History Main / ModernStasis

** There are 1980s era Arleigh Burke and Wasp class Destroyers and Ohio Class Submarines in the Coalition Navy. All three are described as being the pinnacle of Warship design before the Apocalypse in 2099, which arguably isn't true *today*.

** There are 1980s era Arleigh Burke class Destroyers in the Coalition Navy and their sensor systems are described as impressive

* ''TabletopGame/{{Rifts}}'' goes back and forth on this. In the setting a [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt great apocalypse happened in 2099]] and the game is set 200-300 years after that (they aren't sure). It is implied that lots of the advanced technology that isn't supplied by [[HigherTechSpecies aliens or extra-dimensional merchants]] is actually [[BreakOutTheMuseumPiece salvage from the 2099 era military equipment]] that survived the apocalypse (or reproductions thereof). Which is not this trop, however Rifts also tries to make it seem like military equipment from the turn of the 21 century would also be equally valuable. There are 1980s era Arleigh Burke class Destroyers in the Coalition Navy and their sensor systems are described as impressive, an adventure focuses on a A-10 Warthog that someone has gotten working which worries the powers of the area, and weapons dealers sell A-1 Abrams tanks right alongside futuristic hover-tanks with plasma canons (for similar prices). The idea that all this equipment that is cutting edge in the writer's modern era would be hopelessly obsolete in 2099 let alone against competing with giant mecha is stridently ignored.

* ''VideoGame/SanFranciscoRush 2049'' has futuristic buildings and a few futuristic cars, but most of the cars are straight out of the 20th century. Not to mention contemporary gas stations, subway trains, cable cars, windmills, boats, etc.

** To be fair, the cable cars haven't change much in 120 years, why would they now? Subway trains as well.

* The comic book ''Good as Lily'' from DC's short-lived Minx imprint is very guilty of this. An 18-year-old girl meets herself at age 80, and she acts, talks and dresses just like an 80-year-old woman of today even though she comes from 62 years in the future.
* The ''Amory Wars'' comic series takes place mostly in a, while in the distant past, very futuristic setting with spaceships and interplanetary war, yet most of the early comics appear to be set in what has the distinct appearance and much of the technology of an early 21st century suburb.

* In ''The Napoleon of Notting Hill'', by Creator/GKChesterton, the 1980s are exactly like the present of circa 1900 (when the book was written). There are a few social changes (all small nations have been annexed by one of a handful of Great Powers, Britain is ruled by something close to a total despotism with the despot appointed at random off an alphabetical list, etc), but there has been zero technological progress. {{Justified}} in the foreward where Chesterton explains a game played by humanity called "Cheat The Prophet", in which the common men listen to what the clever men say the next generation will be like, then go and do something else: since the ''only'' thing nobody in the 1900s had guessed was that nothing would change, nothing did.

** Military weaponry shows the most extreme case of this. [[KineticWeaponsAreJustBetter Many of the basic firearms are virtually identical to modern day counterparts]], with the only visible differences being things like digital readouts on ammo. Non-augmented soldiers use some relatively advanced headgear and armor, but nothing approaching those of the [[SuperSoldier Spartans]]. Ground vehicles are also similar, with some, like early variants of the Scorpion tank, resembling something from the 20th century (in fact, careful comparison shows that the Scorpion would realistically be [[CoolButInefficient outright inferior]] to most modern main battle tanks in armored warfare[[note]]For starters, it's around the same size as if not larger than the Maus Superheavy tank, definantly larger than an Abrams -- M1 Abrams is 8ft tall, the Maus is 11ft tall, and the Scorpion is 14ft tall. M1 Abrams is 12ft wide, the Maus is 12ft wide, and the Scorpion is ''26ft'' wide. Despite this, the original version seen in the first two games carries a 90mm main gun. The Maus, from [=WW2=], carried a 128mm main gun, and the M1 Abrams carries 105mm main gun, which was upgraded to 120mm one on the A1 and A2. Even more egregious since the real-life [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FV101_Scorpion FV101 Scorpion's export version]], the Scorpion 2 or Scorpion 90, had a 90mm main gun. The real Scorpion was a ''light tank''. And instead of having the crew being entirely enclosed in the tank's armour, the driver just gets a poorly armoured canopy to protect them. And it's max speed is 54km/h, while the original M1 Abrams can do 60km/h if the engine governor is removed.[[/note]]). Because of all this, humans are amazed at the Covenant's use of plasma weaponry and shields. More on KineticWeaponsAreJustBetter and CosmeticallyAdvancedPrequel.

