History Main / NewTechnologyIsEvil

* When 3D printers became widely available, a number of "think of the children!" types began worrying someone would 3D print guns. In fact, people ''have'', but they have been rather unreliable and capable of only firing low-caliber rounds. One of them, the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberator_(gun) Liberator]], was based on the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FP-45_Liberator FP-45 Liberator Pistol]] but made out of plastic parts. People worried that criminals could now manufacture internet guns for cheap...except that it's made of even cheaper materials, fires a weaker round (.380 ACP/9x17mm), and requires a barrel and round as sperate parts for. One Liberator actually shattered after firing. While the gun is still dangerous there are multiple problems and dangers of the gun that makes it impractical compared to an actual gun.

** It's more of a belief that ''xenos'' technology is evil, because a) it was made by filthy xenos creatures and b) [[MachineWorship it hasn't got the blessing of the Omnissiah.]] The true irony of the latter is that [[spoiler:it's a subversion of the first since the "Omnissiah" is actually a C'tan the Emperor beat into submission to act as inspiration for the Adeptus Mechanicus. At least according to ''Literature/HorusHeresy''.]]

* Franchise/ArchieComics has this as a standard plot where the characters get some new trendy tech and everything goes wrong with it with the characters' usual shticks until they ultimately reject it. If the tech in question stays around in real life for at least a decade, then it just becomes part of the background in the stories without comment. An example is the answering machine in the 1980s, which was the focus of a Veronica story which ends with her throwing it out and vowing to take all future calls personally, while now, that device is just a standard appliance all the characters have.

* Many of Website/TalesFromDevNull's [[https://www.4eye-labs.net/devnulltales/content/crywolf/ stories]] can certainly make new technology seem evil, but in reality, [[FamilyUnfriendlyAesop evil is in people all along]].

* Become obsessed with it, to the exclusion of everything else;

Compare NewMediaAreEvil. When this technology is used by an entire society, it becomes LuddWasRight. When this trope motivates the bad guy, they're an EvilLuddite. See also SocialMediaIsBad.

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* Like in the ''WesternAnimation/ThomasTheTankEngine'' example below, ''Theatre/StarlightExpress'' features heroic steam locomotives and villainous diesels.

* To hear Calvin's dad in ''ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes'' talk, you would think any form of technology was the devil's magic. He refuses to buy a VCR, having already gotten fed up with TV and radio, and when Calvin asks him about the internet in one strip late in the comic's run, Dad responds that "it's bad enough we have a telephone!"

* An OlderThanFeudalism example: King Archidamus II of [[AncientGreece Sparta]] was appalled when the newfangled "catapult" was demonstrated to him and bewailed the ruin of soldierly valor by such impersonal long-range killing machines.

* Averted, in the ''Fanfic/AllGuardsmenParty'', against the standard beliefs of the Imperium. The party has started gathering and using Tau xenotech disguised with Imperial adornments as of ''The Greater Good''. They've also tried and failed to steal from both the Eldar and the Necrons, both times being thwarted by an inability to understand the controls.

* ''WesternAnimation/MuppetBabies'' has the episode "The Great Muppet Cartoon Show". Scooter makes animation on his computer while Animal uses paint and keeps chanting "Messy!". Scooter gets ''trapped'' in a jail made of {{tron lines}} until he agrees with Animal. It's a {{broken aesop}}, since being messy was supposed to imply creativity, but Muppet Babies was a ClipShow (several movies clips, mostly {{Star Wars}} were used heavily throughout the series). It's a {{Funny Aneurysm Moment}} now that Lucasfilm has been sold to Disney who also owns Jim Henson studios ''and'' Creator/{{Pixar}}.

Compare NewMediaAreEvil. When this technology is used by an entire society, it becomes LuddWasRight. When this trope motivates the bad guy, they're an EvilLuddite.

** Likewise, the cutting edge appliances in the movie WesternAnimation/TheBraveLittleToaster aren't very nice, to say the least (they were in fact a big TakeThat to the 80s consumer culture).
** Interestingly, the original book averted the trope - the new appliances weren't portrayed as any worse than the older models, and actually helped Toaster and the other old appliances.

