History Main / ScaleOfScientificSins

** 3.2 When it results in a {{Mix and Match Critter|s}}.

* This is discussed, but ultimately {{averted}}, in ''Literature/TheOppenheimerAlternative'' by Creator/RobertJSawyer. Once the heroes discover that [[spoiler:an anomaly inside the Sun’s core will lead to basically a micronova, which will inevitably cause the whole photosphere to blow up, taking the three innermost planets with it]], a character speculates that this is the solution to the FermiParadox: since the anomaly occurred in 1938, the same year nuclear fission was discovered, they propose that God intentionally causes such anomalies [[spoiler:to destroy any species that uses nuclear power for destruction]]. But this is shot down later in the scene as being unscientific, and despite them having no illusions about [[HumansAreBastards humans inevitably misusing the fruits of science]] the heroes [[spoiler:do succeed in saving everyone despite this requiring even more of the sins on this list to do so, including an [[DeusExMachina unforeshadowed]] time travel discovery]].

* Played with in the cases of both Dr. Okeer and Henry Lawson in ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'', who genetically engineer the perfect Rogan and human respectively in Grunt and Miranda Lawson. Okeer is hated by most other Krogan, while Miranda absolutely despises her “father”. Their work is despicable not for its goal, but due to the method used tO achieve it. Both employed a brute force trial and error method in which Grunt and Miranda were the only ones their respective creators ''kept'' - while many other failures were either killed, not allowed to be born, or discarded and left to die. In Okeer’s case his rejects numbered about a thousand.

* ''VideoGame/TheDig'' has this and another example; interestingly, the sin with less scale came later. [[spoiler:In their latest discovery, the Cocytan aliens found a way to AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence to live as immortal energy beings, when their entire race ascends, they find that they are doomed to become mere expectators, unable to build or create anything; worse, they become unable to return, at least until the heroes arrive.]]

* ''VideoGame/TheDig'' again! One of the first inventions of the Cocytans to achieve immortality were the "life crystals", which resurrected the death, again, the individual resurrected [[CameBackWrong came back addicted to them]].

* ''WebOriginal/OrionsArm'' has provolves and alife, and for the most part, they're no better or worse than any other sophont. The problem is that some of them feel that a mind that was engineered is intrinsically less flawed than a sentience than has evolved naturally. If they start to gain regional power, things are likely to go badly for humans in the area, because you can't have Reformation without a [[MindRape reformat]]...

* ''WebOriginal/OrionsArm'' has many different means of cheating death, but for the baseline species it mostly means trusting in the benificence of vastly more powerful minds, many of whom have very complex plans and might not really care very much about the little minds they might abuse in achieving them. When your body is rebuilt, how can you expect to discover that you're now a ManchurianAgent when the technology involved is as far beyond you as a computer virus is beyond a chimpanzee?

* ''WebOriginal/OrionsArm'':

* ''WebOriginal/OrionsArm'', despite generally displaying all of these as good things, shows disadvantages to all but immortality.

* ''WebOriginal/OrionsArm'' is largely made of Transhumanism and paints it in a mostly positive light, but it doesn't always go well. There are things called Blights and Perversities that occur when something bootstraps itself to vastly higher levels of intelligence and power and isn't mentally equipped for the results. Some powerful intelligences make "godseeds", things which can help mere mortals transcend themselves, and given the fairly poor odds of some of them functioning correctly it seems like these are some particularly [[SchmuckBait cruel trick]].

* ''WebOriginal/OrionsArm'' has the AI Verifex engage on an ambitious stellar engineering project that eventually ended with [[EarthShatteringKaboom 154 stars in cluster M54 going supernova]] simultaneously, causing devastation even as far away as 1500 light years.

* ''WebOriginal/OrionsArm'' has a lot of this:

* Aside from the ghouls, ''Manga/{{Hellsing}}'' has [[spoiler:the Major's Body. Schrödinger (Schroedinger) may and/or may not count]].

* Aside from the ghouls, ''Manga/{{Hellsing}}'' has [[spoilerthe Major's Body. Schrödinger (Schroedinger) may and/or may not count]].

** More a subversion than a straight example, since the immediate consequences tend to be minor growing pains on the way to something good, most of the issues are explicitly exceptions to the norm (where everything's going perfectly smoothly) and in the end the whole thing ends in humanity essentially raising the new form of life to adulthood without any continuing conflict (the war that kills earth is a matter of humans vs, other humans, the robots actually help us avoid extinction).

** Despite the Council's laws against it, you encounter ''two'' rogue AI programs in just the first game — one which evolved from a casino-cheating program, and one built by your own bosses as a tactical tool. [[spoiler:Cerberus steals the second one and it ends up working for you under her new name, [=EDI=], and [[BenevolentAI she's alright]].]]
* The Terrans in the ''VideoGame/{{X}}'' series are extremely paranoid after their own Terraformers went crazy after a bad software upgrade, gained sentience and began "[[ColonyDrop terraforming]]" the Earth and any Terran ships in sight. Now the Terrans have a military group - the [[EliteArmy AGI Task Force]] - dedicated to eradicating AI's. Considering that the terraformers became the [[HordeOfAlienLocusts Xenon]] who spent the entire series terrorizing the commonwealth, they're quite correct.

