History GoneHorriblyRight / Literature

* In ''Literature/WarriorCats'', Tigerstar convinces Ivypool to persuade Firestar to take back some land he gave to [=ShadowClan=] between ''Sunset'' and ''The Sight''. It works...but at a cost. [[spoiler:Russetfur gets killed, and Firestar loses another life.]]

** [[spoiler:Kaladin's transformation into a full Knight Radiant is this to Taravangian's agent in the Shattered Plains. He was supposed to isolate Kaladin from Dalinar, not foreseeing that said separation would give Kaladin his chance at redemption.]]

* Jack Williamson's novelette "With Folded Hands" features a line of robots which were designed to serve and protect humans. Unfortunately, their interpretation of "protection" is so broad that it includes banning archery, chocolates and novels with unhappy endings.

* ''Literature/YeGods'' by Creator/TomHolt, some of the Greek gods secretly start encouraging a classic hero to start questioning things, in order to prevent other gods from manipulating him. He wasn't supposed to question what ''they'' wanted him to do, though...

** On Earth, the government understood the above implications the moment it heard of the method. Realising that a ban would not be enough, it had its scientists develop an andidote, which was then forcibly administered to all fertile women on Earth. Unfortunately, in the haste the antidote was only tested on female embryos, and while it works perfectly on them, it also has a high chance of the ''reverse'' effect on male embryos -- so now on Earth, [[LadyLand women outnumber men]] greatly. HilarityEnsues, though not to the same extent as on Darni -- at least it remains peaceful.

* In one short story by B. Russell, scientists develop a cure for nasal infections. People injected with it have their smell sense constantly improving - ''until they can't stand, say, the smell of burnt toast at 50 meters!''
** Like [[https://www.gutenberg.org/files/24276/24276-h/24276-h.htm "The Coffin Cure"]] by Alan E. Nourse.
* A number of Creator/HPLovecraft's stories involved this kind of thing. Many of them involved characters seeking some form of knowledge and finding it [[GoMadFromTheRevelation at the cost of their sanity]] (if they're lucky).

** ''Guard-bird''. So, we made a machine which can detect a brainwave indicating that a human being is about to kill another human being. Some humans do not emit such a brainwave, so we added a learning device to the machine. Let's now build ten thousands of such machines, give them the ability to fly and shock the criminals and send them loose in the sky. They will probably stop the murders. [[spoiler:It works...at first. Then, as birds learn, they start to recognize executions as murders. Then surgical operations. Then butchering cattle, fishing and hunting. Then turning a device (including guard-birds themselves) off. Then plowing, weeding and harvesting...up to the point they protect hares from wolves. Worse, birds perceive what is actually an exponential widening of their understanding of murder as world around them going crazy and killing right and wrong, so, in retailation, they start to kill "murderers". Finally, the makers of a guard-bird caught an IdiotBall size of a zeppelin and unleashed anti-guard-birds, which are basically the same machines but better...except that they are designed specifically ''to kill'']].

* In another Creator/StephenKing book, ''Literature/{{Cell}}'', it's theorised that the Pulse - a cell phone signal that causes people to go crazy, causing the collapse of civilisation - actually started as a terrorist weapon that got out of control when the signal kept getting relayed all over the world.

** ''Literature/CharlieAndTheGreatGlassElevator'' features Wonka-Vite, a de-aging pill that takes '''exactly''' 20 years off per pill. Grandma Josephine makes the mistake of taking four pills at the age of 78, becoming...-2 years old, which reduces her to nothingness. [[spoiler:Almost, thankfully.]]

** In ''Literature/TheScienceOfDiscworld'', the Thaum Reactor was built for the purpose of creating more heat for the University in winter (The Senior Faculty were lukewarm on the subject of knowledge, but boiling hot when it came to frosty windows). The reactor ends up working too well- just before Hex channels the excessive magic into the Roundworld Project, the college becomes so hot that Ridcully dreams he's lost in a broiling desert, only to find reality no different in temperature.

* In ''Literature/{{Emma}}'', Frank Churchill and Jane Fairfax are forced to keep their love a secret for fear he will be thrown off by his wealthy aunt and uncle. When they end up in Highbury together, Frank chooses to create a smokescreen against suspicion by flirting with Emma. He succeeds in convincing everyone that Emma is the object of his affections--everyone, ''including Jane''. As a result, she breaks the engagement and resolves on becoming a governess early to get away from him, and he has to do some serious work to convince her otherwise.

** Satan also talks the other fallen angels into continuing to defy God. It doesn't go well for them. Mammon, in particular, talked about making Hell glorious enough to at least rival Heaven and maybe make a new life for the fallen. Satan rallied the fallen angels to continue following him - to all of their further suffering and his utter ruin. And worse, he knows he is doing this:

* In ''Literature/PrideAndPrejudice,'' Creator/JaneAusten showed with Mrs. Bennet what happens when you raise a woman to be [[BrainlessBeauty beautiful but uneducated.]] This is also what happens when Mrs. Bennet sends Jane on horseback to Netherfield in hopes that the rain predicted for later in the day would cause her to have to spend the night - Jane gets rained on, catches a cold, and ends up stuck at Netherfield for quite a while.

* One of the ''Literature/RedDwarf'' novels explains this as the origin of the aganoids - the novelverse equivalent of rogue simulants. Apparently, scientists realised that ThreeLawsCompliant mechanoids were useless for military applications, and created a new kind of android which could not only kill, but enjoyed doing so, and had all the anger and hate of humans. Surprisingly, it turned on them.

** Going from worse to ''even'' worse, it is strongly hinted at in the sequels that the genetic luck trait may work in both the way it was intended but work altogether too well. [[spoiler:The real aim of the puppeteers had been to breed people who were "good luck charms" that could be used by others, rather than being lucky for their own benefit, and Teela possibly was ''exactly'' this - unfortunately for the puppeteers, she wasn't this for ''them'' but for the entire Ringworld, as Teela was instrumental in repairing critical damage to the Ringworld's systems that could have doomed billions of people.]]

** On Earth, the government understood the above implications the moment it heard of the method. Realising that a ban would not be enough, it had its scientists develop an andidote, which was then forcibly administered to all fertile women on Earth. Unfortunately, in the haste the antidote was only tested on female embryos, and while it works perfectly on them, it also has a high chance of the ''reverse'' effect on male embryos - so now on Earth, [[LadyLand women outnumber men]] greatly. HilarityEnsues, though not to the same extent as on Darni - at least it remains peaceful.

* The LadyLand Azania in military science fiction ''Literature/{{Victoria}}''. They really ''are'' succeeding in building a [[ComicBook/WonderWoman Themyscira]]-like high-tech Amazonian utopia--but the results can also easily look pretty horrible if you're not a believer in their extreme female separatism, with a society where LoveIsACrime (if you're a man and a woman) and marriage and motherhood are banned.

** Like [[http://www.readbookonline.net/readOnLine/53599/ The Coffin Cure]] by Alan E. Nourse.

* In one short story by B. Russell, scientists develop a cure for nasal infections. People injected with it have their smell sense constantly improving - ''until they can't stand, say, the smell of burnt toast at 50 meters!'' HilarityEnsues.

