History Main / ModernStasis

* ''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 trope, however Rifts also frequently has military equipment from the turn of the 21 century be equally effective (usually with a HandWave about replacing the armor plates). 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 giant alien mecha is stridently ignored.
** There are Arleigh Burke and Wasp class Destroyers alongside 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*.
** An adventure focuses on a A-10 Warthog that someone has gotten working which worries the powers of the area
** Weapons dealers sell A-1 Abrams tanks right alongside futuristic hover-tanks with plasma canons (for similar prices).

** Humans will be wearing typical clothes of today, talking in typical accents of today[[note]]although this one may be due to the TARDIS' TranslatorMicrobes keeping things familiar for the characters and the audience sharing the characters' perspective[[/note]] 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.

** On the other hand, episodes set in the future ''do'' usually have some futuristic element like energy weapons (that resemble modern guns) and advanced tech...though the humans also tend to wear more or less modern clothes.
** At least the speech can be somewhat explained- the TARDIS' translation matrix automatically translates anything said or read into the user's language of choice, and some cultures ''do'' have unique methods of speaking or acting.
** 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 {{Ray Gun}}s that are no more powerful than what far less advanced civilizations field. Meanwhile, the High Council is plotting an ascension via a paradox that will destroy the entire universe and turn the Time Lords into high-level {{Energy Being}}s and 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).
** One possible explanation for the disparity is the sheer length of the war has potentially shredded all the advanced technology, with Gallifrey itself being under sustained siege, meaning that there's potentially nothing else left to fight ''with''. As one of the commanders states, they've used ''all'' the weapons in what was once the forbidden weapons vault, until the General corrects him and tells him they haven't used the Moment - the one that the Doctor has just stolen. Given that the Moment is not just a galaxy eating superweapon the size of a small box that could casually wipe out the two most powerful races in the universe, but is also entirely sentient with an atemporal perspective, a conscience, and utterly terrifying raw power, there is an entirely justified fear that it will judge its user. The Doctor's the only person crazy enough to even ''try'' using it.

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. Contrast with PacManFever, in which the work is set in the present but technology, especially video games, seems to have remained unchanged for decades. The polar opposite of TheSingularity. Usually goes hand in hand with SciFiWritersHaveNoSenseOfScale, NoNewFashionsInTheFuture and KineticWeaponsAreJustBetter. {{Zeerust}} is when ''past'' depictions of the future looks dated ''now''.

* The setting of ''Manga/MyHeroAcademia'' seems only slightly more futuristic than the present day despite being a good four or five generations ahead, at least. What advancements ''do'' exist seem to be linked to the training and equipping of heroes. InUniverse, it's theorized that the societal upheaval caused by [[MassSuperEmpoweringEvent the sudden appearance of Quirks]] (the official name for superpowers in this universe) delayed the development of new technologies for a while until people got used to the new status quo and things settled down. There are some who believe that, had Quirks not appeared, humanity would already be in space.

* PlayedWith in the ''VideoGame/CivilizationBeyondEarth'' backstory. At some point in the future, there was a [[NoodleIncident global catastrophe]] called the [[UnspecifiedApocalypse Great Mistake]], which significantly set the entire civilization back in development. As a result, the whole world suffered colossal losses in almost everything, particularly in the technological and cultural aspects, and the Earth was gradually turning into a dying world. The centuries that followed were so hard that they became known as the Second Dark Ages. [[SubvertedTrope But, nevertheless, humanity managed to recover]], unite in new supranational formations, and, at the cost of incredible efforts, send several [[ColonyShip colony ships]] to the stars, hoping to create a prosperous colony and save those who remained on Earth. As [[ImpliedTrope implied]] in the endings of the Purity and Supremacy affinities, [[DoubleSubversion that was the last outstanding achievement of humanity on Earth]], which, after the departure of the colonists, [[EarthThatUsedToBeBetter completely degraded]] to the state of ScavengerWorld.

