History Main / AliensNeverInventedTheWheel

Note that YourMileageMayVary with this trope as some members of the audience find it breaks their WillingSuspensionOfDisbelief, while others feel that discovering a fundamental if specific difference in an otherwise less than exotic alien culture makes it more believable. The trope is justified by RealLife, though: as one example, until the 19th century, the Chinese never really used glass. This is because they came up with porcelain first and were very satisfied with its use as tea cups etc. (the west owes glassmaking to the Romans' love of wine). This also meant they were entirely left out of the TechTree that led to things like lenses (and therefore telescopes and microscopes and spectacles) or glassware suitable for chemical experimentation (glass is, AsYouKnow, chemically neutral).

*** Doesn't Harry go back to his Muggle relatives every summer? How hard is it to bring a few ball-point pens or pencils back? The movies, at least, show them wearing modern-day clothing when they're outside of Hogwarts. Obviously, guns were deliberately left out of the books as they would be a StoryBreakerPower.

Note that YourMileageMayVary with this trope as some members of the audience find it breaks their WillingSuspensionOfDisbelief, while others feel that discovering a fundamental if specific difference in an otherwise less than exotic alien culture makes it more believable. The trope is justified by RealLife, though: as one example, until the 19th century, the Chinese never really used glass. This is because they came up with porcelain first and were very satisfied with its use as tea cups etc. (the west owes glassmaking to the Romans' love of wine). This also meant they were entirely left out of the TechTree that led to things like lenses (and therefore telescopes and microscopes and spectacles) or glassware suitable for chemical experimentation.

* The humans in the ''CodeGeass'' universe, despite their immense technical accomplishments, do not have nukes of any kind. [[spoiler: Or at least, not until one of Einstein's grandchildren finally makes one.]]

* Not strictly aliens, but the wizards from ''Literature/HarryPotter''. Despite having at least one train and at least one bus, they do not use electricity or anything else discovered/invented in the last couple centuries or so, even when it would be much easier than what they do (ball-point pen, anyone?). This is HandWaved by magic interfering with technology/electronics, but there are so many mechanically simple inventions that they could be using... and if an auto can be magicked enough that the electric starter isn't an issue, then clearly it's not much of an impediment.

HumansAreSpecial. Aliens are too, but it's more difficult to pass off an alien culture as fundamentally different from humanity by introducing a unique set of TechnologyLevels and social traits than to just have them ''lack'' something humans have. Wouldn't it feel alien to be asked what a table does or what the strange noise patterns that emerge from your iPod are?

Some aliens' [[PlanetOfHats hat]] is not knowing what a hat is. Despite being RubberForeheadAliens or HumanAliens from a very [[AllPlanetsAreEarthLike Earth-like planet]] on the same [[TechnologyLevels Technology Level]] with abundant InexplicableCulturalTies, they are different from humans in that they have failed to develop ''one'' very specific cultural practice.

* Worf on ''StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' had never had prune juice before Guinan introduced him to it. Worf, for the record, was raised by humans on a human colony and then on Earth itself.
** ''This'' human, among many others, was raised by humans on Earth itself and has never once had prune juice.

* In ''{{Stargate SG-1}}'', the Asgard, who are ridiculously far ahead of humans, have to enlist the Earthlings' help to fight the Replicators, against whom Asgard beam weaponry was useless, but [[KineticWeaponsAreJustBetter guns worked wonders]]. Thor mentions that the thought of using chemical propellants to fire a slug of blunt lead simply never occurred to them.
** The Asgard provide plenty of fun with this trope, since they apparently skipped right from "Bow and arrow" to "Directed energy weapon".
** Pretty sure the Asgard were supposed have simply forgotten about the bullet as it had been millions of years since they used them.

* The whole plot of Harry Turtledove's short story ''The Road Not Taken'' and it's sequel ''Harbing-Haro''. Antigravity and FTL travel turn out to be so ridiculously easy to discover that it can be done at the hunter-gatherer level, but the science involved is so different that it doesn't work with any other form of science or technology, and once you have antigravity and FTL, you don't ''need'' many other forms of science or tech, so they are never developed. You end up with civilizations that essentially stall at whatever technology level they were at when antigravity is discovered. Humans find out about this when they are invaded by aliens, the current dominant local intersteller power, who march out of their anti-gravity propelled starships and attempt to conquer the planet with ''muskets'' and linear battle tactics. Given that they attempt to invade late 20th/early 21st century Earth, it's a short invasion, and humans promptly spread out to the stars with their superior technology. In the sequel, humans run into a species that had managed to carve out a small interstellar civilization without discovering antigravity and FTL, so now ''they'' are the ones caught in the antigravity trap.

** The Hitchhikers' Guide also has a subversion of this trope. They have a hard time with tea, but ''every sentient spacetraveling race'' has something that is pretty much a Gin and Tonic.
*** ''Called'' something like "gin and tonic", to be more accurate, as the actual beverage ranges from tepid water to (one assumes) some variety of GargleBlaster, depending on the planet. There is the Houisghian Zhoda, or somesuch, which ''does'' taste like gin and tonic.

Note that YourMileageMayVary with this trope as some members of the audience find it breaks their WillingSuspensionOfDisbelief, while others feel that discovering a fundamental if specific difference in an otherwise less than exotic alien culture makes it more believable. The trope is justified by RealLife, though: as one example, until the 19th century, the Chinese never really used glass. This is because they came up with porcelain first and were very satisfied with its use as tea cups etc. (the west owes glassmaking to the Romans' love of wine). This also meant they were entirely left out of the technological tree that led to things like lenses, and therefore telescopes and microscopes and spectacles.

** It is also pointed out how strange human's fascination with digital watches is.

* In ''WarOfTheWorlds'' it is hinted that the tripod-using Aliens skipped the invention of the wheel.
** They also skipped Hazmat suits obviously...

* It's been pointed out by ''[[ScaryMovie Scary Movie III]]'' that the aliens from M. Night Shyamalan ''{{Signs}}'' have mastered interstellar travel but have trouble with wooden doors.

* In the pilot episode of his series, {{Alf}} examines the Tanner's toilet and exclaims "Interesting concept."

* Somewhat amusingly inverted in {{Babylon 5}}. According to G'kar it is one of the great mysteries of the universe that every known race has created a foodstuff identical to what Earth would be called Swedish Meatballs.

* A ''[[TheSimpsons Treehouse of Horror]]'' episode had Kang and Kodos coming to Earth to share their alien technology, which included the most advanced video game they'd ever created: Pong.

*** Doesn't Harry go back to his Muggle relatives every summer? How hard is it to bring a few ball-point pens or pencils back? The movies, at least, show them wearing modern-day clothing when they're outside of Hogwarts. Obviously, guns were deliberately left out of the books as they would be {{Game Breaker}}s.

** And then there's the alien race mentioned which invented the deodorant spray before the wheel, so at least for some time, they'd fit this trope.

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* The NBC SitCom ''ThirdRockFromTheSun'' pretty much ran on this concept.

* Not strictly aliens, but the wizards from HarryPotter. Despite having at least one train and at least one bus, they do not use electricity or anything else discovered/invented in the last couple centuries or so, even when it would be much easier than what they do (ball-point pen, anyone?). This is HandWaved by magic interfering with technology/electronics, but there are so many mechanically simple inventions that they could be using... and if an auto can be magicked enough that the electric starter isn't an issue, then clearly it's not much of an impediment.