History Main / MisappliedPhlebotinum

* Averted in LarryNiven's ''KnownSpace'' setting. Thanks to ubiquitous and cheap teleporters, Earth's population becomes almost entirely homogeneous.

[[folder:Film]]

* ''CloudyWithAChanceOfMeatballs'' has an inventor who typifies this trope. One could think up a thousand uses for a bulletproof, waterproof, fireproof, spray on coating other than "spray on shoes". And consider that his "food creation machine" converts ordinary [=H2O=] into complex organic food molecules (which means it could convert them into darn near any other material, organic or inorganic)--- and apparently runs off the residual energy left over from the process. A combination ''replicator and fusion generator''...
** The coating's potential is partially realized at the end of the movie.

* In ''NewAmsterdam'', in the 1600s, a Native American tribe has a spell that makes people immortal. In-story use: reward some random white guy who saved the life of one of the tribe's women. Better use: make all of the tribe's warriors immortal, then easily defeat the white guys that are taking their land.

** An issue of ''HeroesForHire'' (which is ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin, so at least these guys are getting paid for their work) has one of the "heroes" in a government warehouse where various captured supervillain equipment is stored. Upon seeing one piece of equipment, he notes the idiocy of inventing a gun that turns stuff into gold, then using it to rob banks. It takes him very little time to realize that he ought to steal the gun himself and use it in more intelligent ways. Unfortunately, it's broken shortly afterward in a super-brawl. He presumably was unaware of the fact that any object transmuted by the alchemy gun turns into dust after exposure to heat or after a certain amount of time. (However,mining and construction companies would pay a fortune for a device that could easily reduce solid material into dust regardless of what it became in the interim!)

** This is actually [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] in the Nicolas Cage film ''Next''. Also justified since the psychic in question knows he's being hunted down by the government and thus keeps his wins small to avoid attracting attention.

* Happens a lot in ''HarryPotter'', where they use ''time machines'' so that children can take more classes than they otherwise could, the BagOfHolding exists but is strangely underutilized, and so on. Deconstructed in ''HarryPotterAndTheMethodsOfRationality''.

* Averted to an incredible degree in ''Franchise/MassEffect'': almost everything in the universe runs on [[MinovskyParticle eezo]]-based technology, from artificial gravity and FTL travel to miniature railguns and telekinesis. Hell, one of your crew members in the third game has an eezo ''[[MundaneMadeAwesome toothbrush]]''. The writers even remembered to ObviousRulesPatch away FTL ramming.

* Averted to an incredible degree in MassEffect: almost everything in the universe runs on [[MinovskyParticle eezo]]-based technology, from artificial gravity and FTL travel to miniature railguns and telekinesis. Hell, one of your crew members in the third game has an eezo ''[[MundaneMadeAwesome toothbrush]]''.

* All the technology Tony invents in ''Webcomic/RealLifeComics'' is used by Greg for disturbingly mundane purposes. [[http://www.reallifecomics.com/archive/040623.html This]] pretty much tells you all you need to know. This is deliberate, and played for comedy, though.

** Not that the others were much better. Each carried a ring capable of using the [[ElementalPower classical elements]] to impressive degrees, but the never bothered to use them to their full potential.

* PR0XY, the cheerfully homicidal (to Galen at least) RobotBuddy in ''TheForceUnleashed''. Vader created a droid that could, with the proper modules, copy the techniques and appearance of any Jedi, somehow produces lightsabers from nowhere, and can even replicate ''Force abilities'' with repulsor technology. And Vader uses it as a communications device and as a TrainingFromHell tool. As opposed to mass producing a droid Jedi SuperSoldier army.
** Not so much. The Clone Wars (well, the last five minutes or so) showed that while the Jedi are ''extraordinarily'' lethal in individual combat or against small groups of people, in terms of full-scale war they don't make a very effective army, with their primary use being as surpise-attack commandos (Vader has that) and generals (Vader IS that). And we don't know how prohibitively expensive PR0XY was.

*** Actually, they ''do'' re-visit that one. [[spoiler:the RobotMe versions start using their battery power to go on their own missions through the Stargate, just going home before their power runs out. Until stuff happens.]]

*** In earlier episodes of SG-1, it was implied that the Asgard did use their teleporters as weapons: The first time we meet them, they "beam" an entire Goa'uld army into oblivion before using the same device to harmlessly transport a human bystander to their ship to meet them.7

** PreCrisis MadScientist LexLuthor could become every bit as wealthy as [[ComicBook/FantasticFour Reed Richards]] if he marketed his tech legally, but he has too much of an {{Ubermensch}} complex to even ''want'' to make a living within society's infrastructure, viewing mundane Last Man civilization itself with contempt. John Byrne's PostCrisis Luthor is rich, but he only sporadically does scientific job himself, prefering to supervise or steal the work of specialist; while he have a fairly superior intellect and his empire is based on earlier inventions, he is mostly rich by being a [[BadassNormal mundane ruthless SOB]]. Modern Luthor ''combines'' the two versions elevating his intellect UpToEleven to finally CutLexLuthorACheck and establish his scientific genius as the ''source'' of his colossal wealth.