* PlayedWith in the ''VideoGame/CivilizationBeyondEarth'' backstory. At some point in the future, there was [[NoodleIncident a global catastrophe]] called the [[UnspecifiedApocalypse Great Mistake]], which significantly set the entire civilization back in development. As a result, the whole world suffered colossal losses in almost everything, particularly in the technological and cultural aspects, and the Earth was gradually turning into a dying world. The centuries that followed were so hard that they became known as the Second Dark Ages. [[SubvertedTrope But, nevertheless, humanity managed to recover]], unite in new supranational formations, and, at the cost of incredible efforts, send several [[ColonyShip colony ships]] to the stars, hoping to create a prosperous colony and save those who remained on Earth. [[ImpliedTrope As implied]] in the endings of the Purity and Supremacy affinities, [[DoubleSubversion that was the last outstanding achievement of humanity on Earth]], which, after the departure of the colonists, [[EarthThatUsedToBeBetter completely degraded]] to the state of ScavengerWorld.

* PlayedWith in the ''VideoGame/CivilizationBeyondEarth'' backstory. At some point in the future, there was a [[NoodleIncident global catastrophe]] called the [[UnspecifiedApocalypse Great Mistake]], which significantly threw civilization in development. As a result, the whole world suffered colossal losses in almost everything, in particular in the technological and cultural aspects, and the Earth was gradually turning into a dying world. The centuries that followed were so hard that they became known as the Second Dark Ages. [[SubvertedTrope But, nevertheless, humanity managed to recover]], unite in new supranational formations and send, at the cost of incredible efforts, several [[ColonyShip colony ships]] to the stars, hoping to create a prosperous colony and save those who remained on Earth. [[ImpliedTrope As implied]] in the endings of the Purity and Supremacy affinities, [[DoubleSubversion this was the last outstanding achievement of humanity on Earth]], which, after the departure of the colonists, [[EarthThatUsedToBeBetter completely degraded]] to the state of ScavengerWorld.

** 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 High Council is plotting an ascension via a paradox that will destroy the entire universe and turn the Time Lords into high-level EnergyBeing[=s] and 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).

** 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).

* Kenneth Bulmer's ''The Secret of ZI'' takes place nearly 300 years after the Earth was conquered by HumanAliens, but everything seems exactly like the date it was written. Partly justified by the aliens having prohibited all techological advance in order to keep their superiority, but this doesn't account for the total lack of cultural change, even on the most superficial level of slang and fashions. Of course this is because the plot (a resistance movement preparing for [[spoiler: an interstellar counter-attack at sublight speeds]]) requires a delay of centuries, but the author didn't want the distractions of inventing a future world.
* 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 were also affected by that phenomenon and were reverted to... the late 20th century]].

[[folder:Film]]

[[folder:Anime]]

* 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 foreword 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.

