Lost Technology: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}{{Needs Image}}

Beyond [[Schizo -Tech]], beyond [[Scavenger World]], there's [['''Lost Technology]]'''.

Let's face it. [[Precursors|The Ancients]] had some pretty ''[[Older Is Better|neat]]'' gear. Robots, weapons, [[The HitchhikersHitchhiker's Guide to Thethe Galaxy|even the answer to The Ultimate Question of Life, The Universe, and Everything.]] [[In Working Order|Easy to use]], little or no maintenance required, and [[Ragnarok Proofing|after thousands of years of neglect often still in perfect working order]]!

...oh yeah, and this technology completely and utterly destroyed the Ancients [[After the End|and most of the world]] with it. But that doesn't stop the villains (or the heroes) from wanting to get some for themselves by pillaging an [[Advanced Ancient Acropolis]]. Usually, said [['''Lost Technology]]''' then tries to destroy the world ''again.'' Some, but not all, heroes are smart enough to try to keep people away from the stuff.

Occasionally the good guys need [['''Lost Technology]]''' to combat ancient evils that have arisen again (or villains who have acquired [['''Lost Technology]]''' of their own). They usually use it as best they can, despite [[Black Box|Black Boxes]]es. Still, they suffer from [[Low Culture, High Tech]]. Often, this is the [[Super -Hero Origin|origin]] of a [[Superhero]], and it can justify why the [[Disposable Superhero Maker]] won't work twice.

** In one of the ''[[UFO Robo Grendizer]]'' mangas, [[Lost Technology]] had an important -and dire- role.

* In ''[[The Mysterious Cities of Gold (Anime)|The Mysterious Cities of Gold]]'', the little bits of surviving technology from the Mu Empire are this, including a solar powered warship that shoots lasers, [[Hollywood Density|a solid gold airplane]], and ''{{spoiler|a nuclear reactor}}''. Fighting against [[Schizo -Tech|Spanish galleons and]] [[Mayincatec|Mayincatecs]]s [[Schizo -Tech|with spears]].

* Keeping people from (while recklessly getting into) the stuff is a major premise of ''[[Galaxy Angel (Animeanime)|Galaxy Angel]]'', which is called Lost Technology in the series. The serious ''[[Galaxy Angel (Videovideo Gamegame)|Galaxy Angel]]'' gameverse has it in droves, but replace backtalking missiles with, say, dangerous ones.

* The Demon God Androids, the Eye of God "Death Star", the Trigger of Destruction battleship, etc. etc. from ''[[El -Hazard: theThe Magnificent World]].''

* The doll Emily in ''[[Soukou no Strain]]'' turns out to be [[Lost Technology]]... with [[Powered Byby a Forsaken Child|dubious origins]].

* An ancient war machine forms a important part of the plot of ''[[Nausicaa of the Valley of Thethe Wind]]''.

* Due to citywide amnesia, the megadeuses from ''[[The Big O (Anime)|The Big O]]'' are [[Lost Technology]] despite being little more than 40 years old.

* In ''[[Murder Princess]]'', the [[Lost Technology]] is actually ''called'' Lost Technology, proper noun. {{spoiler|All of the world's "magic" and monsters, as well as the heroine's two companions, were born from Lost Technology, and when its "central processing unit" is destroyed [[No Ontological Inertia|so is everything it created]].}}

* This is the whole basis of the manga ''666 Satan'' (aka ''[[O-Parts666 HunterSatan]]'') with {{spoiler|the most ultimate of lost technology able to restart the universe itself.}}

* ''[[Trinity Blood]]''. Not only is it actually called [[Lost Technology]] but they even heavily analogize [[Lost Technology]] to magic by giving it mystical references.

* The technology of Laputa in ''[[Laputa: Castle in Thethe Sky]]''. Unusually, it did not destroy them; they voluntarily threw it away because it was alienating them from [[Arcadia|the earth]].

* The main theme of ''[[Turn aA Gundam (Anime)|Turn a Gundam]]''. To fight back against the alien humans of the Moon Race, Earth (which appears to have somehow gone back to the Victorian era) starts digging up old mobile suits and battleships it finds. Turns out {{spoiler|we're seeing the end of all the then known Gundam timelines. The Turn A was so powerful it sent humanity effectively back to the stone age, with only the Moon Race retaining video documentation of what happened.}}

* In ''[[So Ra No woWo To]]'' only 10 [[Spider Tank|Tamekicaduchis]] are left, and it takes a [[Teen Genius]] to make one operational.

* In [[JRRJ. TolkienR. (Creator)R. Tolkien|JRR Tolkien]]'s universe, older technology is always superior to newer technology, since the original crafts and techniques were largely perfect and Tolkien's universe's history is essentially a process of ''forgetting'' (losing) those crafts and techniques, not discovering better ones.

* [[Terry Pratchett]]'s ''[[Discworld]]'' novel ''Thud!'' introduced [[Lost Technology]] in the form of "Devices", mysterious magical/technological devices found and utilized by the dwarfs. Two examples are a cube that functions as an early audio recording device, and something which is described as simply two blocks with some sort of bearing between that causes them to rotate in opposite directions. Forever and no matter how strong a force is used to try and hold them. Basically an infinite mechanical engine that can power anything on nothing.