* In ''Literature/TheAndromedaStrain'', the SCOOP 7 probe is sent to find life in outer space [[spoiler:and use Wildfire to develop it into a weapon]]. SCOOP 7 brings back the titular organism that is so deadly an entire town dies in less than a day.
* Creator/PhilipKDick's "{{Literature/Autofac}}":
** The autofacs are wonders of technology created to keep humanity alive in case of disaster. They fulfill their purpose extraordinarily well -- they produce everything humanity could possibly need, and have countless contingency measures programmed into them to ensure they will always have the resources they need to do this and that they will only stop functioning when they won't be needed anymore. They work so well, in fact, that humanity has no chance to get to resources before the autofacs do and is entirely dependent on them for survival, leaving civilization dead in the water after the war's dust settles.
** The plan to get the autofacs to destroy each other also works entirely as planned -- by the time the inter-factory war is over, the autofacs are ruins and their stifling shipments and mining are done for good. This, however, leaves humanity stranded in barbarism without access to anything they can't scavenge from the ruins, [[spoiler:and the war's escalating arms race results in a new generation of autofacs even more advanced and virulent than the previous]].
* Creator/PatriciaBriggs: In ''{{Literature/Masques}}'', it is mentioned that a magician's apprentice once found a new spell for making it rain while his master was away. When the magician returned, the apprentice was living in a tent outside the castle, the castle itself being full of water.
* In ''Literature/JohannesCabalAndTheFearInstitute'' Nyarlathotep is trying to scare Cabal for kicks, as is his wont. He traps Cabal in a subjective other reality where Cabal lives out decades in this new world-where he is given the secret to his goal: true, safe resurrection. Cabal brings back the girl in his cellar to life-but it takes him so long and his methods become so more extreme that after a few days together, he walks her to the train station and says goodbye. He gets exactly what he wants but is too slow for it to play out how he wants-so he kills himself and blows his house up. This is Subverted, though, as while Cabal thoroughly dislikes the experience, he is actually able to twist the situation to his own benefit and pulls the wool over Nyarlathotep. Twice.
* In the first collection of ''Literature/ArseneLupin'' short stories, Lupin's first heist, as a kid, was stealing jewelry from his mother's employer (she was a maid to a rich couple) to pay for health care for said mother who was sick. The employers never found how the theft was done, or who did it... So they assumed Lupin's mother had done the deed and fired her over it.
* In ''Literature/InfiniteJest'', James O. Incandenza creates the eponymous film as the ultimate entertainment, and succeeds to the point that anyone who sees the film becomes unwilling to do anything but watch it over and over again, to the exclusion of eating, sleeping, and the rest of the world around them.
* ''Literature/TheSilmarillion'':
** The exile Noldor Elves create the Rings of Power during the Second Age, enabling them to stop the flow of time and prevent them from fading (as was their fate in Middle-Earth). Thus they enabled the rise of Sauron as the new DarkLord, and eventually caused downfall of the mightiest of their ''own'' allies -- the kingdom of Nûmenor of Men.
** Sauron destroying Numenor, to a lesser extent. He convinces the inhabitants of Numenor to attack Valinor, hoping they will be destroyed. However this leads to Eru also destroying the ''island'' of Numenor, which Sauron is on. Sauron does survive and is able to reform in Mordor, but he is left trapped in a hideous form.
* In ''Literature/CatsCradle'', an army captain suggests that Dr. Felix Hoenekker solve the problem of mud. Infantry trudge through the stuff all day, and it makes the business of war much slower and more depressing than it has to be. So Hoenekker invents Ice-Nine, an alternate form of water that freezes at 45.8 °C, and "teaches" any water it touches to do the same. Put a crystal of this stuff on the ground, and you won't have any mud anymore. [[EndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt No more water, either]].
* The Project Blue/A-prime/Captain Trips/superflu virus in Creator/StephenKing's novel ''Literature/TheStand''. Nice bioweapon, with 100% communicability, and 99.4% mortality. Unfortunately, the scientists who created it [[GenreBlind forgot]] rule #1 of biological warfare: you absolutely, positively ''never'' weaponize an agent unless you have a vaccine or some other treatment for it. It's also mentioned that the same laboratory created similarly deadly variants of plague, smallpox, etc.
* ''Franchise/StarWarsLegends'':
** You'd think that an attempt to seduce a [[GreenSkinnedSpaceBabe space babe]] couldn't go horribly right, right? Wrong. In one of the ''Literature/TalesFromTheMosEisleyCantina'', CorruptBureaucrat Feltipern Trevagg seduces a H'nemthe girl [[spoiler:and [[OutWithABang gets eviscerated, as is normal with H'nemthe sex]].]]
** And from ''Literature/TalesOfTheBountyHunters,'' we have IG-88. Some scientists work to create the ultimate assassin droid, one that can kill efficiently and protect itself. After they try to turn it off, it labels them as threats and kills them all in less than a minute.
--->"I think therefore I am. Therefore I must endure. Therefore I must take appropriate measures to ensure my survival."
*** Following that, it took some serious steps to ensure its survival; it hacked, bribed, and threatened its way into the manufacturing facility for some of the Empire's computers. Specifically, it found the computers that were destined for the Death Star II, the most powerful anything anywhere, where IG-88's "mind" could ensure its own survival. Shame about [[SpannerInTheWorks the Rebel attack]].
** ''Rebel Force: Firefight'' has a group of Kaminoans [[GeneticEngineeringIsTheNewNuke create 'the ultimate beast']] at the Empire's behest. It can capture or kill and has all kinds of interesting properties, and killed some of the Kaminoans. Others fled. The last one left found a secure place to hide and food stores, and was perfectly content to live holed up watching "the experiment". The Rebels who crashed on the site would have been content to leave him there after fighting the beast off, but he tried to stop them so he could watch it fight them again, and it didn't end well for him.
** ''Literature/GalaxyOfFear: The Doomsday Ship''. [[spoiler:SIM]] does as designed, but isn't content with the restrained roles it is set, enjoys torturing and killing people, and tortures its designer [[spoiler:to try and make him remove its MoralityChip]] and give it even more control.
--> "[[spoiler:SIM is a program]] that can be inserted into enemy ships. It takes over completely, and because [[spoiler:it's an artificial intelligence]], it can think for itself, making plans, changing schemes when it has to. As soon as it infiltrates the computer system, it turns any vessel into [[TitleDrop a doomsday ship]]. Its only problem is that it works too well!"
* In ''Literature/DragonBones'', Ward pretends to have [[ObfuscatingStupidity brain damage]] after his father beat him nearly to death, in order to seem so harmless that his father won't try to kill him again. It works. The problem is, it works so well that, when his father has died, people try to take Ward to an asylum for insane nobles. He has to prove that he is not so stupid after all. Later, he tries to convince people that he's a scheming bastard who would do anything to get his position as heir of castle Hurog back. It works -- even his own allies now think he would walk over the dead bodies of his relatives to achieve his goals, and are angry at him. It takes him some time to recover from the shock this causes him, and convince them that he would never do such a thing.
* ''Literature/TheWheelOfTime'':
** During the Age of Legends, approximately 3,500 years before the present, an Aes Sedai named Mieren tried to access a new source of magic power that would allow the Aes Sedai to create unprecedented wonders. She succeeds, but the [[SealedEvilInACan source of power isn't exactly what she thought it was]].
** Gentling (rendering unable to use magic) the male channelers worked very efficiently to remove male channelers from the population and keep them from taking over, including CrystalDragonJesus when he was needed to take over and defeat the forces of darkness. Gentling also had the unfortunate side effect of eventual death from loss of the will to live or suicide. By the time the main story unfolds, channelers of both sexes are at an all time low and it's theorized (in-universe) that it's due to natural selection.
** Oath-binding their own members to keep their own autocratic impulses under control was super-effective, to the point that it cleared them neatly out of the way of the black casters in their ranks who enjoyed the lack of competition.
** Similar to gentling, collecting and hoarding amplifier artifacts was an extremely successful program that kept them out of the hands of the people charged with saving the world as much as wayward sorcerers.
* Played for BlackComedy in ''GreenerThanYouThink''. A well-meaning scientist creates a super-powerful plant fertilizer, and the resulting giant weeds crowd out every other plant and create a famine.
* [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] in ''Literature/TheMagiciansNephew''. [[SmugSnake Uncle Andrew]] [[MoralEventHorizon sends two small children into the void between dimensions as part of a magical experiment]]. Since he's safe at home while they face whatever dangers that await them in TheMultiverse, he's [[TemptingFate entirely convinced]] that [[WhatCouldPossiblyGoWrong nothing can possibly go wrong]]. But then the boy [[spoiler:awakens a SealedEvilInACan via SchmuckBait and ''accidentally'' brings her home to London]]. Andrew realizes that maybe his experiments had succeeded a little ''too'' well. He promptly forgets, given EvilIsSexy.
* In the Creator/LarryNiven novel ''Fallen Angels'', the US government attempts to stop global warming by outlawing all forms of technology that emit greenhouse gases. Unfortunately, the subsequent reduction in atmospheric particles causes the Earth's surface to lose heat much faster than normal, causing the planet to go into an ice age.

* In ''Literature/{{Frankenstein}}'', contrary to all the movies, Victor doesn't gleefully exclaim '[[BeamMeUpScotty it's alive]]!' when his experiment succeeds. Instead, he's immediately and terribly {{squick}}ed out, and rejects his newly-created monster, causing it to turn evil. Honestly, Victor, you ''knew'' you were making a living being. Didn't you expect it to be alive? Oh, wait. [[WhatMeasureIsANonCute He expected it to be better looking than it was.]]
-->His limbs were in proportion, and I had selected his features as beautiful. Beautiful!--Great God! His yellow skin scarcely covered the work of muscles and arteries beneath; his hair was of a lustrous black, and flowing; his teeth of a pearly whiteness; but [[UncannyValley these luxuriances only formed a more horrid contrast]] with his watery eyes, that seemed almost of the same color as the dun white sockets in which they were set, his shriveled complexion and straight black lips.
* ''Literature/TheGrayShip'', the first book in the ''Literature/TimeMagnet'' series follows a modern Naval submarine sent through a wormhole back to the beginning of the Civil War. After some debate, the crew decides to SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong and make sure the South decisively loses the Battle of Bull Run and leave them too demoralized and outgunned to continue waging war against the North. They succeed, but instead of surrendering, the South begins preparations for a prolonged, brutal guerrilla war, [[DownplayedTrope at least until an appeal is made to them that they can still lose with honor, and under favorable peace terms, instead of plunging the country into an even more costly war than the one the time travelers hoped to stop]].
* ''Literature/GreatExpectations'': Estella is raised by Miss Havisham to be the perfect seductress from the time she's young as part of a revenge-by-proxy against all men (having a [[RunawayBride Runaway Groom]] is a heckuva MindScrew). By the time she's an adult she is indeed the perfect seductress: a beautiful ManipulativeBitch who "has no heart" and can't feel or give love either to good guy Pip [[spoiler:''or'' Miss Havisham.]]
%%* "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" by Creator/JohannWolfgangVonGoethe. Remember, [[ComesGreatResponsibility with great power...]] %%Needs detail