[[folder:Real Life]]
* The so-called Dark Ages revered ancient Rome because its architectural achievements were only equaled during the time of the HighMiddleAges. UsefulNotes/TheRenaissance was partly an attempt to revive classical traditions over the medieval art forms.
** Although amusingly enough, the so-called Gothic architecture developed during the Middle Ages was technologically more advanced than anything done in ancient Rome, but the Renaissance thought it was crude and barbaric because it diverted from the old Roman aesthetics.
* [[AvertedTrope Averted]] in real life since about 1850, in north-western Europe and The Commonwealth at least. The explosion in world-trade and wealth meant that development was noticeable on a generational basis, with the 'look' of whole cities changing in mere decades - most European towns had running water and even electricity by the 1960s (at which time cars began to outnumber horses, moreover), when the pace of change increased ''again'' to the point where even the sleepiest towns visibly changed on a bi-decade-ly basis (thanks to the further spread of water, electricity, and appliances like the radio and even home-telephones and cars). Interestingly, this trope may come back into effect for the world's most developed areas (Europe, North America, Japan+Korea, etc.) within just a decade or so; just as the changes to non-electronic appliances and vehicles have become almost purely aesthetic these days, electronics too can be expected to go the same way as the computing-power and efficiency of the very latest models available nowadays surpasses people's real needs - there's already a trend towards buying more durable models so they can cut down on repair and replacement costs.
** This trend may however be limited to civilian/general use. Governments, militaries and corporations may well continue to use more advanced techs (such as quantum computing, advanced robotics or nuclear fusion).
** Additionally, while electronics are approaching peak practicality, the ''implementation'' thereof still has ways to go. An example would be autonomous cars and the infrastructure to support them or household robotics and let's not even get into what ruckus Artificial Intelligence may cause...
* Some conspiracy theorists claim that oil companies, technology companies, and other large industries intentionally keep the world in this state, despite obvious real life aversions. Very often much of this is based on a lack of understanding of the costs of new technologies (such as the issues with solar power -- in some cases it may cost less in the long run, but the costs are almost all up front, meaning that you're paying for 20 years of power today, an unpalatable proposition), or the inability to create certain technologies (an internal combustion motor using water as a fuel or perpetual motion machines).
* Pretty much every time the news media extrapolate a current trend into the future to [[LuridTalesOfDoom scare us]], Modern Stasis is assumed, at least when it comes to technology that might address the problem in question.
** One example in particular is how documentaries on our solar system like to say that the Sun will eventually die by becoming a red giant star, incinerating the Earth. Never mind that this won't happen for the next ''five billion years'', they just focus on "THIS IS REALLY GOING TO HAPPEN AND THERE IS LITERALLY NOTHING ANYONE CAN DO ABOUT IT."
** Similar with predictions that within only a few hundred ''million'' years the Sun will have grown bright enough for Earth to become too warm to 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.
* Though in 2014 we have the potential to use technology that would be considered futuristic (see IWantMyJetpack for examples), it is still too expensive for the added value to be interesting. Think about how the VideoPhone never really took off until smartphones. Likewise, for example, some ideas related to Internet-connected appliances, a popular concept in the late 1990's, might become Zeerust in a few years.[[note]]While the "Internet of things" as envisioned in TheNewTens is gaining traction, and becomes more and more plausible, it is still distinct from what was imagined one or two decades before, and it is unclear what will come next.[[/note]] In short, it's possible we will remain in some form of Modern Stasis, but it isn't because tech doesn't march on, rather because some technologies will be of little use.
* Kurt Andersen [[http://www.vanityfair.com/style/2012/01/prisoners-of-style-201201 writes in Vanity Fair magazine]] that modern fashions have barely changed since the early 1990s, thanks to the digital age which has allowed [[{{Retraux}} older fashions to be preserved and enjoyed]].
* Some futurists claim if humans were to become immortal our culture would stagnate and we would stop inventing new things. Oh, [[AndThatsTerrible and that would be bad.]]
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* The ''ComicBook/AmoryWars'' 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.

[[folder:Newspaper Comics]]
* Spoofed in a ''ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes'' strip from early 1990, which begins with Hobbes remarking that TheEighties are over and TheNineties have begun. But Calvin is unimpressed, because [[IWantMyJetpack there are still no flying cars or moon colonies, and humans still haven't learned how to control the weather]]. Hobbes notes that "The problem with the future is it keeps turning into the present."
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* {{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 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.

** 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.

* Some [[UsefulNotes/ConspiracyTheories conspiracy theorists]] claim that oil companies, technology companies, and other large industries intentionally keep the world in this state, despite obvious real life aversions. Very often much of this is based on a lack of understanding of the costs of new technologies (such as the issues with solar power -- in some cases it may cost less in the long run, but the costs are almost all up front, meaning that you're paying for 20 years of power today, an unpalatable proposition), or the inability to create certain technologies (an internal combustion motor using water as a fuel or perpetual motion machines).

** Although the future depicted in "Stewie Griffin: the Untold Story" mostly falls under NextSundayAD, it does have TimeTravel. When Stewie comments on the lack of advancement, his future counterpart remarks "Well, it's only been 30 years." Stewie does have one ImagineSpot in which a man is seen having a TV show beamed directly into his head.

%%Moved to NextSundayAD * 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 Creator/VladimirVasilyev's ''Literature/BigKievTechnician'', it is the year 368,764, but everything looks like it has at the end of the 20th century, except that many cities are now [[MegaCity Mega Cities]]. The world is, inexplicably, also populated by fantasy races like elves and dwarves, although the short-lived humans are still the majority. Nothing has changed in at least 10,000 years (according to records), and most people forgot how things work. Technicians and scientists are the societal elite, as they know the "formulas" for taming and operating machines. Machines themselves are also somehow alive, or at least perceived that way. Nothing in the book explains how things got to this point. The ending of the book signals the EndOfAnEra of stagnation where most of the "tamed" machines shut down in the presence of manufactured ones, starting the age of rediscovery and progress.