* Lost technology and the ruins of long lost high-tech civilizations turn up in the ''[[Dying Earth (Literaturenovel)|Dying Earth]]'' novels (and the fantasy RPG) by Jack Vance, as well as in several of his other short stories (both fantasy and science fiction).

* [[Lost Technology]] - Lost Magic version in the [[Deryni]] works:

* An ancient galaxy-spanning Internet exists in [[Vernor Vinge]]'s ''[[Zones of Thought|A Fire Upon The Deep]]'', with all the associated dangers such as viruses, translation errors, and propaganda. The novel is about what happens when a malevolent power, the Straumli Perversion, is [[Sealed Evil in Aa Can|released from one of these archives]] by a team of archaeologist programmers.

* In a ''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine]]'' novel, the crew of the ''Defiant'' runs across a world that was essentially SET UP this way as an experiment. A highly-advanced culture dropped off a whole bunch of their babies on a planet with tons of small, hi-tech devices scattered all over the place and sat back to see what would happen. We then get the people who are so dependent on technology they don't understand that they're royally screwed when the batteries go dead.

* The series ''[[The General]]'', by [[David Drake]] and [[SMS.M. Stirling]] (later, [[Eric Flint]] steps in for Stirling), has a [[Lost Technology]] computer providing information for a planet at a development stage akin to the [[American Civil War]] on Earth, to eventually rebuild interstellar travel over a millennium after it was lost due to a galactic civil war.

* The city of Diaspar in Arthur Clarke's ''The City and the Stars'' (a novel-length re-working of his earlier novella ''Against the Fall of Night'') is composed of technology that no one living understands any longer; but which is all fully automated and self-repairing. Somewhat subverted in that the computer that maintains the city, including the inhabitants -- whoinhabitants—who are cloned reincarnations of the original population with memories of all their incarnations stored in the computer -- couldcomputer—could conceivably produce new inhabitants with the requisite memories. The technology necessary for space travel, on the other hand, had been deliberately purged both from the city computer's memory, and the records of the telepathic inhabitants of the pastoral city of Lys; and the populations of both cities had developed a phobia of space travel, with a powerful {{spoiler|and completely wrong}} mythology justifying their fear.

* In the ''[[Warhammer 4000040,000]]'' novel ''[[Grey Knights (Literature)|Dark Adeptus]]'', {{spoiler|Magos Antigonus}} is able to be [[Not Quite Dead]] thanks to some hitherto-unknown tech he finds shortly before he gets killed. The {{spoiler|Father of Titans}} is also shown to be comprised of tech that its copiers cannot replicate fully.

* [[Larry Niven]]'s ''[[Ring WorldRingworld]]'' and everything on it.

* In Jasper Fforde's ''[[Shades of Grey]]'' technology hasn't been lost so much as deliberatly purged by a series of "Leapbacks". Some is still reserved for the government resulting in [[Schizo -Tech]].

* Elderglass from the [[Gentleman Bastard Sequence]] series.

* The Deathly Hallows in ''[[Harry Potter]]''. Each of them is a one-of-a-kind artifact with power that laughs in the face of all conventional magic: the Elder Wand when wielded by its rightful owner is powerful enough to repair other wands (which Ollivander believed was impossible) with a simple Repairing Charm, the Resurrection Stone can summon a bonafide shade from the afterlife (even this much shouldn't be possible), and the Invisibilty Cloak's power doesn't vanish with time (all other Cloaks eventually run out of juice). Attempts to recreate the Hallows have all ended in failure. Even the Elder Wand -- wandmakersWand—wandmakers know that it's made out of elder wood and has a thestral hair core, but can't create another wand with its power even with those components available. The Hallows are so powerful and mysterious that one legend claims that ''Death itself'' created them.

* In the ''[[Star Trek: Voyager]]'' episodes "Message In A Bottle" and "Hunters" the ship comes across a vast abandoned network of relay stations (over 100,000 years old; each powered by its own black hole!) enabling them to make contact with Starfleet on the other side of the galaxy.

* ''[[Land of the Lost (TV series)|Land of the Lost]]'' was full of this. In fact the Land itself was a pocket universe created by Altrusian technology.

* ''[[Dinotopia]]'': The [[Advanced Ancient Acropolis]] of Poseidos has [[Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot|robot dinosaurs]] powered by [[Power Crystal|Power Crystals]]s.

** There's also companies like Interplanetary Expeditions, who travel to planets that were once home to long-dead civilizations, looking for [[Lost Technology]] among the rubble.

* The Brothers' War that underpins nearly all of the early storyline of ''[[Magic: theThe Gathering]]'' was begun when the two brothers found the [[Lost Technology]] of the Thran.