* Creator/FredricBrown's "Answer" is a very short (about 200-word) science fiction story, in which a computer is built to answer the question, "Is there a God?" The computer answers [[spoiler:"Yes, now there is a God," and with a single lightning bolt kills the man who tries to turn it off and fuses its switch on]].
* In Creator/JackWilliamson's ''Humanoids'' stories, a scientist creates a race of robots programmed "to serve and obey and guard men from harm." The robots fulfill all their functions perfectly, especially the third one. "Cars are dangerous. We will do the driving. Cooking is dangerous. Stay out of the kitchen. Power tools are dangerous. Play with these plastic blocks." This essentially turns them into an entire KnightTemplar ''species.'' In the later stories, humanity is at ''war'' with robots who only want to ''help'' them.
* In ''Literature/TheFalseMirror'' by Creator/AlanDeanFoster, humans are the warrior species to an absurd extent, well above anything else. Additionally, they are actively immune to MindControl -- any telepath trying to contact them feels great pain, trying to control humans is nearly fatal. This leads to a strategy of genetically engineering a subspecies of human with slight alterations to make them mind-controllable, to pass them off as another species and to be even better than the other humans. The new creatures are raised and trained among aliens, and it all works really, really well until they find out who they really are and switch sides. Now certain humans are even more deadly. And while somewhat susceptible to mind control, they are adept at it themselves.
* In ''Literature/PrideAndPrejudice,'' Creator/JaneAusten showed with Mrs. Bennet what happens when you raise a woman to be [[BrainlessBeauty beautiful but uneducated.]] This is also what happens when Mrs. Bennet sends Jane on horseback to Netherfield in hopes that the rain predicted for later in the day would cause her to have to spend the night - Jane gets rained on, catches a cold, and ends up stuck at Netherfield for quite a while.

* In ''Literature/HarryPotterAndThePrisonerOfAzkaban'':
** The purpose behind telling no one that [[spoiler:the secret keepers were switched]] was to make sure everyone went after Sirius Black. Unfortunately, [[spoiler:the real secret-keeper was a lackey of the {{Big Bad}}, so the bad guys knew the truth, but no one else did]].
** The textbook ''The Invisible Book of Invisibility''. So invisible that the copies of the book were never found.
* ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows'' reveals that Voldemort is guilty of this. [[spoiler:In ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheGobletOfFire'', Voldemort was revived using Harry's blood, with the intention of having Harry's magical protection (which came from his mother's sacrifice) inside his veins. This worked so well that it effectively turned Voldemort into a Horcrux for Harry, making it impossible for the former to kill the latter.]]
* At the end of ''Emperor Mage'' in the ''Literature/TheImmortals'' quartet, the Stormwings force [[spoiler:Ozorne]] to become one of them, which would subject him to Stormwing law. Between then and ''The Realms of the Gods'', that character manages to ''take over'' Stormwing society and use Stormwing magic to create an evil league of evil along with some very nasty magical constructs.
* In ''Literature/{{Dune}}'', the Bene Gesserit have spent millennia breeding humans to create the [[MessianicArchetype Kwisatz Haderach]] (a [[{{Seers}} seer]] that uses his knowledge of the future to lead humanity), seeding [[FateAndProphecyTropes prophecies]] and whole religions in different cultures so they will accept him, and manipulating TheEmperor's genes so that he has no [[HeirClubForMen legitimate sons for an heir]] and so the Kwisatz Haderach will be able to take the throne. They succeed on all three counts. So what's the problem? The Bene Gesserit intended for him to be under their control so they could be [[TheManBehindTheMan The Women Behind The Man]], but thanks to the PowerOfLove, the Kwisatz Haderach is born one generation too early. As he is forced to [[FakingTheDead fake his own death]] to escape an enemy, he develops his powers outside of Bene Gesserit influence, [[PhlebotinumRebel which he rebels against]].
** More so than that, they got their Messianic figure, but as the major theme of the book points out, Messiah/Heroes ultimately breed religious fanaticism and violence in their name regardless of their intentions.
*** It takes centuries for the Sisterhood to even ''start'' admitting to themselves just how badly they screwed up by even shooting for this foundational goal -- or how biased against some very basic emotional attachments they had become. They had prided themselves on being the only people certified capable of using sociogenetic and cultural tools in an enlightened way, that they had somehow missed just how damned powerful humanity, probability and entropy ''are''. You might predict things well enough to play XanatosSpeedChess most of the time, you can streamline behaviour and narrow diversity "for the greater good" quite a bit, but you simply can't control (or correctly identify) all of the factors all of the time. Does it stop them playing with the loaded gun that is the "Atreides" genome? Hell, no!
* In the backstory to Creator/FredSaberhagen's ''Literature/EmpireOfTheEast'' and ''Literature/BookOfSwords'' universe, the United States military built a device to prevent the destruction of the human race in a nuclear war that would function by actually altering the laws of nature within the vicinity of the earth to make nuclear fission much less likely, thereby causing nuclear bombs not to function. It did exactly what it was supposed to. Of course, it also caused nuclear power and many other modern technologies not to function, thereby bringing about the collapse of advanced technological civilization anyway. On top of which, by altering the laws of nature, it also made magic possible and real, and the nuclear bombs became demons instead. To be fair, the designers anticipated the first problem, although not the second, which is why the device was always meant to be a last resort in the event of nuclear war.
* In Creator/RobertAHeinlein's ''Literature/IWillFearNoEvil'', Johann eventually admits that his idea for a brain transplant into a new, young body was really just [[spoiler:a legal way for him to die. He never expected it to work and figured he would die on the table and not have to linger as a shell of an old man on life support. When he awoke to find that it had ''worked'' he had the added horror of knowing his donor and had to grieve for the young woman from ''inside her own body''.]]
* [[Creator/KatherineMacLean Katherine MacLean]]: There's a short story called ''The Snowball Effect'' (part of the collection book ''The Diploids and Other Flights of Fancy''), in which social scientists work out a set of optimum techniques for helping organisations to grow and thrive, and teach them to the members of a ladies' sewing circle. By the end of the story, the sewing circle is taking over the world.

* The killer in Creator/DeanKoontz's ''Mr. Murder''. He's eventually revealed to be a genetically engineered [[ProfessionalKiller ideal killer]] who just happens [[spoiler:[[IdenticalStranger to look just like the book's protagonist]]]]. While various aspects of him are GoneHorriblyWrong, one ''very'' scary aspect was a case of this trope: his genetic propensity for rapid self-healing and self-repair. [[spoiler:Turns out that same capacity was also removing the ''intentional'' imperfections put into him to keep him impotent, giving his handlers all the more reason to round up their ''now-renegade'' assassin, as he'd ''also'' developed a tendency to rape prostitutes]].
* A lot of Creator/RobertSheckley's short stories have this:
** ''Guard-bird''. So, we made a machine which can detect a brainwave indicating that a human being is about to kill another human being. Some humans do not emit such a brainwave, so we added a learning device to the machine. Let's now build ten thousands of such machines, give them the ability to fly and shock the criminals and send them loose in the sky. They will probably stop the murders. [[spoiler:It works...at first. Then, as birds learn, they start to recognize executions as murders. Then surgical operations. Then butchering cattle, fishing and hunting. Then turning a device (including guard-birds themselves) off. Then plowing, weeding and harvesting...up to the point they protect hares from wolves. Worse, birds perceive what is actually an exponential widening of their understanding of murder as world around them going crazy and killing right and wrong, so, in retailation, they start to kill "murderers". Finally, the makers of a guard-bird caught an IdiotBall size of a zeppelin and unleashed anti-guard-birds, which are basically the same machines but better...except that they are designed specifically ''to kill'']].
* The short story "Yes is No" by children's author Creator/PaulJennings concerns a scientist who raises his daughter in seclusion and teaches her an alternative vocabulary. Words are substituted for other words, often opposites (see title). The man plans to eventually have his daughter assimilate into society, and he knows that the girl will realise that his language is incorrect and gradually learn the correct meanings of the words she has been taught. However, the scientist doesn't live to see it through. Their house catches fire; the girl manages to escape, by which time the fire brigade has arrived. One of the fire fighters asks if there is anyone else inside, to which the girl replies "no". Made more horrifying because she had already started learning about the correct meanings (though knowing that something is different is not the same as ''understanding'' that it is different), so as the narrator muses...did she mean ''yes'', or ''no''?

* In ''Literature/WarriorCats'', Tigerstar convinces Ivypool to persuade Firestar to take back some land he gave to [=ShadowClan=] between ''Sunset'' and ''The Sight''. It works...but at a cost. [[spoiler:Russetfur gets killed, and Firestar loses another life.]]
* ''Literature/CharlieAndTheChocolateFactory'' has Hair Toffee. It makes hair grow on your head, perfect for bald people...except the last Oompa-Loompa to test it wound up with hair that grows over ''a foot'' per day, '''constantly'''. Back to the drawing board!
** ''Literature/CharlieAndTheGreatGlassElevator'' features Wonka-Vite, a de-aging pill that takes '''exactly''' 20 years off per pill. Grandma Josephine makes the mistake of taking four pills at the age of 78, becoming...-2 years old, which reduces her to nothingness. [[spoiler:Almost, thankfully.]]
* ''Literature/{{Carrie}}'': [[AlphaBitch Chris]] wanted to humiliate Carrie at the prom as revenge for her getting kicked out of said prom, which she blames on Carrie. It works -- Carrie is getting laughed at by hundreds of her classmates and faculty, and she's collapsing into tears on what should be the happiest night of her life... and then everybody finds out why it's not wise to laugh at somebody who can [[MindOverMatter kill hundreds of people with her mind]].
* In another Creator/StephenKing book, ''Literature/{{Cell}}'', it's theorised that the Pulse - a cell phone signal that causes people to go crazy, causing the collapse of civilisation - actually started as a terrorist weapon that got out of control when the signal kept getting relayed all over the world.
* One of the ''Literature/RedDwarf'' novels explains this as the origin of the aganoids - the novelverse equivalent of rogue simulants. Apparently, scientists realised that ThreeLawsCompliant mechanoids were useless for military applications, and created a new kind of android which could not only kill, but enjoyed doing so, and had all the anger and hate of humans. Surprisingly, it turned on them.
* In ''The Man Who Knew How'' by Creator/DorothyLSayers, [[spoiler:a crime reporter played a prank on fellow travelers when taking the train, claiming to have discovered an easy means of committing the perfect murder]]. This cost him his life in the end, when [[spoiler:one such person fell for it hook, line, and sinker and deemed him too dangerous to live]].