* In any of the ''Videogame/FrontMission'' games, aside from how [[RealRobot Wanzers]] are a commonplace weaponry and the world politics consists of [[SpaceFillingEmpire multinational blocs]], nothing is really different from the present day. Even [[EnergyWeapons laser weaponry]], [[DesignerBabies Imaginary Number]], and [[WetwareCPU B-Device]] are considered confidential, experimental, and cutting edge in the storyline.

* ''Literature/{{Wasp}}'': For a planet settled by an interplanetary alien empire from the future, Jaimec's technological level is pretty much on par with 1950s Earth (the novel was written in 1957). It might be a tad justified, because Sirians are stated to be technologically inferior, but still.

* Taken UpToEleven in ''Literature/TheTimeMachine'', where modern (Victorian) society remains the same for hundreds of thousands of years, resulting in humanity evolving into two different species along class lines.

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. Contrast with PacManFever, in which the work is set in the present but technology, especially video games, seems to have remained unchanged for decades. The polar opposite of TheSingularity. Usually goes hand in hand with SciFiWritersHaveNoSenseOfScale, NoNewFashionsInTheFuture and KineticWeaponsAreJustBetter. {{Zeerust}} is when this trope is especially blatant.

* Though in 2014 we have the potential to use technology that would be considered futuristic (see IWantMyJetpack for examples), it is still too expensive for the added value to be interesting. Think about how the VideoPhone never really took off until smartphones, and even then it is rarely used. Likewise, for example, some ideas related to Internet-connected appliances, a popular concept in the late 1990's, might become Zeerust in a few years.[[note]]While the "Internet of things" as envisioned in TheNewTens is gaining traction, and becomes more and more plausible, it is still distinct from what was imagined one or two decades before, and it is unclear what will come next.[[/note]] In short, it's possible we will remain in some form of Modern Stasis, but it isn't because tech doesn't march on, rather because some technologies will be of little use.

* ''Anime/YukiYunaIsAHero'' is implied to take place in the 2300s however it's not noticeable at all. Technology is more-or-less the same as modern Japan (they even still use smartphones) and fashion is the [[NoNewFashionsInTheFuture same.]]
* The setting of ''Manga/MyHeroAcademia'' seems only slightly more futuristic than the present day despite being a good four or five generations ahead, at least. What advancements ''do'' exist seem to be linked to the training and equipping of heroes. InUniverse, it's theorized that the societal upheaval caused by [[MassSuperEmpoweringEvent the sudden appearance of Quirks]] (the official name for superpowers in this universe) delayed the development of new technologies for a while until people got used to the new status quo and things settled down. There are some who believe that, had Quirks not appeared, humanity would already be in space.

* The ''ComicBook/AmoryWars'' 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.

* The "Kim tells her story" FramingDevice in ''Film/EdwardScissorhands''. If the main plot is set in a stylised version of the mid 1960s, and Kim is around 18, she was born in the late 1940s: therefore the frame, in which Kim is elderly, must take place well into the 21st century, probably in the 2020s or so - certainly long after the film was made in 1990. Yet, if anything, it looks rather old-fashioned even for 1990; it's not really differentiated at all from the main Sixties setting.
* Another Creator/TimBurton film, ''Film/Batman1989'' (and to a lesser extent, its sequel, ''Film/BatmanReturns'') shows Gotham City not changing all that much even after twenty or thirty years have passed. It's mostly the technology and the cultural stuff, but there is also the depressing fact of continued crime and corruption in the city, which only seem to have gotten worse with each decade. (Of course, this is sadly often TruthInTelevision.)

* Intentional in ''Film/{{Idiocracy}}''. Technology, fashion and culture haven't advanced for half a millennia because humans have become too stupid to improve anything and barely keep things functioning as they are.