* Aside from the ghouls, ''Manga/{{Hellsing}}'' has [[spoiler: The Major's Body. Schrödinger (Schroedinger) may and/or may not count]]

* ''Franchise/{{Dune}}'': The Bene Gesserit have been attempting to create the Kwisatz Haderach in secret, as he would be their puppet like prophet to control man kind with all their skills and powers. [[spoiler: They succeed, except for the "puppet" part. Paul Atreides and his son Leto do not like being controlled.]]

** Massive-scale human cybernetics. For the sake of balance CyberneticsEatYourSoul - any mechanical and electronic modifications chip away at magic-defining character traits and at the character's humanity score. This includes the creation of [[FateWorseThanDeath cyberzombies]]. Those are not undead, but literally corpses walking by their artificial parts, to the extreme of an artificially alive brain in a weapon-grade android body.

* ''Podcast/OurFairCity'': This is seen in the second season, when Dr Herbert West, despite his amiable nature [[spoiler: releases a horde of zombies on Hartlife]]

* Creator/SergeyLukyanenko's ''Линия Грёз'' and ''Императоры Иллюзий'', set in the ''VideoGame/MasterOfOrion'' universe, feature an explanation to the longevity of major human figures with the A-Than technology - the individual in question (not automatically human) receives a scan, most like a full-body checkpoint in gaming terms. Later memories are constantly transmitted to the company. On death, a certain signal is triggered, leading to the production of a new body, which retains the memories. This has some interesting connotations:

* ''Manga/{{Hellsing}}'' has a backstory in which [[spoiler: the Major is nearly killed during the battle of Berlin, but is found and made a cyborg by the Doktor. Not only that, but he's now pretty much immortal.]]

[[folder: Literature]]

* ''Manga/{{Hellsing}}'' gets a 9 out of 10 for [[spoiler:cheating death through the development of the vampire-conversion tech, gaining immortality (kind of), and creating a transhuman with The Major, and just as likely, Schrodinger. Also, for the failed attempt that is the SHE. Doc must be so proud]].
* This is THE plot point in ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist''. Any attempts to bring back the dead are bound to fail and anyone attempting it will lose a body part as a karmic (and ironic) punishment. But note that being forced to perform human transmutation against your will (as it happens to [[spoiler: Colonel Mustang]]) does not save you from the punishment.

** One of the most dreaded punishments known to man is multiple death - you are resurrected to be killed by torture several times. Reserved for high treason and treason against humankind.
** The A-Than MegaCorp owner, whose power rivals the Emperor's, [[spoiler: because his presence literally makes A-Than work]], offers infinite life (as in unlimited resurrections on the house) as ultimate incentive and infinite death (as multiple death above, but done as long as the MegaCorp stands, and that's in centuries) as ultimate punishment for his mercenaries.

* ''Franchise/StarTrek'': While future medical science is sophisticated enough that characters almost routinely come back from clinical death. However, some extreme attempts have fallen into this trope, such as Kira wanting her boyfriend, Vedek Bareil, to be rejuvenated by using artificial parts to replace decaying brain tissue. This is progressive and further replacements leave him less and less Bajoran till he asks to be allowed to die.

* Averted and played straight in ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer''. When Dawn revives their recently deceased mother while it is never seen it is implied it would have [[GoneHorriblyWrong gone poorly]]. Buffy's resurrection on the other hand didn't have any major consequences [[spoiler: except for the whole opening up the opportunity that The First needed to destroy the Slayer line, and take over the world thing.]]

** This concept was addressed in-universe when Willow tried to get [[spoiler: Tara]] back after her death and was told that the reason why getting Buffy back was possible was that she died due to supernatural causes, where [[spoiler: Tara]] (and Joyce) had both died normally.

--> -- The ApocalypticLog of '''C.X. Ostrow''' in the novelization of ''Film/ForbiddenPlanet''

# Making something, ''anything'', with PotentialApplications.

[[folder: Film]]

* And also in ''Film/TheTerminator'', particularly in the [[Film/Terminator2JudgmentDay second]] and [[Film/Terminator3RiseOfTheMachines third]] movie.

[[folder: Literature]]
* ''Franchise/{{Dune}}'' - where humanity was enslaved by its own machines and who outlawed anything approaching sentient machines on pain of death. In the Duneverse's religion, this is an actual sin. "Thou shall not create a machine to the likeness of Man" is their main commandement. There is, however, nothing against making a human, or any other life form, in the likeness of a machine. This leads to Mentats and Ixian OrganicTechnology, among other things.

* Isaac Asimov's ''Foundation'' universe combines sins 1, 2, 4 and 5 to produce his famous Three Laws and ZerothLawRebellion.
** More a subversion than a straight example, since the immediate consequences tend to be minor growing pains on the way to something good, most of the issues are explicitly exceptions to the norm (where everything's going perfectly smoothly) and in the end the whole thing ends in humanity essentially raising the new form of life to adulthood without any continuing conflict (the war that kills earth is a matter of humans vs other humans, the robots actually help us avoid extinction).

