History Main / MisappliedPhlebotinum

* {{Averted}} in [[Literature/JacquesMcKweon Jacques McKweon]] by Creator/BenCroshaw, star-pilots lost their purpose after quantunnelling made the job obsolete. Those who were once heroes who explored space and saved worlds were now homeless bums who either gave cheap transport for tourists or have "gone to the black" and were now space pirates.averts this, depicting the end of manned space flight because someone invented Anywhere-In-The-Universe teleportation, which put all the space pilots out of business. They're understandably bitter about being reduced to hi-tech beggars, although it is mentioned that some rich folk still have pilots, because [[ConspicuousConsumption one teleporter booth is exactly the same as another so there's no First Class accommodations to waste money on.]] Much of the book is dedicated to just how much teleportation changes the world--for instance, people now store personal items by teleporting them miles underground. Part of the plot is that they abandoned starships a bit too soon. All of those threats Star Pilot heroes saved worlds from still exist; the teleport booths just let travelers bypass the pirates and assorted alien monsters that still control the black.

* ''Literature/WillSaveTheGalaxyForFood'' averts this, depicting the end of manned space flight because someone invented Anywhere-In-The-Universe teleportation, which put all the space pilots out of business. They're understandably bitter about being reduced to hi-tech beggars, although it is mentioned that some rich folk still have pilots, because [[ConspicuousConsumption one teleporter booth is exactly the same as another so there's no First Class accommodations to waste money on.]] Much of the book is dedicated to just how much teleportation changes the world--for instance, people now store personal items by teleporting them miles underground.
** Part of the plot is that they abandoned starships a bit too soon. All of those threats Star Pilot heroes saved worlds from still exist; the teleport booths just let travelers bypass the pirates and assorted alien monsters that still control the black.

* Captain Hammer in ''WebVideo/DrHorriblesSingAlongBlog'' is mentioned by Dr. Horrible as being "corporate"; presumably he takes sponsorships. Given the character in question (an [[{{Jerkass}} incredibly self-absorbed jackass]] who takes special pleasure in beating up geeks and seducing clueless women, getting away with it all because he's [[DesignatedHero labeled a "hero"]]), it wouldn't exactly be surprising. Given his chest insignia, it wouldn't be terribly surprising if he was funded by Sears.

** Averted in the case of "teleporting warheads": as soon as the Atlantis Expedition gained access to Asgard beaming technology, they just started teleporting atomic bombs onto Wraith vessels. The Wraith rather quickly figured out a way to "jam" the teleportation, but they lost a big number of their otherwise extremely powerful Hive ships before that happened. It's eventually revealed that the likely reason they had a fix available so quickly is because they've encountered this tactic before - with the Vanir, a less ethical Asgard offshoot hiding out in the Pegasus Galaxy.

* ''Series/{{Dollhouse}}'': Despite possessing an incredibly versatile technology that could be used for any number of things, the series deliberately explores both the use and misuse of technology that allows one to imprint [[FakeMemories memories]], personalities and skills into human bodies and modify the workings of neural pathways. At first glance, the eponymous Dollhouse appears to be flagrantly misusing their tech to run what essentially amounts to a high-tech brothel/thieves' guild/assassination broker that manufactures tailored agents. However, as the series progresses, we see the other uses of the tech, such as [[spoiler:mass-producing [[HiveMind hive-minded]] supersoldiers, and the weaponized use of imprinting/wiping signals across radios and telephones as weapons of mass destruction, turning everyone who picks up the phone into either a childlike Doll or a rabidly homicidal Butcher]]. Averted by Topher during the second season when he reinvents his designs for Rossum specifically so that they can't be used for any other purpose than they are designed for.
* ''Series/WeirdScience'': Of course, considering [[JackassGenie how their wishes usually turn out]], even if they did wish for that it would end badly anyways.

* Just about any technology from ''Series/TheOuterLimits1963'' and ''Series/TheOuterLimits1995'' gets used in the most wrong, awkward and fucked-up way possible in-world.

* The basic premise of ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000'' requires that Dr Forrester was able to build and orbit a satellite cheaply enough that he could bury the expenses in the Gizmonic Institute's budget--a satellite with artificial gravity and sufficient storage space to hold enough supplies to keep its one man crew healthy for over five years before swapping crews without lots of really obvious resupply shuttles. This would revolutionize the space program, and what does he do with it? Screen crappy movies. Similarly, Joel was able to build three robots with true, if not overly sophisticated, artificial intelligences. What does he do with them? Provide companionship so that he doesn't have to sit through those movies alone. There's a reason why the MST3KMantra is named for this show. Aside from that, the trope pops up in some individual episodes:

** In the story "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS7E3TheAmbassadorsOfDeath The Ambassadors of Death]]", a race of [[spoiler:friendly]] alien beings are discovered that possess highly advanced technology, are ImmuneToBullets, consume radiation and can blow things up (including people) just by touching them. They could end the nuclear waste problem, defend the Earth from asteroids, uplift humans further into outer space... but the people who've kidnapped them just want to use them to rob banks.
** In the episode "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E15PlanetOfTheDead Planet of the Dead]]", there is a psychic woman who repeatedly wins small amounts on the lottery, because she's happy enough with her life as it is and doesn't want the changes a big win would create.