* While ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' was mostly praised for its predictions of the future and its progressive attitudes, it was still a product of the '60s and did slip up occasionally. Gender roles were particularly a problem, with women making some advances but still being quite submissive both centuries in the future and ''across all species'' in the galaxy. One episode notoriously declared that Starfleet did not allow female captains. This was largely ExecutiveMeddling - the pilot included a female First Officer who was taken out in the series.

* {{Downplayed| Trope}} and PlayedForLaughs in {{WesternAnimation/Futurama}}. The show is set in the 31st century, and certainly features lots of science-fictiony technology, including robots and space-ships. However, we are shown time and again that in many ways, the world has not changed all that much. Social mores and [[SocietyMarchesOn society in general]] seem to have stayed largely the same as they are today, and all the futuristic technology is used mostly to replicate 20th-century life quite closely. Newspaper boys use home-made spaceships to deliver newspapers in "suburbs" built in {{Asteroid Thicket}}s, the ubiquitous robots not only act [[RidiculouslyHumanRobot Ridiculously Human]] but even do their ''jobs'' in exactly the same way as a human would (and with most of the same inefficiencies), and while a futuristic virtual-reality Internet exists, it's still filled with spam and pop-up ads, and doesn't keep just about everyone from watching ordinary, 2D television (though it's claimed to have a "higher definition than real life.") This all fits with the RuleOfFunny: The idea behind ''Futurama'' was never to create a realistic vision of the future, but to make recognizable jokes about modern-day life in a fun, science-fictioney setting. Thus, the futurism is never allowed to interfere with making the setting, characters, and their challenges relatable to a modern audience.

** Military weaponry shows the most extreme case of this. [[KineticWeaponsAreJustBetter Many of the basic firearms are virtually identical to modern day counterparts]], with the only visible differences being things like digital readouts on ammo. Non-augmented soldiers use some relatively advanced headgear and armor, but nothing approaching those of the [[SuperSoldier Spartans]]. Ground vehicles are also similar, with some, like early variants of the Scorpion tank, resembling something from the 20th century (in fact, careful comparison shows that the Scorpion would realistically be [[CoolButInefficient outright inferior]] to most modern main battle tanks in armored warfare[[note]]For starters, it's around the same size as if not larger than the Maus Superheavy tank, definantly larger than an Abrams (M1 Abrams is 8ft tall, the Maus is 11ft tall, and the Scorpion is 14ft tall. M1 Abrams is 12ft wide, the Maus is 12ft wide, and the Scorpion is ''26ft'' wide. Despite this, the original version seen in 1 and 2 carries a 90mm main gun. The Maus, from [=WW2=], carried a 128mm main gun, and the M1 Abrams carries 105mm main gun, which was upgraded to 120mm one on the A1 and A2. Even more egregious since the RealLife [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FV101_Scorpion FV101 Scorpion's export version]], the Scorpion 2 or Scorpion 90, had a 90mm main gun. The real Scorpion was a ''light tank''. And instead of having the crew being entirely enclosed in the tank's armour, the driver just gets a poorly armoured canopy to protect them. And it's max speed is 54km/h, while the original M1 Abrams can do 60km/h if the engine governor is removed.[[/note]]). Because of all this, humans are amazed at the Covenant's use of plasma weaponry and shields. More on KineticWeaponsAreJustBetter and CosmeticallyAdvancedPrequel.