[[folder: Live-Action TV]]
* On ''Franchise/StarTrek'', taking organic oversight out of the command decision loop is almost invariably a catastrophic mistake (except when it's Data). [[WeWillUseManualLabourInTheFuture Humans in the Federation almost do more manual labor than we do.]]
** TOS episode #53, "The Ultimate Computer", in which a computer, when given control, refuses to be turned off and attacks friendly ships.
** TOS episode #35, "The Doomsday Machine", in which an automated weapon continues to destroy planets long after its creators are gone.
* Battlestar Galactica 2010 is all about this. In the original series, the Cylon were alien AI, [[BlueAndOrangeMorality their motives and methods not fully understood]]. In the new 2010 version, the Cylons were built by humanity to "make life easier, simpler, and better." The Cylon didn't like that, went rogue, and after a bloody war, a peace treaty was hashed out between the two sides, until the human-form Cylon came into existence, and they decided to "come home" and commit genocide on their creators.

[[folder: Tabletop Games]]
* ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'': the Iron Men. Bit humanity in the rear in the form of a galaxy-wide dark age.
** Ever since building a machine with artificial intelligence is outlawed. This is gotten around with servitors: vat grown or mind wiped humans with cybernetic implants. As per the peace terms between The Emperor and the Tech-Priests of Mars, all AI creation is strictly forbidden. [[spoiler:Of course, when the Horus Heresy kicks off and whole sectors of the Priesthood declare for the [[BigBad Warmaster]], such promises made by your archenemy kind of fall by the wayside, leading to at least one purely AI war machine in the ranks of the traitors, almost certainly one of many.]]

[[folder: Video Games]]
* ''Franchise/MassEffect'': the quarians built the geth as a cheap labor force. If you talk to Tali, she will eventually reveal that her people panicked when their labor automata started asking existential questions ("Does this unit have a soul?") and tried to shut them all down; the geth responded with force, driving the entire quarian race from Rannoch to wander known space in their vast Migrant Fleet for the last three hundred years. Considering that there had been billions of quarians on Rannoch before their exile, while only 17 million are alive currently, the so-called "Morning War" was a genocide of epic proportions as well (despite the geth not even wanting to annihilate their creators). This incident prompted the Citadel Council to outlaw the development and use of artificial intelligence.

* The Terrans in the ''VideoGame/{{X}}-Universe'' series are extremely paranoid after their own Terraformers went crazy after a bad software upgrade, gained sentience and began "[[ColonyDrop terraforming]]" the Earth and any Terran ships in sight. Now the Terrans have a military group - the [[EliteArmy AGI Task Force]] - dedicated to eradicating AI's. Considering that the terraformers became the [[HordeOfAlienLocusts Xenon]] who spent the entire series terrorizing the commonwealth, they're quite correct.

[[folder: Web Original]]
* ''WebOriginal/OrionsArm'' has a lot of this...

[[folder: Anime & Manga]]

[[folder: Film]]
* ''Film/IAmLegend'', the movie: we cured cancer and everybody died. [[NiceJobBreakingItHero And turned into an evil horde of zombie-vampires.]]

[[folder: Live-Action TV]]
* On ''Series/DoctorWho'', any exotic technology that fixes Earth's big problems by solving energy crises, eliminating air pollution, or giving us an effective non-Doctor defense against aliens is an alien plot to destroy us.

[[folder: Tabletop Games]]
* ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}''. [[MachineWorship Adeptus Mechanicus]]. [[SkeleBot9000 Necrons]]. First believe they can use the second. The second think only about killing them. The second succeeds 99(,9)% of the time.

[[folder: Video Games]]
* To quote ''VideoGame/{{Bioshock|1}}'''s Dr. Suchong "Adam is the canvas, [[LegoGenetics Plasmids]] are the paint." Boy, did ''that'' ever [[GoneHorriblyWrong Go Horribly Wrong]].
** They tried to paint paradise, but thanks to Ryan's refusal to regulate the paint, they ended up creating a Creator/HieronymusBosch piece.
* [[Franchise/DragonAge "The Chantry teaches us that it was the hubris of men the one that brought the Darkspawn into the world. The mages sought to usurp heaven, but instead they destroyed it."]]
** That's also an (attempted) type seven according to the Chantry, since the mages were trying to usurp [[{{God}} The Maker]].

[[folder: Web Original]]

[[folder: Western Animation]]

[[folder: Anime & Manga]]

* This trope is extensively played with in ''Franchise/GhostInTheShell'' - the impact of extensive technical progress in the area of AI and cybernetics on society forms the premise of the series.