* Downplayed in the Novelization of ''Film/StarTrekTheMotionPicture'' written by Gene Roddenberry (or at least with his name as author) talks about how a lot of the people on Earth are “New Humans” who have evolved to be more peaceful, less driven, and mentally calmer. Then you have people like Kirk who still use family names, still are willing to use violence, still have inner demons to drive them on…
** Subtly referenced in the 2009 reboot, with Pike's description of Kirk possessing an adventurous spirit that Star Fleet has mostly lost ("act first, ask questions later").
* The Gbaba, hostile aliens in the ''Literature/{{Safehold}}'' universe, are suspected by the human race (whom they are busy wiping out) to be stuck in this; evidence suggests the Gbaba have seen few, if any, significant advances in technology for centuries or more; one example given are the warships; one captured warship was built at least two thousand years earlier. It is otherwise identical--software, computers, weapons, sensors--to a recently constructed warship.
* In Creator/VladimirVasilyev's ''Literature/BigKievTechnician'', it is the year 368,764, but everything looks like it has at the end of the 20th century, except that many cities are now [[MegaCity Mega Cities]]. The world is, inexplicably, also populated by fantasy races like elves and dwarves, although the short-lived humans are still the majority. Nothing has changed in at least 10,000 years (according to records), and most people forgot how things work. Technicians and scientists are the societal elite, as they know the "formulas" for taming and operating machines. Machines themselves are also somehow alive, or at least perceived that way. Nothing in the book explains how things got to this point. The ending of the book signals the EndOfAnEra of stagnation where most of the "tamed" machines shut down in the presence of manufactured ones, starting the age of rediscovery and progress.
** The short story collection ''Big Kiev Witcher'' includes more high-tech things like [[StarfishRobots Spider Bots]] and deadly security fields that won't harm children or witchers.
* Earth in the ''Literature/OldMansWar'' series by Creator/JohnScalzi. There still seems to be TV, Time Magazine, Newsweek, etc.. The Colonial Union keeps all the very high tech to itself and reminds Earth of this via an orbital elevator that should not exist via the physics they know.

* ''Literature/{{Wasp}}'': For a planet settled by an interplanetary alien empire from the future, Jaimec's technological level is pretty much on par with 1950s Earth (the novel was written in 1957). It might be a tad justified, because Sirians are stated to be technologically inferior, but still.
* ''Literature/WeAreLegionWeAreBob'': While both technology and culture have advanced, Bob is surprised at how little. The technological advancements are purely practical, to the point that no one seems to care about the physics-breaking subspace except as a basic method of propulsion. Some of Bob's basic programming skills are seen as incredible by the scientists working with him. Bob theorizes that [[TheTheocracy FAITH]] had a hand in keeping things from advancing too much; Dr. Landen mentions that some factions want to eliminate all technology past steam.
* Taken UpToEleven in Literature/TheTimeMachine, where modern (Victorian) society remains the same for hundreds of thousands of years, resulting in humanity evolving into two different species along class lines.
* Drew Magary's ''The Postmortal'' is about the consequences of a single very important discovery: an immortality serum. Over the following decades, this has huge effects on culture, but scarcely anything else seems to get ''invented'' during that time. ''Thematically'' justified, at least, as it reflects the [[WhoWantsToLiveForever sense of aimless stagnation]] people tend to experience after having their ages frozen by the serum. Eventually, the stasis is broken as civilization backslides into barbarism as resources are stretched beyond their limits by [[OverpopulationCrisis overpopulation.]]

* Mostly true about the DistantFinale of ''Series/MadAboutYou'', though it is implied that the lowest-common-denominator of pop culture has dropped and the world is on its way to becoming a [[CrapsackWorld crapsack]].

* In ''Series/DarkShadows'', when Barnabas and Julia travel to 1995, there are no noticeable changes in costume or technology.

* In ''Series/StargateUniverse'', it is revealed that, due to a TimeyWimeyBall, duplicates of the ''Destiny'' crew ended up on a habitable world 2000 years ago and were forced to establish a colony. While they had to do everything from scratch, lacking the necessary tools to construct anything beyond rudimentary housing at first, multiple {{Time Skip}}s show that the Novus colonists advanced pretty fast and had a decent-sized town (with modern architecture) within 3 generations. TimeSkip again to modern day. The Novus society has grown and expanded, but does not look much more advanced than modern-day Earth. Yes, the colonists had to struggle to start, but they had a huge head start with technology and science (admittedly, they do manage to cure several diseases that we still can't), so they should have advanced much further than what we see.
* Sometimes, but by no means all the time, happens in ''Series/DoctorWho''.