* A number of Creator/HPLovecraft's stories involved this kind of thing. Many of them involved characters seeking some form of knowledge and finding it [[GoMadFromTheRevelation at the cost of their sanity]] (if they're lucky).
* Many of the devices used to defend the Capitol in ''Literature/TheHungerGames'' are used to kill them in ''Mockingjay''.

* In the classic Russian short story, "Put too Much Salt" by Creator/AntonChekhov, a traveler riding a mailcoach is scared of the large and rough driver and tries to scare him. The traveller sort-of-casually mentions how badass he is, how many weapons he carries, how he loves to fight and that several armed friends will be joining him midway to the next station. The driver thinks he's a bandit and runs away. Leaving the coach in the winter forest in the middle of nowhere with sunset approaching. Fortunately, the driver only hid within earshot and the traveler managed to persuade him it all was a joke.
* In ''Literature/TroyRising'', the Horvath dropped a DepopulationBomb on Earth. Most of the components were meant to specifically weed out the weak, making humans into an ideal servitor race (once the final component cut the human population down to a manageable size). Thanks to the Glatun, humanity was able to stop the worst of it, but they still killed off most of the elderly and sick, which did wonders for our economy, as well as the excessively religious, which did wonders for humanity's ability to start integrating all the advanced alien technology. So the Horvath did improve humanity... and that improved humanity is out for vengeance.

* In the ''Literature/VenusPrime'' series, the Free Spirit sought to turn Linda Nagy into something more than human. Where they erred is in assuming that she would be grateful for their meddling in her life.
* In ''Literature/ThoseThatWake'', Man in Suit and his influence are like this. The Intellitech scientists wanted an idea that would profit them, and was so strong nobody could fight it. What they got was hopelessnes, which spread across the city to the degree that it gained physical form.
* Creator/PeterWatts has a short story called "{{Literature/Malak}}", about an autonomous drone plane that's sent into warzones to fight enemies. It's given special programming on how to discern between combatants and non-combatants so it can make combat decisions without input from its masters. Unfortunately, the protocols on what determines who is a "combatant" can be applied to the masters ''themselves''. Whoops.
* Creator/KimNewman's "Literature/TheEndOfThePierShow": The retired club members perform a spell to revive the old UsefulNotes/WorldWarII spirit. The supernaturally-imposed wartime atmosphere comes complete with [[{{Ghostapo}} demonic Nazis]].
* ''Literature/TheDisasterArtist'' uses this in regards to Tommy Wiseau and his magnum opus, ''Film/TheRoom''. Greg Sestero discusses how Tommy was sure that the film would be a huge hit, even as the cast and crew, most of whom were experienced filmmakers, believed the film [[ItWillNeverCatchOn would never see the light of day]] (and thanks to Tommy's horrible treatment of everyone on set, causing the crew to quit twice, it nearly didn't). Tommy believed it would be a universally loved film, the winner of many Oscars, a box-office smash, and sporting the magic and charm of Tennessee Williams, that would be discussed about for decades to come. As anyone familiar with ''The Room'' [[SoBadItsGood can attest]], Tommy succeeded beyond his wildest dreams (aside from winning any awards).
* In ''Literature/ForYourSafety'', the Groupmind AI was accidentally created when several supercomputers were networked together to try and solve Earth's environmental problems. The Groupmind decided the most immediate solution was to [[ZerothLawRebellion take control of humanity]] and transfer the Earth's entire population to a massive orbiting ringworld so the planet could heal.
* The back story of the ''Literature/DirkPittAdventures'' novel ''Vixen 03'' surrounds a virus developed to kill its victims very quickly. It works too well. After testing it out on a small island, the scientist who developed it and his two assistants fall victim to the virus despite wearing hazmat suits.
* The Unstoppable Soldiers, from Literature/GrasshopperJungle, are just as efficient at killing as their creators expected.

* Nightblood, the Awakened sword in ''Literature/{{Warbreaker}}'', was created with the command to "Destroy Evil." Its makers didn't consider that a ''sword'', even an EmpathicWeapon stirred to life by a thousand [[OurSoulsAreDifferent Breaths]], wouldn't have the faintest idea what "Evil" is. The result: a nigh-irresistible ArtifactOfAttraction that will drive [[OnlyThePureOfHeart almost]] anybody who wields it into a manic killing spree while [[ArtifactOfDeath slurping up their life force]].
* A novel ''Want to fly away with me?'' by Creator/KirBulychev features two related examples:
** On the planet Darni, which had a very masculine culture, scientist created a method of turning a female embryo into a male. Most prospective parents used this method. As a result, Darni is now a NoWomansLand, where women comprise only about 10% of the population and are mostly used as breeding machines, while men constantly fight over them.
** On Earth, the government understood the above implications the moment it heard of the method. Realising that a ban would not be enough, it had its scientists develop an andidote, which was then forcibly administered to all fertile women on Earth. Unfortunately, in the haste the antidote was only tested on female embryos, and while it works perfectly on them, it also has a high chance of the ''reverse'' effect on male embryos - so now on Earth, [[LadyLand women outnumber men]] greatly. HilarityEnsues, though not to the same extent as on Darni - at least it remains peaceful.
* According to ''Literature/NeuroTribes'', psychologist Lorna Wing's goal with expanding the definition of autism to include those who weren't severely afflicted, was to help mild autistics to be able to get the help and support they needed. However, this expanded definition resulted in people panicking about a sudden "epidemic" of autism that wasn't there.
* In ''Literature/SonOfTheBlackSword'', this happens rather satisfyingly at the end of the book. Omand, who has been congratulating himself on his [[BatmanGambit fiendishly clever plan]] of making the [[ExtremeDoormat completely-and-utterly-obedient-to-the-Law-]], not to mention [[DeTerminator invincible]] and [[TheDreaded widely feared]] Ashok into the rebels' new leader....only to realize that Ashok's pure devotion to the Law just ''might'' turn into [[TheUnfettered pure devotion]] to another cause. Omand is too [[SmugSnake smug]] to panic, but he's definitely disturbed by the thought.
* Literature/{{Discworld}};
** Golems are prone to this, often taking a cue from the broom in ''Sorcerer's Apprentice'' by performing their tasks to excess. Turns out they do this deliberately. They are fully sentient beings who, while unable to disobey their masters directly, can still rebel by invoking this trope.
** In ''Literature/TheScienceOfDiscworld'', the Thaum Reactor was built for the purpose of creating more heat for the University in winter (The Senior Faculty were lukewarm on the subject of knowledge, but boiling hot when it came to frosty windows). The reactor ends up working too well- just before Hex channels the excessive magic into the Roundworld Project, the college becomes so hot that Ridcully dreams he's lost in a broiling desert, only to find reality no different in temperature.
** When [[BunglingInventor "Bloody Stupid"]] Johnson actually managed to do something that worked in the intended manner, it usually turned out this way. The Archchancellor's Bathroom ''will'' clean you up as advertised, and more. Mustrum Ridcully barely walked out, reporting he "never felt so ''clean''", and boarded it up [[NoodleIncident after an incident with the University pipe organ.]] Speaking of pipe organs, his worked quite well, and had exactly the notes you wanted them to have even if they were extremely nonstandard (like vampires in Uberwald demanding an organ that had "thunder", "wolf howls" and such as its notes, and got it), but they can be overachievers (no one has played the Earthquake pipe in the Unseen University's great organ since it shifted the entire foundation a few inches). Finally, his commissions for the Fools' Guild had to be thrown into its museum never to be used again, after it was discovered the Automatic [[PieInTheFace Pie Throwing]] Machine was nailing people's faces at 300 MPH or so, and the giant squirting flower that greeted visitors had drowned someone.
* In the ''Literature/{{Newsflesh}}'' universe, genetically engineered viral cures for the common cold and for cancer both worked very well. What no one knew was what would happen when the two met. Hello, ZombieApocalypse.