[[folder: Literature]]
* ''TablteopGame/{{Shadowrun}}'' universe books feature direct applications of 3.3 - magically active beings gradually lose their magic with increasing degree of cybernetics.
* Sergej Luk'yanenko's ''Линия Грёз'' and ''Императоры Иллюзий'', set in the ''VideoGame/MasterOfOrion'' universe, feature cybernetics as the defining trait of the Meklon race. Humans who follow the Meklons, cyborgs (yet partially human) and the Mechanist Sect (striving to become fully cybernetic lifeforms) are depicted with different degrees of sanity. The protagonist notes that [[spoiler: the DeusExMachina immortality humanity has obtained is yet better than advancing mechanisation.]]
* ''Franchise/{{Dune}}'' the Bene Gesserit have been attempting to create the Kwisatz Haderach in secret, as he would be their puppet like prophet to control man kind with all their skills and powers. [[spoiler: They succeed, except for the "puppet" part. Paul Atreides and his son Leto do not like being controlled.]]
* ''Literature/HonorHarrington'': genetical modification is somewhat frowned upon, and certain forms outright forbidden, ever since a bunch of {{Ubermensch}} saw that they were "better" than humans - so they started a war that could have destroyed Earth.

[[folder: Live-Action TV]]
* On ''Franchise/StarTrek'', human genetic engineering is banned, and most of the products of it are dangerously deranged.
** This is a major point about the origins of [[MemeticMutation KHAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!!]]
** The Dominion, Federation's EvilCounterpart, is basically a huge genetic engineering society. Jem'Hadar were created from nothing, Vorta bred from some other form; and it's stated that [[spoiler: The Founders were once humanoids but genetically engineered themselves into shape shifters. It is even supposed that their close-mindedness is the price they paid for their physical abilities.]]
** Dr Julian Bashir is a genetic augment who turned out relatively well. His case is sympathetic: he was a special needs kid before the augmentation and has a stable personality. To bring the point home, he visits his fellow augments in a couple of different episodes and while they all possess extreme intelligence like him, they also suffer from mental defects and/or personality disorders and are, regardless, banned from having meaningful careers... Then again, the only reason Dr. Bashir has a meaningful and otherwise legal career is that he lied about being a genetic augment. And the genetic augmentation is the exact reason Section 31 wants him for themselves.

* Kit Pedler, a writer/scientific advisor for ''Series/DoctorWho'' in 1966, sincerely believed that CyberneticsEatYourSoul, and was worried that nobody would listen to his warnings. So he invented the Cybermen, as a chilling tale of things to come. When Earth's twin planet Mondas drifts away from the Sun, the people turn to cyber-augmentation as a desperation move, he only way to save their race. But it doesn't matter why they did it; a sin against the natural order can only have one result. So they inevitably became soulless, emotionless automatons. Of course this didn't come across in most stories; they were just scary, hard-to-kill bad guys who came up with insanely complicated and devious plots to convert everyone else into more Cybermen.

* Also on ''Series/DoctorWho'', the Daleks were a LegoGenetics horror story. The Kaled people were being mutated by a millennium-long nuclear/biological/chemical war. One of their scientists, Davros, came up with (or stole) the brilliant idea of accelerating the mutations to see where they would finally end up. And, while at it, he couldn't pass up the opportunity to improve on his creations, making them stronger and more determined. In one version of the story, he was explicitly trying to turn the Kaled race into gods, based on a prophecy he'd read. In all versions, the result was the Daleks, whose sole motivation was to exterminate any lesser (i.e., non-Dalek) forms of life. Starting with Davros himself.
* This is the entire focus of ''Series/OrphanBlack'', with much of the plot being driven by the inhuman manipulations of a science group (much of the rest being driven by the religious fanatics opposed to them).
** In some ways, though, it's quite a subversion. The Dyad Institute's villain status comes not from their science necessarily, but from their objectification of human life, disregarding the clones' well-being and their very bodily autonomy for the sake of profit. It's their intention behind the human cloning, rather than the act of cloning itself, that drives them to villain status. In fact, some of the less predatorily capitalistic members of Dyad were occasionally portrayed in a good light, such as Delphine Cormier, Aldous Leekie and Ethan Duncan.

[[folder: Tabletop Games]]
* ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'', the Primarchs and the Astartes. Roughly fifty-fifty split on the good-evil divide, but the bad fifty definitely left their mark.
** There's a trend here, isn't there?
** The whole point of the Chaos.
*** And, of course, the good ones are still xenocidal maniacs that have no qualms about also slaughtering huge amounts of humans if they consider them to be trouble.
* ''TabletopGame/{{Shadowrun}}'' universe features different examples of this trope:
** Genetically engineered animals
** Cybernetically enhanced animals
** Massive scale human cybernetics. For the sake of balance CyberneticsEatYourSoul - any mechanical and electronic modifications chip away at magic-defining character traits and at the character's humanity score. This includes the creation of [[FateWorseThanDeath cyberzombies]]. Those are not undead, but literally corpses walking by their artificial parts, to the extreme of an artificially alive brain in a weapon-grade android body.
** 4th Edition introduces [[BioAugmentation bioware]] and genetic engineering for metahumans. They cause Essence loss but not as much as cyberware.

[[folder: Video Games]]
* ''VideoGame/{{Bioshock|1}}''. The gene-altering substance ADAM and the Plasmids and Gene Tonics that resulted from it. By themselves, they're not all bad, provided that the user doesn't splice ADAM too much and become addicted- [[spoiler: or you're the main characters]]; however, the greed of both Fontaine and Ryan, coupled with the measures they were prepared to take to create a monolopy (The Little Sisters and the Big Daddies, both of which were horribly altered and mutilated for the sake of gathering ADAM) turns this into a straight example.
* Many of the mooks (and some of the bosses) you face in ''VideoGame/{{Mother 3}}'' are either unnatural crosses of animal species (eg., Cattlesnake, Batangutan, Kangashark) or mechanised animals (eg., Steel Mecharilla). They only exist because [[spoiler:Porky]] deemed regular animals as uncool, and so had his Pigmask army to alter them genetically.