* Charles Stross's ''Literature/TheMerchantPrincesSeries'' [[PlayingWithATrope plays with]] this trope. Members of the Clan have the ability to teleport between [[AllTheMyriadWays alternate timelines]], along with whatever they can carry. They use it to get rich in modern America by smuggling drugs through a world with a feudal culture that lacks a DEA, and in that feudal culture they use their ability to get rich by bringing in modern innovations like penicillin and automatic guns. Compared to many examples on this page, that's a very smart application of the phlebotinum, compared to robbing banks, using GreenLanternRing superpowers just for fighting, or using dinosaurs as the main attraction in an amusement park. However, after a modern business journalist learns about the system she quickly points out that mercantilism is a very old-fashioned, zero-sum economic theory and there are much better things the Clan could be doing with their time, like GivingRadioToTheRomans.

*** This is a JustifiedTrope for the most part. Tedd only has access to the gun because he was a notable kid genius with computers and the like, because his father runs the local MIB as stated above, because the gun's existence was one of the few things that prompted him to come out of his reclusive shell, and because he was both able and willing to work on it while also being someone that Tedd's father could trust not to blatantly abuse it. And when he first got it, it was only able to do minor changes. Most of his playing around with the gun is arguably experimentation, and none of what we've seen in the story even happens until he's been working on the gun for several ''years''. He's also been shown to use the gun and his other [[Magitek]] inventions for practical purposes - ''after'' he's had a chance to test out the minor applications first. Even then, [[http://egscomics.com/?date=2005-12-02 he's]] [[http://egscomics.com/?date=2002-05-09 still]] [[http://egscomics.com/?date=2002-06-07 wrong]] [[http://egscomics.com/?date=2002-06-11 on]] [[http://egscomics.com/?date=2012-06-22 rare]] [[http://egscomics.com/?date=2012-06-28 occasion]].

** Tedd and his friends occasionally do break out the transformation gun for more practical purposes, like to turn Elliot into a WereCat for battles.

* Averted to an incredible degree in MassEffect: almost everything in the universe runs on [[MinovskyParticle eezo]]-based technology, from artificial gravity and FTL travel to miniature railguns and telekinesis.

It is, of course, possible to create {{Obvious Rule Patch}}es for all these Phlebotina that prevent the above forms of misuse (and the really good writers even keep it from looking like a form of FakeDifficulty), but many writers merely take them as-is without thinking about the potential consequences.

* PROXY, the cheerfully homicidal (to Galen at least) RobotBuddy in ''TheForceUnleashed''. Vader created a droid that could, with the proper modules, copy the techniques and appearance of any Jedi, somehow produces lightsabers from nowhere, and can even replicate ''Force abilities'' with repulsor technology. And Vader uses it as a communications device and as a TrainingFromHell tool. As opposed to mass producing a droid Jedi SuperSoldier army.
** Not so much. The Clone Wars (well, the last five minutes or so) showed that Jedi are about as effective as knights were (in other words, not very...) with their primary use being as commandos (Vader has that) and generals (Vader IS that). And we don't know how prohibitively expensive PROXY was.
*** Apparently, not that expensive, considering Vader trains multiple Starkiller clones with dozens of [=PROXYs=].
* ''{{Pokemon}}'' both follows and averts this trope. TheVerse is filled with these insanely powerful creatures, who mostly serve as combatants between [[TheKidWithTheRemoteControl kids with remote controls]]. They have also, however, been show to do more practical things.
** For example right at the begining of one game, some Machoke are moving boxes into your house. They are also used in construction. Miltank are used for dairy production, grass types in perfume manufacturing, and electric types are used in power plants.

*** The technology is ''massively'' inconsistent, though (you can't even store ''items'' in Unova). It would be a horrid risk to store living people in there until the system was unified.

[[quoteright:350:[[Webcomic/ElGoonishShive http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/MisappliedPhlebotinum_4611.gif]]]]

[[caption-width-right:350:Yes, Tedd uses alien morphing technology to have showers [[GenderBender as a girl]].]]

The case of a writer not quite getting their own head around his invention. An invention which is [[AppliedPhlebotinum capable of great things]] (and often, of literally anything) is used exclusively for [[MundaneUtility much lesser tasks]]. If you find that after a [[FridgeLogic trip to the fridge]] you see that the [[AppliedPhlebotinum Phlebotinum]] in question could be used to obsolete entire industries if not [[StoryBreakerPower render the entire plot trivial]] then you're dealing with this trope.

It is, of course, possible to create rules for all these Phlebotina that prevent the above forms of misuse (and the really good writers even keep it from looking like a form of FakeDifficulty), but many writers merely take them as-is without thinking about the potential consequences.

* Many {{Spacebattles}} posters like to accuse various factions of "incompetently" using their abilities or technology and suggesting better alternatives, though various posters try to argue otherwise. It's gotten to the point that "competence" has become something of a slur.

* In MichaelCrichton's ''{{Timeline}}'' there is an immensely powerful quantum computer capable of recording the exact quantum state of every particle in human body, and then sending the data to another universe where it can somehow be recreated into a perfect copy of the person (though the original is technically speaking destroyed - the protagonists are much less disturbed by this than you'd think). It is used to study history by sending people and recorders to universes identical to our own except their position in time, when they could use it among other things for consulting dead people with important opinions, for duplicating rare and useful materials, for ''immortality'', or ''for bringing just about any technology that's ever going to be invented in any possible future to the present you morons!''