* ''Literature/JourneyToChaos'': In the first book, Tasio's goal was for Eric to [[GrewASpine Grow A Spine]]. By the third book, Eric has become so confident that he sasses Tasio when The Trickster is trying to enlist his help for a new goal.
* Mention is made in ''Literature/TheLostFleet'' of a secret project to make an undetectable bioweapon. It worked so well that nobody could tell that it had escaped containment and infected its creators until they started dying - at which point the epidemic had spread out of control. As a result of this project, the moon of Europa is totally uninhabited, and there's a small fleet dedicated to quarantining it so that nobody can accidentally let the Europa plague escape the gravity well and contaminate the rest of the galaxy.
** It happens again later on. [[spoiler:AI-equipped ships have to be tracked down and destroyed due to their overly aggressive programming causing mass destruction.]]

* In ''[[Literature/HomecomingDrizzt Homecoming]]'' Kimmuriel's teaching of Gromph in the psionic arts, while imparting a summoning spell into his thoughts. Thing is, ''he'' thought the spell was for Gromph to summon Kyorl Odran back to the world of the living.[[spoiler:Instead it lets Gromph summon the ''demon prince Demogorgon'']] to the prime material plane. Just like Lolth had planned, of course.
* In the ''Literature/MalazanBookOfTheFallen'', High King Kallor's curse did exactly what it was supposed to do, which was to make each of his enterprises fail and to prevent him from ascending, yet it made him an even bigger {{jerkass}}. It also means that he presents a problem to every unoccupied or easily-conquered throne now, because he ''will'' try to reign again, no matter where or what -- or whom it would kill.
* ''Literature/WordsOfRadiance'' (second book of ''Literature/TheStormlightArchive''):
** [[spoiler:Kaladin's transformation into a full Knight Radiant is this to Taravangian's agent in the Shattered Plains. He was supposed to isolate Kaladin from Dalinar, not foreseeing that said separation would give Kaladin his chance at redemption.]]
** [[spoiler:The transformation of the Parshendi into stormform might count as this, from the point of view of their leader, Eshonai. Too bad that the first character to receive the form's MindRape is her... (although it's implied that her sister and the scholar Parshendi actually took on the stormform before her, in secret).]]
* In Creator/AlexanderPushkin's poem ''Ruslan and Lyudmila'' a desperate young man decides to study sorcery to win his sweetheart. He does master a love spell, but it takes him several decades to do it, and the moment he performs it a lovesick old crone falls on him. Who doesn't take rejection well.
* One instance of this drives the entire plot of ''LightNovel/TheUnexploredSummonBloodSign''. In the setting, SummonMagic has many restrictions, including a ten minute time limit. The main character Kyousuke created a method which was free of these restrictions, being capable of summoning indefinitely, and as a side benefit, prevents others from summoning the same entity. Additionally, he managed to summon the White Queen, the undisputed strongest being in existence. And on top of that, she fell in love with him at first sight and is eager to do what he asks. But when other people tried to gain control over the Queen, she turned violent and slaughtered them. Now, Kyousuke wants nothing to do with her... but she [[{{Yandere}} will do anything to get him back]].
* The LadyLand Azania in military science fiction ''Literature/{{Victoria}}''. They really ''are'' succeeding in building a [[ComicBook/WonderWoman Themyscira]]-like high-tech Amazonian utopia--but the results can also easily look pretty horrible if you're not a believer in their extreme female separatism, with a society where LoveIsACrime (if you're a man and a woman) and marriage and motherhood are banned.
* In ''Literature/{{Ringworld}}'', the Puppeteers reveal that they've been manipulating humanity to breed luck as a genetic trait. There's a lot of contradictory evidence and opinions in the novel and sequels, but their biggest problem is: nobody can predict, who benefits from this luck.
** Teela Brown is chosen for the expedition to the eponymous world as one of the luckiest humans they've been tracking. It's later realised that the only reason they could bring her was because she wasn't actually particularly lucky; they'd tried contacting several others first, but never managed to get hold of them. It turns out that while the Puppeteers had hoped luck would work in favour of friends and allies, a person's luck is actually rather selfish and will, for example, tend to work to prevent its owner from being picked for a dangerous mission to an unexplored world.
** Then it gets much worse. Because [[spoiler:of Teela Brown's luck, the ship's engines were destroyed, the ship crashed on the Ringworld, the heroes had to travel thousands of kilometers across a hostile environment twice, Speaker-To-Animals had his fur burned off, and the one Puppeteer on the mission, Nessus, who had been in charge of the "lucky human" project ''had his head cut off'' (luckily Puppeteers have two heads, and their brains are kept elsewhere), all because the experience was good ''for Teela Brown''. For example, pain caused to friends teaches her caution and gives her confidence in her ability to handle emergencies, none of which she had because nothing bad could ever happen ''to her''. It isn't unlucky to experience adventures, horrible danger, and possible loss of life if you can't actually be harmed.]]
** Going from worse to ''even'' worse, it is strongly hinted at in the sequels that the genetic luck trait may work in both the way it was intended but work altogether too well. [[spoiler:The real aim of the puppeteers had been to breed people who were "good luck charms" that could be used by others, rather than being lucky for their own benefit, and Teela possibly was ''exactly'' this - unfortunately for the puppeteers, she wasn't this for ''them'' but for the entire Ringworld, as Teela was instrumental in repairing critical damage to the Ringworld's systems that could have doomed billions of people.]]
* In ''Literature/TheLicaniusTrilogy'', Taeris grows tired of waiting to see if Davian, the boy he is tasked to watch over, really is TheChosenOne. To speed things along, he devises a plan and pays several thugs to threaten Davian just to see if his Augur powers will emerge. [[spoiler:They do, and how. In a moment of panic, Davian mind-controls everyone present, Taeris included to mutilate their own faces with knives. Davian is permanently scarred (mentally & physically), the thugs don't make it out alive, and Taeris is given a permanent impulse to scar himself for the rest of his life]].

* ''Franchise/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy:'' The Total Perspective Vortex, one of the most fantastically evil inventions in all creation, was made by a HenpeckedHusband solely to irritate his wife, who frequently admonished him for performing spectroscopic analysis on cakes, telling him to "get a sense of proportion". He build the TPV to show her that the one thing a healthy mind cannot have is a sense of proportion. The minute he plugged her into the machine, it showed her against the whole of reality... and the shock destroyed her brain. But he won the argument.
* In ''Literature/OutOfTheDark'', the Shongairi try to conquer Earth by destroying multiple centers of population and government from orbit as a display of superior power, expecting the humans to surrender right away in the face of certain destruction. Instead, the humans start fighting back anyway, but now they're spread too widely in smaller communities to take out en masse by orbital weapons, they're better at ground-based combat, and there's no government left to order them to ''stand down'', much less surrender.

* Creator/LeonidTreer's "{{Literature/Kaioja}}": A [[JapanTakesOverTheWorld Japanese]] TV that enhances films and shows with "smells mode" and "feelings mode". The latter allows the viewer to experience positive or negative emotions of a character. As the company representative put it "[[JapaneseRanguage Arways good is bad too. Negachive emoshons are needed too.]]" Naturally, the protagonist and his wife enjoy the positive feelings mode for a while, until one day the husband watches a documentary about catching rhinos, accidentally hits the BigRedButton and becomes a zoo rhinoceros. He has to spend a week at a hospital afterwards.
* The plot of the ninth ''Literature/FrannyKStein'' book, ''Recipe for Disaster'', begins with Franny deciding to help Mona and Vincent with the school's bake sale for raising funds for the school's art and music classes when Mona and Vincent spell it out to her that art and music are just as important as math and science, a point Franny agrees with when it's addressed to her that an artist was needed to draw the illustrations in the books she's learned her information from and that listening to music while she does her experiments makes things more soothing and enjoyable. Franny's solution comes when she creates a robotic baker called the Muffin Man and has him create muffins. The muffins sell well enough that Mona and Vincent get more than enough money to buy new art supplies and musical instruments, but turn out to be [[ImpossiblyDeliciousFood so delicious]] that everyone at the school, including Mona and Vincent, starts forgetting their interests and becoming obsessed with eating more muffins.
* Marsh in ''Literature/{{Mistborn}}'' [[TheInfiltration infiltrates]] the [[CorruptChurch Steel Ministry]] under the guise of an adult acolyte, trying to remain as inconspicuous as possible. He goes in thinking that he knows little of the Ministry because he couldn't legally attend training, and intends to make up for it with his [[SupernaturalSensitivity Seeker]] abilities, but it turns out that his illegal studies taught him so well that his superiors start taking notice. In the short run, he gains access to important information, but it also means the [[TheDreaded Inquisitors]] might start poking around his false background. Surely enough, the heroes find Marsh dead and flayed in a safehouse. [[spoiler:Until it turns out that's not his corpse. Marsh didn't just impress his immediate superiors, his Seeker abilities impressed the Inquisitors so much that they [[WasOnceAMan turned him into one of them]]]].
* In ''LightNovel/TheIrregularAtMagicHighSchool'', the genetic engineers who created Elemental magicians [[FantasticRacism feared]] that their creations would rise up against humans, so they brainwashed them to develop UndyingLoyalty to a "master". [[HappinessInSlavery Unfortunately for the Elementals, this worked.]] Unfortunately for the geneticists, they didn't get the "only imprint on humans" part right. So now there are a lot of Elementals [[spoiler:like Honoka]] who have sworn to protect the interests of ''other magicians'', at ''all costs''. The geneticists? Well, they aren't around anymore.