* ''[[Series/Forever2018 Forever]]'': When Sarah and Andre meet, everything about the setting suggests that it takes place in the 2010s. However, maybe 40 years later, when Andre is 70 years old and goes to an open house looking for Sarah, nothing seems to have changed.

* In every ''VideoGame/TheSims'' game except the first, you can play through multiple generations of families, but the world never changes at all. This also applies to the (loose) lore in the games: ''VideoGame/TheSims3'' is set 50 years before ''VideoGame/TheSims2'', but technology, architecture and fashion stays more or less the same.
** As The Sims 3 got more expansion packs, this became even more strange with sings of ''technological devolution''. For instance, a expansion pack of The Sims 3 introduced 2010's smartphones, while The Sims 2 has only early 2000's cellphones.
* ''VideoGame/SimCity'' games (except 2000) run the trope. Your city could be in the year 2300, and yet architecture, fashions, trends, and industry are pretty much the same (yes, even the high-tech industry doesn't get any higher or more improved). ''VideoGame/SimCity 2000'' introduces some futuristic power stations and the giant "arcology" apartment buildings, but their presence doesn't seem to have any effect on the rest of the city.
** Of course, thanks to customizable tilesets, you can change the architecture from 1950, to 2050 and beyond. This is purely cosmetic though.

* In the ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerTiberium'' universe, whenever civilians appear in FMV cutscenes, they look straight out from whenever the game was made. Especially egregious in ''Tiberian Twilight'' which takes place in 2077 but a shot of a street in the final cutscene looks like modern-day Los Angeles. Largely averted in-game though, where GDI cities and settlements have a more TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture flavour while the cities that look present-day are crumbling Yellow Zone hellholes whose governments collapsed decades ago.
* One level of ''VideoGame/{{Descent}} 3'' takes place in Seoul, Korea, which seems to be mostly stuck in the 20th/21st century.
* The industrial revolution in the world of VideoGame/ArcTheLad happened 1000 years prior to the first episode, yet appart from a few gadgets used by the [[TheEmpire Romalian]] military, technology never went beyond the level of the late twentieth century.
* In any of the ''Videogame/FrontMission'' games, aside from how [[RealRobot Wanzers]] are a commonplace weaponry and the world politics consists of [[SpaceFillingEmpire multinational blocs]], nothing is really different from the present day. Even [[EnergyWeapons laser weaponry]], [[DesignerBabies Imaginary Number]], and [[WetwareCPU B-Device]] are considered confidential, experimental, and cutting edge in the storyline.
* The setting of the ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}'' franchise suggests that pre-war America was culturally trapped in the 1950's right up until the bombs fell. Clothes, furniture and cars are evocative of the era, as are cultural behavior (clear [=McCarthyism=], RedScare, women being homemakers while their husbands were the breadwinners). It's also disturbingly clear that the government held a lot more control over people, and may have enforced these norms to stay in control.
* PlayedWith in the ''VideoGame/CivilizationBeyondEarth'' backstory. At some point in the future, there was a [[NoodleIncident global catastrophe]] called the [[UnspecifiedApocalypse Great Mistake]], which significantly threw civilization in development. As a result, the whole world suffered colossal losses in almost everything, in particular in the technological and cultural aspects, and the Earth was gradually turning into a dying world. The centuries that followed were so hard that they became known as the Second Dark Ages. [[SubvertedTrope But, nevertheless, humanity managed to recover]], unite in new supranational formations and send, at the cost of incredible efforts, several [[ColonyShip colony ships]] to the stars, hoping to create a prosperous colony and save those who remained on Earth. [[ImpliedTrope As implied]] in the endings of the Purity and Supremacy affinities, [[DoubleSubversion this was the last outstanding achievement of humanity on Earth]], which, after the departure of the colonists, [[EarthThatUsedToBeBetter completely degraded]] to the state of ScavengerWorld.