* Played with [[spoiler: and justified]] in the Tomorrow War trilogy by Alexander Zorich, which takes place in the 27th century, when humanity has already colonized several planetary systems. While the culture and society on Earth are suspiciously similar to our present, a mysterious phenomenon known as "retrospective evolution" causes human colonists in remote planetary systems to revert to cultural norms of ancient societies. Two such [[PlanetOfHats societies]] are shown - [[ScaryDogmaticAliens Concordians]], who are emulating Zoroastrian Persians, and [[{{Ruritania}} Great Muromians]], who are emulating pagan East Slavs. [[spoiler: In the third book it is revealed that the earthlings [[NotSoDifferent were also affected by that phenomenon]] and were reverted to... the late 20th century]].

** They also manage to build large colony ships capable of housing thousands of people for a century of more...with no FTL. Compared to other canonical civilizations like the Tollans who progressed way further (to the point of building their own "Stargates") in roughly the same time the Novus people are downright dragging their feet.
* Sometimes, but by no means all the time, happens in ''Series/DoctorWho''. Humans will be wearing typical clothes of today, talking in typical accents of today and using traditional vehicles and guns, even as far into the future as year 100000000000000 - although it is stated humans have evolved into beings of gas and back and more in this time. Maybe they just happened to be at exactly our level of technology again by that time.

** Also, the Time Lords themselves. Despite being SufficientlyAdvancedAliens '''''way''''' up the [[JustForFun/AbusingTheKardashevScaleForFunAndProfit Kardashev Scale]], there seems to be radically different TechnologyLevels on Gallifrey itself. On the one hand you have MagicFromTechnology, to the point where if they pull out all the stops the Time Lords could destroy the universe if they wanted to. On the other hand, when the Daleks invade Gallifrey in "Day of the Doctor" regular Gallifreyan troops fight back with standard RayGun[=s=] that are no more powerful than what far less advanced civilizations field. Meanwhile, the Doctor has strolled into their weapons vault and made off with what is described as a "galaxy eater"... There seems to be no middle ground. Time Lord technology is either extremely mediocre or else so far off the charts that if they use it on you then you shouldn't even bother to write a will because there will be nobody left to ever read it (and it will never have existed in the first place anyway).
** This could possibly be justified by the fact that the Time Lords have been fighting a ForeverWar and one of the Time Lord Generals specifically mentions that the Moment is the single GodzillaThreshold that hasn't been reached. And that's only because the damn thing is sentient. The High Council were, at the same time (the events of [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E17E18TheEndOfTime The End Of Time]] are happening concurrently with ''The Day of the Doctor'') trying to ensure that the Time Lords ascended, even if it meant destroying the whole universe. This could be taken to mean that they're using the dregs of their weaponry. Also, Time War Daleks are just about the most dangerous individual creatures in the universe, meaning that if those RayGun[=s=] can hurt ''them'', then they pack one hell of a punch.
** Part of the problem is that the series is often bad at differentiating between general Gallifreyans (long-lived but otherwise almost identical to humans) and actual superhuman Time Lords. Most of the super-advanced stuff can only be used by a Time Lord, leaving the plebeians with the more generic stuff. We've also seen a few cultures on the planet with much lower technology, including hunter-gatherer nomads and preindustrial farmers.

* While ''Film/JudgeDredd'' was set in a futuristic universe with sprawling skyscrapers and impractically-designed buildings, the 2012 reboot ''Film/{{Dredd}}'' could easily pass for the modern world. Aside from the Lawgivers and the Clan Techie's cybernetic eyes, all the tech featured isn't something that couldn't have been made today, including a UAV doing a flyover in the beginning. Neill Blomkamp's films helped inspire the film, and it definitely shows in the presentation.

** Although one man is seen having a TV show beamed directly into his head, so there are advances on that front... but it was a cutaway gag, so the canonicity of that is debatable.
*** When Stewie got to the future, he said that was one thing he pictured in the future, so it's just a one off gag.

* The ''Franchise/MassEffect'' universe operates on a variant of this. Since every advanced civilisation gets culled every 50,000 years by the Reapers and the technology left behind influences the development of inhabitants of the next Cycle, the galaxy can be considered to have remained technologically stagnant for ''millions'' of years.