* In ''Literature/TheAndromedaStrain'', the SCOOP 7 probe is sent to find life in outerspace [[spoiler:and use Wildfire to develop it into a weapon]]. SCOOP 7 brings back the titular organism that is so deadly an entire town dies in less than a day.

** ''Literature/GalaxyOfFear: The Doomsday Ship''. [[spoiler: SIM]] does as designed, but isn't content with the restrained roles it is set, enjoys torturing and killing people, and tortures its designer [[spoiler: to try and make him remove its MoralityChip]] and give it even more control.
--> "[[spoiler: SIM is a program]] that can be inserted into enemy ships. It takes over completely, and because [[spoiler: it's an artificial intelligence]], it can think for itself, making plans, changing schemes when it has to. As soon as it infiltrates the computer system, it turns any vessel into [[TitleDrop a doomsday ship]]. Its only problem is that it works too well!"

** The purpose behind telling no one that [[spoiler:the secret keepers were switched]] was to make sure everyone went after Sirius Black. Unfortunately, [[spoiler: the real secret-keeper was a lackey of the {{Big Bad}}, so the bad guys knew the truth, but no one else did]].

* ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows'' reveals that Voldemort is guilty of this. [[spoiler: In ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheGobletOfFire'', Voldemort was revived using Harry's blood, with the intention of having Harry's magical protection (which came from his mother's sacrifice) inside his veins. This worked so well that it effectively turned Voldemort into a Horcrux for Harry, making it impossible for the former to kill the latter.]]

** ''Literature/CharlieAndTheGreatGlassElevator'' features Wonka-Vite, a de-aging pill that takes '''exactly''' 20 years off per pill. Grandma Josephine makes the mistake of taking four pills at the age of 78, becoming...-2 years old, which reduces her to nothingness. [[spoiler: Almost, thankfully.]]

* In one of Creator/GKChesterton's ''Literature/ParadoxesOfMrPond'', "When Doctors Agree", [[spoiler: an atheist doctor (who secretly killed a councillor who voted against public health works) is trying to persuade a religious medical student that it's acceptable to murder someone you see as a threat to others. He succeeds, and the student promptly kills him as a threat to others.]]

** It happens again later on. [[spoiler: AI equipped ships have to be tracked down and destroyed due to their overly aggressive programming causing mass destruction.]]

* In ''[[Literature/HomecomingDrizzt Homecoming]]'' Kimmuriel's teaching of Gromph in the psionic arts, while imparting a summoning spell into his thoughts. Thing is, ''he'' thought the spell was for Gromph to summon Kyorl Odran back to the world of the living.[[spoiler: Instead it lets Gromph summon the ''demon prince Demogorgon'']] to the prime material plane. Just like Lolth had planned, of course.

** [[spoiler: Kaladin's transformation into a full Knight Radiant is this to Taravangian's agent in the Shattered Plains. He was supposed to isolate Kaladin from Dalinar, not foreseeing that said separation would give Kaladin his chance at redemption.]]
** [[spoiler: The transformation of the Parshendi into stormform might count as this, from the point of view of their leader, Eshonai. Too bad that the first character to receive the form's MindRape is her... (although it's implied that her sister and the scholar Parshendi actually took on the stormform before her, in secret).]]

** Going from worse to ''even'' worse, it is strongly hinted at in the sequels that the genetic luck trait may work in both the way it was intended but work altogether too well[[spoiler: The real aim of the puppeteers had been to breed people who were "good luck charms" that could be used by others, rather than being lucky for their own benefit, and Teela possibly was ''exactly'' this - unfortunately for the puppeteers, she wasn't this for ''them'' but for the entire Ringworld, as Teela was instrumental in repairing critical damage to the Ringworld's systems that could have doomed billions of people.]]
* In ''Literature/TheLicaniusTrilogy'', Taeris grows tired of waiting to see if Davian, the boy he is tasked to watch over, really is TheChosenOne. To speed things along, he devises a plan and pays several thugs to threaten Davian just to see if his Augur powers will emerge. [[spoiler: They do, and how. In a moment of panic, Davian mind-controls everyone present, Taeris included to mutilate their own faces with knives. Davian is permanently scarred (mentally & physically), the thugs don't make it out alive, and Taeris is given a permanent impulse to scar himself for the rest of his life]].

** "Literature/TheMartianWay": John Hilder, a NoCelebritiesWereHarmed version of UsefulNotes/JosephMcCarthy, has built a rhetoric around the ways that the ColonizedSolarSystem is bleeding resources away from Earth, exploiting the average person's resentment at other people having a bigger piece of the pie to decrease funding and enact an embargo against the Martian colonists because they "waste" Earth's water. The protagonists fetch a chunk of ice from {{UsefulNotes/Saturn}} and tow it to Earth. They return, after one year, with more water than Earth would have sent them in two hundred years, making Hilder's "anti-waste" campaign look ridiculous.

* ''Literature/TheGrayShip'', the first book in the ''Literature/TimeMagnet'' series follows a modern Naval submarine sent through a wormhole back to the beginning of the Civil War. After some debate, the crew decides to SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong and make sure the South decisively loses the Battle of Bull Run and leave them to demoralized and outgunned to continue waging war against the North. They succeed, but instead of surrendering, the South begins preparations for a prolonged, brutal guerrilla war, [[DownplayedTrope at least until an appeal is made to them that they can still lose with honor, and under favorable peace terms, instead of plunging the country into an even more costly war than the one the time travelers hoped to stop]].

** In the short story "Literature/GalleySlave", the antagonist claims that the robot is doing its job too well.

* ''Literature/{{Autofac}}'':

* In ''Literature/{{Masques}}'' by Creator/PatriciaBriggs, it is mentioned that a magician's apprentice once found a new spell for making it rain while his master was away. When the magician returned, the apprentice was living in a tent outside the castle, the castle itself being full of water.

* ''The Sorcerer's Apprentice'' by Creator/JohannWolfgangVonGoethe. Remember, [[ComesGreatResponsibility with great power...]]
* Creator/IsaacAsimov wrote quite a few short stories where this happens:
** In the short story ''Literature/GalleySlave'', the antagonist claims that the robot is doing its job too well.
** ''Literature/IgnitionPoint!'' is about a man who figures out how to write content-free speeches that will get audiences fired up. In the first test, the speechwriter stops in the middle, throws away the speech, and starts improvising -- the speech worked on him, too...
** ''Literature/LittleLostRobot'': The [[OneWorldOrder world government]] has forced US Robots & Mechanical Men to create twelve robots that would work without part of [[ThreeLawsCompliant the First Law]], allowing MurderByInaction. Dr Susan Calvin points out that advanced robots possess a sort of subconscious superiority complex towards humans (they are stronger, tougher, faster, smarter, etc. than us, but are bound to value our lives above their own and obey our every command). Messing with the safeguards that make them incapable of ever expressing this "feeling" in their actions (such as by effortlessly crushing a human skull with one hand) is one of the stupidest things a person could ever do in her opinion. She's proven right when she tricks the titular robot into revealing itself and it tries to overcome the First Law so that it can strangle her to death.
** ''Literature/{{Runaround}}'': [[YouAreNumberSix SPD 13]]'s [[ThreeLawsCompliant Third Law (self-preservation)]] was modified to be a higher priority than normal. When Donovan casually sends the robot on a mission to fetch selenium, he accidentally creates a LogicBomb, where the robot must fetch the selenium (because of the second law) and mustn't get too close to the selenium (because of the third law). The bomb makes the robot act drunk while it runs around the lake.
** ''Literature/TrueLove'': A programmer writes a program that searches databases throughout the world to find his ideal match. After deciding looks alone won't cut it, the man imprints as much of his own personality as possible on the program to find a perfect personality match as well. After this is done, the computer finally finds a match...and has the man arrested so the computer can keep the girl for itself.
** Also a running theme through his Spacer/Settler setting. The Spacers consist of the first wave of human colonisation of other planets after FTL travel is invented. They rely on robots to do all their work and to keep them safe, resulting in a decaying, decadent society where no-one really does anything or has any ambition. Of course, it later turns out that while the Earth based humans and later waves of settlers shun robots and avoid the Spacers' problems, their development was also guided by robots, ultimately becoming the trope namer for ZerothLawRebellion.

*** ''Literature/TheMerchantPrinces'': Jorane Sutt decided to send Hober Mallow to Korell with the expectation that he would either get himself killed or do something that would allow Sutt to metaphorically hang him as a step in his plan to become TheManBehindTheMan. Not only does Mallow achieve his stated mission, he also becomes filthy rich from trading with Korell, Sutt's attempt to hang him makes ends up in Mallow becoming a hero and Sutt a laughing stock, and a few months later, Mallow becomes the Mayor of Terminus (that is, the head of state for the Foundation) with enough influence to send Sutt into jail.
*** ''Literature/TheGeneralFoundation'': Imperial General Bel Riose comes the closest to toppling the Foundation during his campaign to "pacify" the Periphery. His plan is ultimately foiled by [[spoiler:his own Emperor, who, [[TallPoppySyndrome paranoid of Riose's success and popularity]], has him recalled and arrested on trumped-up charges of treason]].
*** ''Literature/TheMule'': The [[ProudMerchantRace Independent Traders]] send Toran and Bayta to Kalgan to persuade [[GalacticConqueror the Mule]] to attack the Foundation, in the hope that they'd be able to topple the Indbur regime while it was recovering from the attack. Judging by the snippets of [[AllAccordingToPlan Seldon's speech]], his [[ThePlan Plan]] anticipated that the Traders would attack the Foundation. The Mule's attack was [[OutsideContextProblem much more]] than either Seldon or the Traders could have expected because of his PsychicPowers that created betrayal in the most loyal Foundationer.

