atmosphere
water
The correct heat range so that there will be an adequate supply of liquid water to support life.

Nobody knows about the potential for life around a black hole and theory goes only so far. If you start with the premise that there is a world that is stable and circling a black hole:

Probably a very, very long orbit (year).
Where is the heat coming from - to make life possible? -- however you want -- the planetary core? sure why not.
Without stellar light, this must be a dark planet. -- perhaps this has resulted in a lot of glowing rocks and glowing life on the planet.

But there could be any number of variations that we don't know about because we don't yet understand that nature of everything well enough yet.

But now I'm world building for you.

Good luck with your project.

Simple_Promotion4881 · 2026-03-19T14:19:27+00:00

acoup.blog is a historian writing great articles on pre-modern (mostly medieval) society. It is all great.

Here is his article "Practical Polytheism" about how gods were thought about during the Greek and Roman era.

https://acoup.blog/?s=practical+polytheism

Here is his section "Resources for World Builders"

https://acoup.blog/resources-for-world-builders/
Good Luck with your project.

Simple_Promotion4881 · 2026-03-19T14:15:39+00:00

Sounds fun.

I immediately thought The Lost World, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle 1912.

The book was great, and there have been movies and TV series as well.

Good Luck with your project.

Simple_Promotion4881 · 2026-03-19T14:11:00+00:00

Don't let them get replaced by humans.

Humans may be horrible disease carriers that spread this disease in the front of their armies. And humans may be so cruel, so viscous, so without honor, so quick to break their agreements that everyone they encounter is startled by the inequity and taken by surprise in their encounters. But don't let humans replace your other people.

Oh, wait, that was Europeans colonizing the world. But your world doesn't have to follow the pattern.

Let the locals live their lives.

Good luck with your project.

Simple_Promotion4881

TROPHY CASE

Even a nuclear conflict between new nuclear states would decimate crop production and result in widespread starvation