* Lampshaded in the ''WesternAnimation/StrokerAndHoop'' Christmas special. Stroker and Hoop travel forward in time to meet a future version of Coroner Rick, and though he knows the names of some new things that are happening in the world, he doesn't understand any of them because he's an old coot.
* In the DistantFinale of ''Series/TimAndEricAwesomeShowGreatJob'', technology actually seems to have regressed a little. There's a commercial for a device that sorts midi files on an ancient, 286-esque computer.
* Parodied in ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy Presents Stewie Griffin The Untold Story'' where the only real advancements in thirty years are time travel. Televisions, cars, and DVD players haven't advanced much at all. When Stewie comments on this, his future counterpart remarks "Well, it's only been 30 years."

* In the ''WesternAnimation/BeavisAndButthead'' episode "Crying" the episode ends with a FlashForward eighty years in the future where we see the two in a nursing home. It looks no different than one out of the 2010s. Usually animated shows are more futuristic when they do this, but Creator/MikeJudge more than likely wanted to be somewhat more grounded in reality.
* ''WesternAnimation/AllGrownUp'' takes place ten years after ''WesternAnimation/{{Rugrats}}'' but it appears to be more of a TimeSkip since the latter takes place in the years it was produced.

** In one episode, Ted was at an airport in 2021 where he comments that they live in a time where cell phones can project holograms, but flights are still cancelled due to "drizzle".
** It's averted in a few one-off gags, actually. Marshall carving a turkey with a lightsaber comes to mind.

* The narrator of ''Series/HowIMetYourMother'' never mentions anything dramatically different about the future and portrays it as exactly like the present when he mentions it at all. But then, a father telling his children a bedtime story would not need to remind them about the ZombieApocalypse that happened last year.

* True of nearly all TimeSkip uses. In ''Series/DesperateHousewives'' or ''Series/OneTreeHill'' the world of five years from now features absolutely no difference in fashion, technology or pop culture.

* ''Series/Garo'' has started to have this. The original 2005 series and other installments featuring it's cast can be generally assumed to be set in the year of release, but as the franchise has continued this has lead to other series set later in the timeline featuring a world identical to the time they were produced. And while the 4th series and it's spin offs were set only some 20-30 years later, the 3rd series and it's spin offs are set unknown years after that, and aside from occasionally featuring advanced technology in one specific area, still seem to be the modern day, and that series spin off, Kami no Kiba Jinga is believed to be set long after even that, and yet technology still remains the same.

* In ''Literature/{{Lensman}}'' the protagonist at one point needs to run auxiliary systems on a spacecraft without the use of "atomics". The power source of choice is a large Diesel generator. Roughly a decade after that writing, and still today, fuel cells were the primary way to generate electricity from fuel on spacecraft. Even for established technology at the time, a Diesel engine seems like an oddly low-tech choice.

* In ''Literature/Lensman'' the protagonist at one point needs to run auxiliary systems on a spacecraft without the use of "atomics". The power source of choice is a large Diesel generator. Roughly a decade after that writing, and still today, fuel cells were the primary way to generate electricity from fuel on spacecraft. Even for established technology at the time, a Diesel engine seems like an oddly low-tech choice.

* Some futurists claim if humans were to become immortal our culture would stagnate and we would stop inventing new things. Oh, and that would be bad.

** Similar with predictions that within only a few hundred ''million'' years the Sun will have grown bright enough for Earth to become too warm support life as we know it already. That may be true, but usually tacitly ignores that life in a future that distant won't likely resemble anything we know today anyway -- and will have rather obviously had plenty of time to ''adapt'' to the changing conditions, at least up to the limits imposed by physics itself.

Often happens during a DistantFinale. Not to be confused with NextSundayAD, where the time gap is realistically short, or SpaceAgeStasis, where the future is futuristic but doesn't change much when the work jumps further into the future. Compare with MedievalStasis, which is more common in fantasy settings. The polar opposite of TheSingularity. Usually goes hand in hand with SciFiWritersHaveNoSenseOfScale, NoNewFashionsInTheFuture and KineticWeaponsAreJustBetter. {{Zeerust}} is when this trope is especially blatant.

** Although amusingly enough, the so-called Gothic architecture developed during the Middle Ages was technologically more advanced than anything done in the ancient Rome, but the Renaissance people thought it was crude and barbaric because it diverted from the Roman aesthetics.