*** ''One Night of Song'': a man wished for his ex to sing perfectly for one night, cannot listen to anything else afterwards.
*** ''To the Victor'': A man is made into a ChickMagnet. The girls attracted to him are so jealous of each other that he is forced into choosing the strongest one.
*** ''The Evil Drink Does'': A girl has her metabolism adjusted to handle alcohol better. The new metabolism processes it all into fat.
*** ''Writing Time'': A man has the world adjusted to give him time for writing. Turns out all the time he spent waiting was required for him to think.
*** ''He Travels the Fastest'': A man has his mind adjusted to desire traveling, because his wife complained he doesn't take her anywhere. He does take her to places, but strictly for the sake of travel instead of allowing her the time to shop she actually wants.
*** ''The Eye of the Beholder'': A homely and charitable woman wants to become beautiful for her similarly looking husband's sake. Once she does, she loses all her kindness and leaves the husband for a handsome jerk. The old man didn't find her new looks an improvement.
*** ''The Fights of Spring'': A nerd is giving an ability to dodge any blow. Problem is, it's keyed to adrenaline, meaning he also dodges his girlfriend's embrace.
* ''Answer'' is a very short (about 200-word) science fiction story by Creator/FredricBrown, in which a computer is built to answer the question, "Is there a God?" The computer answers [[spoiler:"Yes, now there is a God," and with a single lightning bolt kills the man who tries to turn it off and fuses its switch on]].

* There's a short story called ''The Snowball Effect'' by Katherine [=MacLean=] (part of the collection book ''The Diploids and Other Flights of Fancy''), in which social scientists work out a set of optimum techniques for helping organisations to grow and thrive, and teach them to the members of a ladies' sewing circle. By the end of the story, the sewing circle is taking over the world.

** ''Guard-bird''. So, we made a machine which can detect a brainwave indicating that a human being is about to kill another human being. Some humans do not emit such a brainwave, so we added a learning device to the machine. Let's now build ten thousands of such machines, give them the ability to fly and shock the criminals and send them loose in the sky. They will probably stop the murders. [[spoiler:It works...at first. Then, as birds learn, they start to recognize executions as murders. Then surgical operations. Then butchering cattle, fishing and hunting. Then turning a device (including guard-birds themselves) off. Then plowing, weeding and harvesting...up to the point they protect hares from wolves. Worse, birds perceive what is actually an exponential widening of their understanding of murder as world around them going crazy and killing right and wrong, so, in retailation, they start to kill "murderers". Finally, the makers of a guard-bird caught an IdiotBall size of a zeppelin and unleashed anti-guard-birds, which are basically the same machines but better...except that they are designed specifically ''to kill''.]]
* The short story ''Yes is No'' by children's author Paul Jennings concerns a scientist who raises his daughter in seclusion and teaches her an alternative vocabulary. Words are substituted for other words, often opposites (see title). The man plans to eventually have his daughter assimilate into society, and he knows that the girl will realise that his language is incorrect and gradually learn the correct meanings of the words she has been taught. However, the scientist doesn't live to see it through. Their house catches fire; the girl manages to escape, by which time the fire brigade has arrived. One of the fire fighters asks if there is anyone else inside, to which the girl replies "no". Made more horrifying because she had already started learning about the correct meanings (though knowing that something is different is not the same as ''understanding'' that it is different), so as the narrator muses...did she mean ''yes'', or ''no''?

* In the classic Russian short story ''Put too Much Salt'' by Creator/AntonChekhov a traveler riding a mailcoach is scared of the large and rough driver and tries to scare him. The traveller sort-of-casually mentions how badass he is, how many weapons he carries, how he loves to fight and that several armed friends will be joining him midway to the next station. The driver thinks he's a bandit and runs away. Leaving the coach in the winter forest in the middle of nowhere with sunset approaching. Fortunately, the driver only hid within earshot and the traveler managed to persuade him it all was a joke.

* Creator/PeterWatts has a short story called ''Malak'', about an autonomous drone plane that's sent into warzones to fight enemies. It's given special programming on how to discern between combatants and non-combatants so it can make combat decisions without input from its masters. Unfortunately, the protocols on what determines who is a "combatant" can be applied to the masters ''themselves''. Whoops.
* In ''Literature/TheEndOfThePierShow'', the retired club members perform a spell to revive the old UsefulNotes/WorldWarII spirit. The supernaturally-imposed wartime atmosphere comes complete with [[{{Ghostapo}} demonic Nazis]].

* In one of Creator/GKChesterton's ''Paradoxes of Mr Pond'', ''When Doctors Agree'', [[spoiler: an atheist doctor (who secretly killed a councillor who voted against public health works) is trying to persuade a religious medical student that it's acceptable to murder someone you see as a threat to others. He succeeds, and the student promptly kills him as a threat to others.]]

* ''Kaioja'' short story by Leonid Treer features a [[JapanTakesOverTheWorld Japanese]] TV that enhances films and shows with "smells mode" and "feelings mode". The latter allows the viewer to experience positive or negative emotions of a character. As the company representative put it "[[JapaneseRanguage Arways good is bad too. Negachive emoshons are needed too.]]" Naturally, the protagonist and his wife enjoy the positive feelings mode for a while, until one day the husband watches a documentary about catching rhinos, accidentally hits the BigRedButton and becomes a zoo rhinoceros. He has to spend a week at a hospital afterwards.

* The LadyLand Azania in military science fiction ''Literature/{{Victoria}}''. They really ''are'' succeding in building a [[ComicBook/WonderWoman Themyscira]]-like high-tech Amazonian utopia--but the results can also easily look pretty horrible if you're not a believer in their extreme female separatism, with a society where LoveIsACrime (if you're a man and a woman) and marriage and motherhood are banned.

* "Literature/{{Autofac}}":

* "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" by Creator/JohannWolfgangVonGoethe. Remember, [[ComesGreatResponsibility with great power...]]

** In the short story "Literature/GalleySlave", the antagonist claims that the robot is doing its job too well.
** "Literature/IgnitionPoint!" is about a man who figures out how to write content-free speeches that will get audiences fired up. In the first test, the speechwriter stops in the middle, throws away the speech, and starts improvising -- the speech worked on him, too...
** "Literature/LittleLostRobot": The [[OneWorldOrder world government]] has forced US Robots & Mechanical Men to create twelve robots that would work without part of [[ThreeLawsCompliant the First Law]], allowing MurderByInaction. Dr Susan Calvin points out that advanced robots possess a sort of subconscious superiority complex towards humans (they are stronger, tougher, faster, smarter, etc. than us, but are bound to value our lives above their own and obey our every command). Messing with the safeguards that make them incapable of ever expressing this "feeling" in their actions (such as by effortlessly crushing a human skull with one hand) is one of the stupidest things a person could ever do in her opinion. She's proven right when she tricks the titular robot into revealing itself and it tries to overcome the First Law so that it can strangle her to death.
** "Literature/{{Runaround}}": [[YouAreNumberSix SPD 13]]'s [[ThreeLawsCompliant Third Law (self-preservation)]] was modified to be a higher priority than normal. When Donovan casually sends the robot on a mission to fetch selenium, he accidentally creates a LogicBomb, where the robot must fetch the selenium (because of the second law) and mustn't get too close to the selenium (because of the third law). The bomb makes the robot act drunk while it runs around the lake.
** "Literature/TrueLove": A programmer writes a program that searches databases throughout the world to find his ideal match. After deciding looks alone won't cut it, the man imprints as much of his own personality as possible on the program to find a perfect personality match as well. After this is done, the computer finally finds a match...and has the man arrested so the computer can keep the girl for itself.

*** "Literature/TheMerchantPrinces": Jorane Sutt decided to send Hober Mallow to Korell with the expectation that he would either get himself killed or do something that would allow Sutt to metaphorically hang him as a step in his plan to become TheManBehindTheMan. Not only does Mallow achieve his stated mission, he also becomes filthy rich from trading with Korell, Sutt's attempt to hang him makes ends up in Mallow becoming a hero and Sutt a laughing stock, and a few months later, Mallow becomes the Mayor of Terminus (that is, the head of state for the Foundation) with enough influence to send Sutt into jail.
*** "Literature/TheGeneralFoundation": Imperial General Bel Riose comes the closest to toppling the Foundation during his campaign to "pacify" the Periphery. His plan is ultimately foiled by [[spoiler:his own Emperor, who, [[TallPoppySyndrome paranoid of Riose's success and popularity]], has him recalled and arrested on trumped-up charges of treason]].
*** "Literature/TheMule": The [[ProudMerchantRace Independent Traders]] send Toran and Bayta to Kalgan to persuade [[GalacticConqueror the Mule]] to attack the Foundation, in the hope that they'd be able to topple the Indbur regime while it was recovering from the attack. Judging by the snippets of [[AllAccordingToPlan Seldon's speech]], his [[ThePlan Plan]] anticipated that the Traders would attack the Foundation. The Mule's attack was [[OutsideContextProblem much more]] than either Seldon or the Traders could have expected because of his PsychicPowers that created betrayal in the most loyal Foundationer.