[[folder: Web Comics]]

* ''Webcomic/CrimsonDark '' shows humanity's way from prosthetics to augmentation. While there are laws to prevent Franchise/GhostInTheShell scenarios, at least one side of the in-universe conflict employs literal cases of CyberneticsEatYourSoul - technically dead human bodies, augmented and modified beyond recognition, held alive by said augmentations with conscience replaced by AI, referred in-universe as [=JAKs=].

[[folder: Web Original]]

[[folder: Podcast]]
* ''Podcast/OurFairCity'' This is seen in the second season, when Dr Herbert West, despite his amiable nature [[spoiler: releases a horde of zombies on Hartlife]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Anime & Manga]]
* ''Manga/{{Hellsing}}'' - We don't know how you did it, but being seemingly human and the same age for over 50 years is quite an achievement, Doctor.
* ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'' gives us the [[spoiler: Mass Production Evangelions.]]

[[folder: Literature]]
* Sergej Luk'yanenko's ''Линия Грёз'' and ''Императоры Иллюзий'', set in the ''VideoGame/MasterOfOrion'' universe, feature an explanation to the longevity of major human figures with the A-Than technology - the individual in question (not automatically human) receives a scan, most like a full-body checkpoint in gaming terms. Later memories are constantly transmitted to the company. On death, a certain signal is triggered, leading to the production of a new body, which retains the memories. This has some interesting connotations:

** [[spoiler: Mind-wipe technology in one case produced 2 independent souls, who on encounter consider each other brothers. Their appearances and behaviour patterns make them for most ends and purposes identical twins. And actually clones of the A-Than owner, their alleged father.]]

[[folder: Live-Action TV]]
* The ''Series/DoctorWho'' episode "Mawdryn Undead" is a brilliant example. Stealing Time Lord regeneration technology to extend their lives leads to them constantly regenerating and mutating horribly, so they beg the Fifth Doctor to release them from their karmic hell.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'' The Astartes are long lived but usually die a glorious death in battle before old age becomes an issue; it's not established whether or not Space Marines are actually biologically immortal. Various Imperial nobles, Inquisitors and members of the Adeptus Mechanicus hierarchy survive an awful long time, and it is here that the problems are most pronounced.
** The Necrontyr wanted immortal iron bodies to expend their livespan, and asked the C'tan (godlike beings feeding off stars) for their help. The result ? A population of nigh-invincible, self-repairing mindless automatons.

[[folder: Video Games]]
* ''VideoGame/{{Bioshock|1}}'', for a change, does not play this as a bad thing. Directly, anyway. This is what allows the player, Jack, to respawn without problems. Of course [[spoiler: this technology was kept in the exclusive hands of Ryan and his family, a sign of his corruption.]]

* ''VideoGame/TheDig'' has this and another example below, interestingly the sin with less scale came later: [[spoiler: In their latest discovery, the Cocytan aliens found a way to AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence to live as immortal energy beings, when their entire race ascends they find that they are doomed to become mere expectators, unable to build or create anything; worse, they become unable to return,]] at least until the heroes arrive.

[[folder: Anime & Manga]]
* [[spoiler: Father]] in ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist''. The poor Xerxesians...

* The creation of [[Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion Evas]] might be this, but how they are created is never properly explained.

[[folder: Film]]

* ''Film/ForbiddenPlanet'', where the Krell's subconsciousnesses created creatures which had the power to destroy but not be destroyed.

* ''FrankensteinsMonster'' - though debatable, since the Monster was created as a blank slate in the book.
** Although ''Frankenstein'' itself may not fully apply, the story did go on to spawn dozens of B movies that featured Mad Scientists attempting to resurrect people, keep body parts alive, create life from nothing, halt the aging process, etc. etc., usually with horrible results. The reason why things go wrong in these movies usually have more to do with man being punished for tampering in God's domain (or man being punished for using his Science for evildoing) than with any shortcomings on the part of the science itself.
* In the third book of [[Creator/CSLewis C.S. Lewis']] ''Literature/TheSpaceTrilogy'', ''That Hideous Strength'', [[FunWithAcronyms the N.I.C.E.]] engages in several patently unethical projects, including using some sort of contrivance to keep alive the head of a previously deceased French convict.
* In the backstory of the ''Franchise/{{Barsoom}}'' novel ''Literature/SyntheticMenOfMars'' Ras Thavas has done this. As is par for the course, it proved to perhaps be ill-advised, which kicks off the actual story.

[[folder: Live-Action TV]]
* "[[Series/BattlestarGalactica2003 The Cylons were created by man...]]"
** To be fair, their situation is more similar to that of the [[Franchise/MassEffect geth]]. Plus, it was a plan of god(s) all along.