** Bordering on {{Zeerust}}. Every human has their mind stored on a cortical stack which can be removed and placed in a new body (called a sleeve). However, sleeves are exclusively natural-aged human bodies, either donated by the poor and desperate or taken from criminals. This is despite the presence of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3D_bioprinting 3D bioprinters]] capable of printing sleeves on demand, robotic "synths" that are at least as good as normal humans, and a [[TheMetaverse VR internet]] which sleeveless stacks could populate. InUniverse, this is justified by heavy regulations on bioprinting to prevent "identity theft" and the [[{{Alternet}} Array]] being full of stack-annihilating malware. Cloned sleeves are considered extremely expensive, so much so that only the elite can afford them while everyone else has to make do with what's available, with healthy and young bodies being bought up by relatively wealthy individuals. Of course, the whole system also serves to keep society both stable and the elite in power while true immortality for the masses might lead to upheavals and resource shortages. Basically the Meths help keep the status quo so [[PragmaticEvil that only they get to live forever comfortably and the rest of society does not implode ending that.]] Eternal life for the few, struggle for the rest. A situation Quell [[TheExtremistWasRight saw coming and tried to prevent.]]

** A complaint some fans have made of the Death Star is that the energy used to produce such a fantastical weapon could be used to simply fuel the energy needs of countless planets. Fueling the energy needs of planets achieves 2 meaningful results: 1) You garner good will with the common man, because they will turn to you as a safe haven for their needs. 2) The Empire's military needs would be provided by the Death Star's fuel reserves (Kyber Crystals produce what is more or less infinite energy, by most practical measuring systems), and thus the Imperial military will maintain supremacy just from the fuel alone. ''Film/RogueOne'' actually addresses this, because Galen Erso only joined the Death Star project because he was lied to by Director Krennic that the Death Star was going to be used for exactly that pragmatic purpose. When Galen found out the Death Star was going to be a super weapon capable of destroying planets, and was going to be used as a symbol of fear he fled the project. Palpatine's hubris comes from the fact that he could have ruled with compassion, or at least pragmatic villainy (give the people what they want for a price and they tolerate your rule), and still maintained his rule over the galaxy.
** The Jedi are known as guardians of peace in the galaxy, but their application of the Force for combat against the forces of evil seems like a limited use of the Force's overall utility. Stock speculators would kill for the ability to read the future and would pay Jedi a fortune for an accurate prediction. Construction companies would love Jedi since they could lift heavy materials without the need for heavy machinery. A Jedi's lightsaber would be like a gift from God to a welder, given its ability to cut through basically anything. Companies would likely pay the Jedi a fortune for the use of their lightsabers for civilian purposes. Jedi would even be useful for doctors, because they would know ahead of time if patients are going to get sick and would be able to get them preventive care. Jedi would be of help to surgeons since they could sense where the injury is located, or perhaps even telekinetically remove it with the Force rather than needing to cut them open. Insofar as you want to acknowledge healing abilities, which are either mild or extremely esoteric (what Rey did to Kylo Ren, Darth Plagueis' ability to stop death) then Force users would be sought after for their miracle power to save lives. The Jedi using lightsabers and Force powers to stop Sith seems like only one small part of what they could be doing to help people. Except of course, in a galaxy with dozens of millions of inhabited star systems with even the relatively backwater ones having a population in the billions, there's about... a thousand Jedi-level force sensitives (many of them undiscovered), give or take, at any given time. "Spread thin" doesn't begin to cover it.
* ''Franchise/StarTrek'' in general has many instances of this trope; the [[Film/StarTrek2009 2009 movie]] adds a new one: with the help of future knowledge from Old Spock, Scotty quickly modifies a transporter to beam himself and Kirk onto the Enterprise -- which has been traveling away from them for hours, at [[FasterThanLightTravel the kind of speed]] that let it get from Earth to Vulcan in ''minutes''. Now, if you can build a transporter that sends you across vast interstellar distances in an instant... ''why do you need starships?'' (Of course, the answer is -- to prevent the ''Franchise/StarTrek'' franchise from turning into a funky version of the Franchise/StargateVerse...) Interestingly this was actually a concept early on in the pre-production development of ''Star Trek: The Next Generation''. People would just beam from planet to planet without bothering with warp drive and starships. Fortunately for the franchise this was considered a few steps too far.

* In ''Film/{{Flubber}}'', the lead character's research is to help fund the university. He's assisted by a flying computer equipped with Artificial Intelligence, which would probably be worth millions, if not billions. Actually justified with the AI...he has NO idea how he did it. A plot point is actually him trying to get Flubber to market. The AI itself however does know how he did it, and hands him plans for a new version of itself. So maybe that last scene takes place in a world full of intelligent machines?