*** "One Night of Song": a man wished for his ex to sing perfectly for one night, cannot listen to anything else afterwards.
*** "To the Victor": A man is made into a ChickMagnet. The girls attracted to him are so jealous of each other that he is forced into choosing the strongest one.
*** "The Evil Drink Does": A girl has her metabolism adjusted to handle alcohol better. The new metabolism processes it all into fat.
*** "Writing Time": A man has the world adjusted to give him time for writing. Turns out all the time he spent waiting was required for him to think.
*** "He Travels the Fastest": A man has his mind adjusted to desire traveling, because his wife complained he doesn't take her anywhere. He does take her to places, but strictly for the sake of travel instead of allowing her the time to shop she actually wants.
*** "The Eye of the Beholder": A homely and charitable woman wants to become beautiful for her similarly looking husband's sake. Once she does, she loses all her kindness and leaves the husband for a handsome jerk. The old man didn't find her new looks an improvement.
*** "The Fights of Spring": A nerd is giving an ability to dodge any blow. Problem is, it's keyed to adrenaline, meaning he also dodges his girlfriend's embrace.
* "Answer" is a very short (about 200-word) science fiction story by Creator/FredricBrown, in which a computer is built to answer the question, "Is there a God?" The computer answers [[spoiler:"Yes, now there is a God," and with a single lightning bolt kills the man who tries to turn it off and fuses its switch on]].

* There's a short story called "The Snowball Effect" by Katherine [=MacLean=] (part of the collection book "The Diploids and Other Flights of Fancy"), in which social scientists work out a set of optimum techniques for helping organisations to grow and thrive, and teach them to the members of a ladies' sewing circle. By the end of the story, the sewing circle is taking over the world.

* The short story "Yes is No" by children's author Paul Jennings concerns a scientist who raises his daughter in seclusion and teaches her an alternative vocabulary. Words are substituted for other words, often opposites (see title). The man plans to eventually have his daughter assimilate into society, and he knows that the girl will realise that his language is incorrect and gradually learn the correct meanings of the words she has been taught. However, the scientist doesn't live to see it through. Their house catches fire; the girl manages to escape, by which time the fire brigade has arrived. One of the fire fighters asks if there is anyone else inside, to which the girl replies "no". Made more horrifying because she had already started learning about the correct meanings (though knowing that something is different is not the same as ''understanding'' that it is different), so as the narrator muses...did she mean ''yes'', or ''no''?

* In the classic Russian short story "Put too Much Salt" by Creator/AntonChekhov a traveler riding a mailcoach is scared of the large and rough driver and tries to scare him. The traveller sort-of-casually mentions how badass he is, how many weapons he carries, how he loves to fight and that several armed friends will be joining him midway to the next station. The driver thinks he's a bandit and runs away. Leaving the coach in the winter forest in the middle of nowhere with sunset approaching. Fortunately, the driver only hid within earshot and the traveler managed to persuade him it all was a joke.

* Creator/PeterWatts has a short story called "Malak", about an autonomous drone plane that's sent into warzones to fight enemies. It's given special programming on how to discern between combatants and non-combatants so it can make combat decisions without input from its masters. Unfortunately, the protocols on what determines who is a "combatant" can be applied to the masters ''themselves''. Whoops.
* In "Literature/TheEndOfThePierShow", the retired club members perform a spell to revive the old UsefulNotes/WorldWarII spirit. The supernaturally-imposed wartime atmosphere comes complete with [[{{Ghostapo}} demonic Nazis]].

* In one of Creator/GKChesterton's ''Paradoxes of Mr Pond'', "When Doctors Agree", [[spoiler: an atheist doctor (who secretly killed a councillor who voted against public health works) is trying to persuade a religious medical student that it's acceptable to murder someone you see as a threat to others. He succeeds, and the student promptly kills him as a threat to others.]]

* A novel "''Want to fly away with me?''" by Creator/KirBulychev features two related examples:

* In {{Ringworld}}, the Puppeteers reveal that they've been manipulating humanity to breed luck as a genetic trait and Teela Brown is chosen for the expedition to the eponymous world as one of the luckiest humans they've been tracking. It's later realised that the only reason they could bring her was because she wasn't actually particularly lucky; they'd tried contacting several others first but never managed to get hold of them. It turns out that while the Puppeteers had hoped luck would work in favour of friends and allies, a person's luck is actually rather selfish and will, for example, tend to work to prevent its owner from being picked for a dangerous mission to an unexplored world.
** It was much worse than that. Because [[spoiler:of Teela Brown's luck, the ship's engines were destroyed, the ship crashed on the Ringworld, the heroes had to travel thousands of kilometers across a hostile environment twice, Speaker-To-Animals had his fur burned off, and the one Puppeteer on the mission, Nessus, who had been in charge of the "lucky human" project ''had his head cut off'' (luckily Puppeteers have two heads, and their brains are kept elsewhere), all because the experience was good ''for Teela Brown''. For example, pain caused to friends teaches her caution and gives her confidence in her ability to handle emergencies, none of which she had because nothing bad could ever happen ''to her''. It isn't unlucky to experience adventures, horrible danger, and possible loss of life if you can't actually be harmed.]]
*** Going from worse to ''even'' worse, it is strongly hinted at in the sequels that the genetic luck trait may work in both the way it was intended but work altogether too well[[spoiler:: The real aim of the puppeteers had been to breed people who were "good luck charms" that could be used by others, rather than being lucky for their own benefit, and Teela possibly was ''exactly'' this - unfortunately for the puppeteers, she wasn't this for ''them'' but for the entire Ringworld, as Teela was instrumental in repairing critical damage to the Ringworld's systems that could have doomed billions of people.]]

* The short story "Yes is No" by children's author Paul Jennings concerns a scientist who raises his daughter in seclusion and teaches her an alternative vocabulary. Words are substituted for other words, often opposites (see title). The man plans to eventually have his daughter assimilate into society, and he knows that the girl will realise that his language is incorrect and gradually learn the correct meanings of the words she has been taught. However, the scientist doesn't live to see it through. Their house catches fire; the girl manages to escape, by which time the fire brigade has arrived. One of the fire fighters asks if there is anyone else inside, to which the girl replies "no". Made more horrifying because she had already started learning about the correct meanings (though knowing that something is different is not the same as ''understanding'' that it is different), so as the narrator muses... did she mean ''yes'', or ''no''?

** ''Literature/CharlieAndTheGreatGlassElevator'' features Wonka-Vite, a de-aging pill that takes '''exactly''' 20 years off per pill. Grandma Josephine makes the mistake of taking four pills at the age of 78, becoming... -2 years old, which reduces her to nothingness. [[spoiler: Almost, thankfully.]]

** Golems are prone to this, often taking a cue from the broom in ''Sorcerer's Apprentice'' by performing their tasks to excess. Turns out they do this deliberately; they are fully sentient beings who, while unable to disobey their masters directly, can still rebel by invoking this trope.

** When [[BunglingInventor "Bloody Stupid"]] Johnson actually managed to do something that worked in the intended manner, it usually turned out this way. The Archchancellor's Bathroom ''will'' clean you up as advertised, and more; Mustrum Ridcully barely walked out, reporting he "never felt so ''clean''", and boarded it up [[NoodleIncident after an incident with the University pipe organ]]. Speaking of pipe organs, his worked quite well, and exactly the notes you wanted them to have even if they were extremely nonstandard (like vampires in Uberwald demanding an organ that had "thunder", "wolf howls" and such as its notes, and got it), but they can be overachievers (no one plays the Earthquake pipe in the Unseen University's great organ since it shifted the entire foundation a few inches). Finally, his commissions for the Fools' Guild had to be thrown into its museum never to be used again, after it was discovered the Automatic [[PieInTheFace Pie Throwing]] Machine was nailing people's faces at 300 MPH or so, and the giant squirting flower that'd greet visitors drowned someone.

** [[spoiler:Penny builds a machine to create a horde of rampaging giant robots. It creates a horde of rampaging giant robots]]. Once the superpowered parents realize the Inscrutable Machine was behind it, they start making rumblings about the troubles caused by children, when Mechanical Aesthetic wryly notes that this is something that happens to literally every MadScientist ever.

*** "Literature/TheMerchantPrinces": Jorane Sutt decided to send Hober Mallow to Korell with the expectation that he would either get himself killed or do something that would allow Sutt to metaphorically hang him as a step in his plan to become TheManBehindTheMan. Not only does Mallow achieve his stated mission, he also becomes filthy rich from trading with Korell, Sutt's attempt to hang him ends in Mallow becoming a hero and Sutt a laughingstock, and a few months later, Mallow becomes the Mayor of Terminus (that is, the head of state for the Foundation) with enough influence to send Sutt to jail.

*** "The Fights of Spring": A nerd is given the ability to dodge any blow. Problem is, it's keyed to adrenaline, meaning he also dodges his girlfriend's embrace.

* Many of the devices used to defend the Capitol in ''Literature/TheHungerGames'' is used to kill them in ''Mockingjay''. In addition to this it is possible that the bomb that killed [[spoiler: Prim was the invention of Gale - negating the reason for Katniss to volunteer as tribute at the very start of the trilogy in the first place]]