[[folder: Tabletop Games]]
* ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}''. The Primarchs and Astartes might qualify, the Imperium definitely created the Life Eater, and it's entirely possible, if not likely, that the Imperium has created much more.

[[folder: Video Games]]

* ''VideoGame/{{Bioshock|1}}'' depending on how you want to look at it, [[spoiler: Jack, a normal baby made into a fast growing TykeBomb aimed at his father, sure did make his "creator" Fontaine regret doing so.]] Albeit, this because the child became a PhlebotinumRebel against his villainous creators.
* ''VideoGame/TalesOfTheAbyss'' hits about a 5.5 here. Fomicry - the replication of any physical form - is all well and good until you start using it on biologicals and creating clones. Often [[CloneDegeneration imperfect clones]]. The first human replica ever created was flawed enough to be psychopathically insane and hugely powerful. Others fared less well, living short and torturous lives due to their "birth defects", or even being killed shortly after creation due to their imperfections.

[[folder: Web Comics]]

[[folder: Web Original]]
* ''WebOriginal/OrionsArm'' has provolves and alife and for the most part they're no better or worse than any other sophont. The problem is that some of them feel that a mind that was engineered is intrinsically less flawed than a sentience than has evolved naturally. If they start to gain regional power, things are likely to go badly for humans in the area, because you can't have Reformation without a [[MindRape reformat]]...

[[folder: Western Animation]]
* The entire plot of the six-part ''WesternAnimation/GIJoeARealAmericanHero'' "Arise Serpentor Arise" involved Dr. Mindbender trying to emulate Frankenstein by splicing the DNA of historical figures to create a perfect leader. Didn't turn out too well. He got a leader, but Serpentor turned out as much a failure at leading COBRA as the Commander was.

[[folder: Anime & Manga]]

* [[OmniscientCouncilOfVagueness SEELE]] has a big problem with [[ManipulativeBastard Gendou Ikari's]] apparent attempts at this in ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion''.
** Mainly because it got in the way of ''their'' attempts.
* ''Manga/{{Hellsing}}'' gets a 9 out of 10 for [[spoiler: cheating death through the development of the vampire-conversion tech, gaining immortality (kind of), and creating a transhuman with The Major, and just as likely, Schrodinger. Also, for the failed attempt that is the SHE. Doc must be so proud.]]

[[folder: Film]]

[[folder: Literature]]
* Sergej Luk'yanenko's ''Линия Грёз'' and ''Императоры Иллюзий'' again. The A-Than technology is more accurately a buyable attempt on immortality by humans, but other species use their varieties of it as a single second chance or reward for outstanding merits.

* ''Literature/WildCards'' universe:

* Creator/HPLovecraft's serial ''Literature/HerbertWestReanimator'', which ends with the title doctor being torn to pieces by a small army of his creations [[spoiler:though they take his head with them, and one of them is smart enough to reanimate the dead himself]].
* In the ''{{Literature/Gentleman Bastard}}s'' books, the Bondsmagi -- many of whom consider themselves as far above humans as humans are above livestock, with [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveSupernaturalPowers moral compasses to match]] -- have horror stories of a fellow mage who tried this. [[spoiler: The magical pollution from the attempt created a plague that ravaged a city, and the mage himself was shunted into a new body without his [[DePower powers]] or his [[LaserGuidedAmnesia memories]], though whether the latter was a case of GoneHorriblyWrong or GoneHorriblyRight is uncertain.]]

[[folder: Live-Action TV]]

* The Goa'uld sarcophagus from ''Series/StargateSG1'' can repair any injury, and revive the recently dead, but repeated use is addictive, and damaging to the psyche, and may be a contributing factor in why the Goa'uld are AlwaysChaoticEvil.
** And being effectively immortal, they began eating their own offspring to prevent competition.

[[folder: Tabletop Games]]
* ''[[RunningGag Warhammer 40000]]''. Those who are interned in Space Marine Dreadnoughts aren't quite dead beforehand, but are certainly never the same again afterwards.
** It all depends on how close they were to death. Those who suffered brain damage tend to mistake people for others, suffer memory loss, and in general act like hollow imitations of the original person. Those who didn't have their brains affected are almost as normal as any other Space Marine (even if they are kind of slow on the uptake) Davian Thule for example.

[[folder: Video Games]]

* ''VideoGame/TalesOfTheAbyss'' again, under the same concept. Fomicry as used to create human clones was originally an attempt to bring back the dead. It [[CameBackWrong never worked]] right, though - not only were many replicas physically imperfect, [[BodyHorror often in horrifying ways]], but not a single one of them ever had the original's memories.
* The employees of [[VideoGame/{{Kirby Planet Robobot}} Haltmann Works Company]] run afoul of this.
** [[spoiler:Finishing the entire game and discovering the complete lore reveals that there's more to it than simple [[EvilInc ambition]].]]
* The beginning of ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'' sees the trilogy's hero and main character Shepard die in an attack, only to be surgically resurrected by Cerberus on the Illusive Man's orders. The ending of ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'' sees Shepard turn their back to the Illusive Man and Cerberus who go back to being villains in 3, [[spoiler: while the ending of ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'' ends badly for the Illusive Man by either being [[TalkingTheMonsterToDeath talked to death]] or shot by Shepard]].