* The short, "Bear Necessities" from the ''WesternAnimation/TinyToonAdventures'' episode, "[[Recap/TinyToonAdventuresS1E49FairyTalesForThe90s Fairy Tales For the 90's]]" depicts the ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'' incarnation of The Three Bears in a then-modern day retelling of the ''Literature/{{Goldilocks}}'' story. While Pa likes the idea of modern houses and technology, Junior certainly thinks modern technology is evil, and misses his old life living as a wild bear in the forest. It isn't hard to see why, since Junior tries to make friends with a computer, who in return, demands lunch money and fires floppy disks at him.

* There for those who think that hand-scanning technology is the "mark of the beast" from the [[Literature/TheBible Book of Revelation]]. Actually, since it's explicitly said in the book that one purpose of the mark is to control commerce, this has happened any time a major purchasing control is introduced, from credit cards to smartphones, at one point it was thought the barcodes on products was a trial run for the mark.
* An OlderThanFeudalism example: King Archidamus II of [[AncientGreece Sparta]] was appalled when the newfangled "catapult" was demonstrated to him, and bewailed the ruin of soldierly valor by such impersonal long-range killing machines.
* The movable type printing press was decried as evil by some (mostly the church and rich nobles) because at the time, a formal education from hand copied books was something only rich nobles could afford. And since nobles were seen as God's favored at the time, books being made widely available to the peasantry was seen as defying the will of God.
* When 3D printers became widely available, a number of "think of the children!" types began worrying someone would 3D print guns. In fact, people ''have'', but they have been rather unreliable and capable of only firing low-caliber rounds.

* Video replay for officials tends to be strongly resisted by many major sports, despite broadcasters having had the technology for decades. The result of this is immediate evidence for a blown call by a referee... that doesn't count for anything at all. A particularly awful example? [[http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20100602&content_id=10727590&vkey=recap&fext=.jsp&c_id=det Armando Gallaraga's perfect game that wasn't]]. To add insult to injury, MajorLeagueBaseball Commissioner Bud Selig refused to reverse the call for the official records.

* FIFA is resistant to adding technologies such as replays for UsefulNotes/AssociationFootball, insisting that the word of the referee is what should be accepted and human error is part of the game. But lately ref mistakes are getting so common FIFA relented on using [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goal-line_technology chips that proved the ball entered the goal]] in the 2014 edition of TheWorldCup.

* The premise of Aleksandr Mazin's ''Time for Change'' duology is that nature has finally had it with humans going into forbidden areas of science and has struck back with various natural disasters ranging from mass psychosis to giant tsunamis swallowing cities whole. The strange thing is, nobody knows what is causing these things, as the "forbidden" research that takes place at the time or right before the disaster usually has nothing to do with the actual disaster (the giant tidal wave that destroyed New York was, apparently, caused by an experiment at giving birth in space). The world governments have created the International Committee for Prevention of Illegal Scientific Research (or Aladdin, as it is known to most) to stop these disasters from occurring. They recruit military and scientific experts from all over the world and employ the best technology known to man to track down and eliminate any illegal research lab that may result in yet another disaster. Their methods are often brutal and efficient, and they eventually become strong enough to challenge even world governments like USA, the new [[TsaristRussia Russian Empire]], and China (they manage to take over Las Vegas in a matter of hours and cut it off from the rest of the country when one of their own is arrested for a crime he didn't commit). Strangely enough, much of the research that "nature" appears to especially hate deals with space or biotechnology, so space exploration was placed on indefinite hold. When the Chinese attempt to break the ban and launch a spacecraft to Mars, the entire nation (and any other Chinese speaker) was struck down with a form of aphasia. The main character's father even comments that it may be God punishing us from attempting to leave the place where He put us.

* When 3D printers became widely available, a number of "think of the children!" types began worrying someone would 3D print guns.

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* J.R.R. Tolkien was once recorded as saying that the most evil invention ever inflicted on man was the internal combustion engine. While he wasn't an outright Luddite, Tolkien did have a dislike of industrialization and mechanization. A lot of this had to do with his time serving in World War I, and seeing the first tanks and mechanized war machines. This comes across in ''Literature/TheSilmarillion'' and ''Literature"TheLordOfTheRings'' when he describes the war machines of Sauron and Morgoth, including one instance in the former work where the enemy employs what are clearly ''tanks!''