* ''Film/TheBourneLegacy'', we learn that all of the assassins gain their enhanced intelligence and physical prowess from little blue and green pills [[spoiler:which we later discover are not even necessary if the drug is properly applied and seems to have no real drawbacks]]. Only once are the medical and scientific benefits of such a drug or even thinks that they might personally benefit from such enhancements themselves.

* ''Series/{{Dollhouse}}'': Despite possessing an incredibly versatile technology that could be used for any number of things, the series deliberately explores both the use and misuse of technology that allows one to imprint memories, personalities and skills into human bodies and modify the workings of neural pathways. At first glance, the eponymous Dollhouse appears to be flagrantly misusing their tech to run what essentially amounts to a high-tech brothel/thieves' guild/assassination broker that manufactures tailored agents. However, as the series progresses, we see the other uses of the tech, such as [[spoiler:mass-producing [[HiveMind hive-minded]] supersoldiers, and the weaponized use of imprinting/wiping signals across radios and telephones as weapons of mass destruction, turning everyone who picks up the phone into either a childlike Doll or a rabidly homicidal Butcher]]. Averted by Topher during the second season when he reinvents his designs for Rossum specifically so that they can't be used for any other purpose than they are designed for.

** Speaking of Shardblades, in the same book most officers and many of the common soldiers think it's a serious example of this when Dalinar Kholin, a royal and a general, uses said magical blade and the enhanced speed and strength from his PowerArmor to assist his men digging ditches. That he's using basically sacred relics for such a mundane purpose is taken as another sign of his going insane.

* ''Series/SabrinaTheTeenageWitch'': Sabrina is allowed access to a crystal ball that can answer any question. Her first question was, oddly enough, "What if Kenan and Kel won the lottery?". We then see a short segment of the two losing the ticket and coming to the conclusion that it was inside a sandwich that Kel just took a bite out of.
** Not to mention the sheer utility that magic has in that show in general. [[MasqueradeParadox If only they were willing to work with humans instead of hiding from them]], so many problems could be solved.
* ''Franchise/StarTrek'' actually [[ShownTheirWork did do the research]] on this one (albeit with some glaring exceptions):
** Averted in the case of [[MatterReplicator replicators]]; TheFederation as depicted is an example of a moneyless socialist society, sometimes regarded as a PostScarcityEconomy. Federation citizens do still work, but they do so to "better themselves", follow personal interests, and contribute to society. From ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' onwards, replicators make everything you need -- for an energy input. In a normal space opera you might need some [[WillingSuspensionOfDisbelief suspension of disbelief]], {{Obvious Rule Patch}}es or [[HandWave handwaving]] to explain why replicators don't cause the economy to collapse, but, in a post-capitalist utopian society, the problem doesn't exist. The replicators also get more and more limited as the franchise goes on. For instance, you can replicate food, but a homecooked meal or restaurant will taste better. It's also inefficient enough that in early seasons of ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'', Bajor is struggling with famines, even though they have both replicators and Federation foreign aid. Torpedoes are manufactured traditionally and stored on ships until use, not replicated as needed. Even the Federation is crisscrossed by trade lanes as goods are moved from one side of the galaxy to the other, and a few races [[ProudMerchantRace build their whole culture around the fact that trade is still important]]. (As one ''Star Trek'' producer put it, a society that can replicate a starship is a society that doesn't ''need'' starships.)

*** Used and abused for this purpose in the spin-off novel ''Hydra''; the NID acquire the templates for the robo-SG-1 and create various subtly reprogrammed versions of the team to try and do the job that the NID feels the SGC should be doing, such as taking technology from other societies regardless of the cost. This plan backfires as the various duplicates come to resent feeling like slaves, culminating in the creation of the psychopathic 'theta team'.

* ''Literature/TheStormlightArchive'': Szeth-son-son-Vallano is a OneManArmy with a SoulCuttingBlade and supernatural powers that haven't been seen in centuries, along with the skills to use both to their fullest extent. He is also a pacifist and an ExtremeDoormat bound by his honor to obey whoever holds his Oathstone; the series starts when he is forced to assassinate a king. He is therefore at his happiest when he is ''not'' being used as an assassin and a killer. Then someone who disagrees with that sentiment gets a hold of his Oathstone, and starts one of the most horrific slaughters in recent history.

** In the first generation alone, scientists have [[CreatingLife created sapient digital life]] (Porygon), which they give out as prizes at a casino. They've also implemented sapient being cloning, but give up after [[CloningBlues only trying to duplicate a godlike legendary Pokémon]]. Oh, and Silph Co. has created a device that can ''[[ISeeDeadPeople make the afterlife visible to the naked eye]]'', but you only use it as a minor solution to an obstacle in a quest involving Team Rocket.

** The Wormgates themselves can be considered an evil aversion of this trope as well: after all as long as people are seen going in one place and coming out the other, there's nothing to worry about what goes on in between...[[CloningBlues right?]]

** Somewhat justified, "Speak With Dead" and "Raise Dead" both require a mostly intact corpse, so mutilating the body can severely hamper investigations.