[[folder: Web Comics]]

[[folder: Web Original]]

[[folder: Anime & Manga]]
* ''Manga/{{Hellsing}}'' - Schrodinger, who is ''everyvere und novere.'' [[spoiler:And after absorbing him and killing all the other souls within him, so is Alucard at the end]].
* [[OmniscientCouncilOfVagueness SEELE]] has a big problem with [[ManipulativeBastard Gendou Ikari's]] apparent attempts at this in ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion''. Cause they wanted to do it. As with the previous sin. SEELE and Gendo tie with Doc from ''Manga/{{Hellsing}}'' for general Scientific Evilness, matching him sin for sin.
* ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist''. Human transmutation has aspects of this (see #6 above) and [[spoiler:Truth was not amused by Father's plan]].

[[folder: Comic Books]]
* ''Doctor Doom'' has done this on at least two occasions. In the first case, it turned out that he [[GoMadFromTheRevelation wasn't quite capable of]] [[PowerIncontinence handling the Beyonder's power]]. The second time, he gave it up because [[VictoryIsBoring being God bored him]].
* ''ComicBook/{{Thanos}}'' loves this one. Inevitably though, he ends up losing whatever godlike power he's gained due to his own subconscious belief that he's unworthy of it. Although in one case it was heavily implied that [[TheOmnipotent The One Above All]] was just trolling him the entire time.

[[folder: Literature]]

[[folder: Live-Action TV]]
* ''Series/StargateSG1'' : Proclaiming themselves gods is the villainous Goa'uld's main operating procedure.
** Don't forget the Ori!

* ''Series/DoctorWho'': According to "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS7E4Inferno Inferno]]", the sin of the greedy scientists seeking to [[DugTooDeep dig too deeply]] into the earth was so great that not only were monsters called forth and the guilty scientist punished, but the world itself was destroyed (in a parallel reality). There's no reason for this other than that scientists dared tamper with what men should not have disturbed--and this from the incarnation of the Doctor that steadfastly rejected all nonscientific explanations for observed phenomena in every other story.
--> '''Doctor:''' That's the sound of this planet screaming out its rage!

[[folder: Tabletop Games]]
* Surprise, surprise, ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'', albeit in an unconventional fashion: the Immortal God-Emperor of Man. The fallen Primarchs may also think of themselves this way, though they didn't elevate ''themselves'' to levels just shy of a PhysicalGod.

[[folder: Video Games]]
* ''VideoGame/IndianaJonesAndTheFateOfAtlantis''. MixAndMatchCritters, {{Eldritch Abomination}}s, BambooTechnology Automatons made out of stone and bronze and powered by {{Orichalcum}}, followed by [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin The God Machine]] set on top of an underwater volcano, which cause the characters to either [[SoulJar possess the wearer]] or mutate into AFateWorseThanDeath. Oh, and the [[{{Ghostapo}} Nazis want to]] restart the whole shebang.
* Fontaine in ''VideoGame/{{Bioshock|1}}'' becomes a horrendously powerful [[PsychoSerum Adam overdosed]] [[SculptedPhysique human statue]].

* The ultimate goal of Bob Page from ''VideoGame/DeusEx'', complete with theological rhetoric and quoting Aquinas.
** Also [[spoiler: J.C. Denton]] in "Helios ending" closed by Voltaire's aphorism "If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him".
* ''VideoGame/{{Messiah}}'' is a literal case; Earth has turned into a technological dystopia, and humanity not only has rejected God, it's planning to convert His power for selfish reasons, and has actually achieved limited success already, so much that He can no longer influence or even view it. Bob - the player's character - is sent on a mission to investigate.

[[folder: Web Original]]
* ''WebOriginal/OrionsArm'' has the Archai, beings of phenomenal capability and intellect, who are as far beyond even transhumans as transhumans are beyond worms. They seem to be benign, or neutral at worst, but there are a few worrying exceptions.

[[folder: Anime & Manga]]
* ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist'' The BigBad accomplishes just about everything this list and even some of the good guys try a few.
* ''Manga/{{Hellsing}}'' makes a good college go at it - Millennium only missed one point. If Doktor had thought to make some robots they'd have checked off everything.

[[folder: Literature]]
* The N.I.C.E. in ''[[Literature/TheSpaceTrilogy That Hideous Strength]]'' follow most of the list pretty nearly to the letter, given that they start out by tearing down a historic forest to build a factory, and wind up developing transhumanist technologies including [[spoiler: cybernetically reanimating severed heads to give demons the ability to fight against God]].
** [[spoiler:Reanimation]] is what the rank-and-file N.I.C.E.-er (if they even know about it) ''thinks'' has happened; a few of the higher-ups seem to know (or at least suspect) that what is really going on is ''far'' worse. You know you're dealing with an evil organization when [[spoiler:"we reanimated the head of a criminal psychopath"]] is your ''cover story''.

[[folder: Live-Action TV]]

[[folder: Tabletop Games]]

%%* [[TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}} Notice a certain setting that has an example on every point of the list?]]

[[folder: Video Games]]

* ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls'' series has the [[OurDwarvesAreAllTheSame Dwemer]], who attempted to commit every sin on the list, with their efforts toward committing the final few leading to their disappearance. They committed Automation by blending SteamPunk technologies with [[{{Magitek}} magical enchantments]] to create automated machinery and MechaMooks. They committed Potential Applications by devising ways to use their technology to accomplish things well beyond their StandardFantasySetting contemporaries including {{Weather Control Machine}}s, {{Humongous Mecha}}s, and even a device capable of reading the [[TomeOfEldritchLore Elder Scrolls]] without the nasty side-effects. They dabbled into Genetic Engineering with their treatment of the [[OurElvesAreDifferent Falmer]], who the Dwemer twisted so much that it ''changed their very souls''. Upon discovering the [[CosmicKeystone still-beating heart]] of the [[GodIsDead dead god]] Lorkhan [[DugTooDeep deep beneath]] Red Mountain, the Dwemer attempted to commit sins 4-7 in one fell swoop by tapping into the power of the heart. They sought to both create a new god ([[MechanicalAbomination Anumidium]]) as well as allow their entire race to AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence. However, ''[[RiddleForTheAges something]]'' went wrong and caused the entire Dwemer race to [[CessationOfExistence blink out of existence]]. These behaviors obviously put them at odds with their much more religious neighbors in the Chimer, who warred with the Dwemer before their disappearance and demonized them (and their technologies) after.

[[folder: Web Original]]

* Rick Sanchez of ''WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty'' has willingly committed each sin, and has even mixed & matched to create his very own affronts to the laws of God, man and nature. Highlights include creating an entire universe of tiny aliens that "worship" him by powering his spacecraft's battery, and inventing a sentient, self-aware robot for the sole purpose of passing him butter at the breakfast table.
** Some of this is due to power creep. In an early Season 1 episode he states matter-of-factly that he "can't cure death". In an early Season ''4'' episode, he discovers that, in some of infinite alternate universes, he figured it out, so the machines will resurrect him there when he dies. However, he doesn't like those universes, so he keeps comically killing himself to find different ones.

* ''LightNovel/ACertainMagicalIndex''[='=]s Academy City does this, changing regular old kids to superpowered individuals.

* ''LightNovel/ACertainMagicalIndex'' has the Level 6 Shift project, which aims for this.

** The [[Anime/FullmetalAlchemist 2003 anime version]] has Homunculi, who score a 4.5 being both [[spoiler:botched resurrections]] and attempts at creating life.

In some fiction, science is a religion — an [[ReligionOfEvil evil]], godless religion that isn't just [[ScienceIsBad Bad]] and [[ScienceIsWrong Wrong]], but unethical [[HarmonyVersusDiscipline by nature]]. And like all religions, [[SevenDeadlySins it has sins]] — or, rather, "[[EvilVirtues virtues]]". These are the sins that a MadScientist commits in his quests ForScience. If... no, ''[[WhatCouldPossiblyGoWrong when]]'' these are violated something will [[GoneHorriblyWrong Go Horribly Wrong]] and the transgressor will receive karmic punishment [[HoistByHisOwnPetard in accordance to the sin]], increasing in evil as the number rises. [[KarmaHoudini No exceptions]].

[[AndManGrewProud Proud]] scientists [[ScienceIsBad will actively try to check off as many of these sins as they can]] as a proof of their scientific genius.

* [[TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}} Notice a certain setting that has an example on every point of the list?]]
** It's like they're trying for a record or something.
** ''Trying for''? This ''is'' ''Warhammer 40000'' we are talking about. The sole purpose and quintessence of the setting is to embody UpToEleven.

[[AndManGrewProud Proud]] scientists will actively try to check off as many of these sins as they can as a proof of their scientific genius.

Despite the name, [[TheDarkArts magic often considers these sins as well]], the kind of deeds [[FantasticAesop magicians are capable of but must never do]]. Some of these are OlderThanSteam, but modern authors often also rely on them to explain why ReedRichardsIsUseless by demonizing potential applications for his technology or powers.

** The Dominion, Federation's EvilCounterpart, is basically a huge genetic engineering society. Jem'Hadar were created from nothing, Vorta bred from some other form; and it's stated that [[spoiler: The Founders were once humanoids but genetically engineered themselves into shape shifters. It is even supposed that their close-mindedness is the price they payed for their new body abilities.]]

Science is a religion — an [[ReligionOfEvil evil]], godless religion that isn't just [[ScienceIsBad Bad]] and [[ScienceIsWrong Wrong]], but unethical [[HarmonyVersusDiscipline by nature]]. And like all religions, [[SevenDeadlySins it has sins]] — or, rather, "[[EvilVirtues virtues]]". These are the sins that a MadScientist commits in his quests ForScience. If... no, ''[[WhatCouldPossiblyGoWrong when]]'' these are violated something will [[GoneHorriblyWrong Go Horribly Wrong]] and the transgressor will receive karmic punishment [[HoistByHisOwnPetard in accordance to the sin]], increasing in evil as the number rises. [[KarmaHoudini No exceptions]].