* The golden age of Humanity in ''[[Warhammer 4000040,000]]'' was brought to an end around the 25th millennium by "soulless" [[Turned Against Their Masters|rebelling]] [[AIA.I. Is a Crapshoot|robots]] known as Men of Iron and the advanced Standard Template Constructs that contained its technological knowledge were fragmented and scattered across the stars. The current [[The Empire|Imperium of Man]] rebuilt human technology by recovering knowledge from these artifacts of the ironically-nicknamed "Dark Age of Technology". (The Dark Age of Technology is also, confusingly, known as the Golden Age of Technology. Whilst human technology verged on [[Crystal Spires and Togas]] at times, it is considered a spiritual dark age by the Imperium.)

** The most spectacular pieces of [[Lost Technology]] are the Talismans of Vaul, aka Blackstone Fortresses. Giant, space-station-sized, quasi-sentient weapons capable of channeling pure Warp energy; and the only weapons capable of destroying the C'tan. Created by the pre-Fall Eldar, who, although they possess the necessary level of technology to reproduce them, no longer have the knowledge of their construction, or the resources necessary to rebuild them.

* ''[[Gamma World (Tabletop Game)|Gamma World]]'' is a haven for Lost Technology.

* [[Battle TechBattleTech]] has 'LosTech' which is [[Exactly What It Says Onon the Tin]]. Well it's technically old Star League tech that was never proliferated, but don't go telling the Successor Houses that...

* ''[[Empire of the Petal Throne (Tabletop Game)|Empire of the Petal Throne]]''. Some examples of the previous human civilization's technology exist, but they're considered magical by the current medieval level society.

* Third Edition [[Dungeons and& Dragons|D&D]] (and, by extension, ''[[Pathfinder]]'') formally defined "lesser artifacts" as magical [[Lost Technology]]: items of great power that could no longer be manufactured by mortals. This distinguished such powerful, yet non-unique items (e.g. staff of power) from singular items like the Wand of Orcus. A few class features bend this definition by allowing the character to create a single specific artifact, but these come at or near the level cap where "mortal" becomes a questionable descriptor for the character.

** Many published D&D settings have complex historical backstories involving long-forgotten civilizations, the better to account for why so much [[Lost Technology]] can be found lying around in monster-infested holes in the ground. This even applies to ''[[Eberron]]'', the one setting with tech that is actively advancing, through the ruins of the extinct giant civilization, and Cannith ruins in Cyre (where it was lost within years of its discovery then found again within a decade).

* Central to the ''[[Halo]]'' series; the entire setting is one giant piece of [[Lost Technology]].

*** Well they're quite happy to put it all to good use in ''[[Final Fantasy X (Video Game)|Final Fantasy X]]''. The Al Bhed ignore the anti-technology taboo that everyone else has, and have built their entire society around salvaging ancient "machina" for reuse. {{spoiler|And the Temple of Yevon (who are responsible for the machina taboo in the first place) have their own secret arsenal of firearms and combat droids.}}

** A major element in ''[[Wild Arms 1 (Video Game)|Wild ArmsARMs 1]]'' and ''[[Wild Arms 3 (Video Game)|Wild ArmsARMs 3]]''. In fact, {{spoiler|in the first game, the protagonist Rudy is ''made'' of lost technology, and one that nearly destroyed the world to boot.}}

** ''[[Xenogears (Video Game)|Xenogears]]'' tends to flip-flop on whether Gears are or aren't lost technology. At the very least, Gears are dug up from ancient ruins, but it's painfully obvious that they can be tweaked and created via available tech in the more advanced areas. At the very least, the Omnigears are lost tech.

** Carried through to its spiritual prequel ''[[Xenosaga (Video Game)|Xenosaga]]'', archeologists digging up the Zohar and building the Zohar Emulators, a technological bridge to higher planes of existence that is responsible for the historical divine miracles and a theoretically infinite source of energy. In true lost tech style these higher planes also contain the Wave Form Existence/God/Chaos/U-DO, the big bad of the series.

** ''[[Secret of Mana (Video Game)|Secret of Mana]]'' centers around the attempts of the [[Big Bad]] to acquire the ancient world-destroying Mana Fortress and Mana Beast.

** In ''[[Brain Lord (Video Game)|Brain Lord]]'', you fight through many gimmicky [[Lost Technology]] dungeons.

** ''[[Chrono Trigger (Video Game)|Chrono Trigger]]'' has different technology available in different eras. As the game is based on [[Time Travel]], however, if something is [[Lost Technology]] in the modern era, you can go to the era where it was developed and where it's not "lost." <ref>This particular timeline is only true for Chrono Trigger. Due to temporal meddling, [[Chrono Cross (Video Game)|Chrono Cross]] has more examples, and some technology that's lost in Trigger is unlost there.</ref>

*** Prior to [[The End of the World Asas We Know It]] in 1999, human technology had advanced to levels roughly equal to the Enlightened Ones, but all of that ended on the Day of Lavos. In 2300, humans are no longer developing new technology, and humanity only [[Scavenger World|clings to existence by maintaining 300-year-old relic machinery]]. {{spoiler|There ''is'' a facility that's building new machinery, but the robotic Mother Brain who rules Geno Dome is completely hostile to humans.}}

* In ''[[Mass Effect]]'', a large part of the story revolves around the galaxy's dependence on [[Applied Phlebotinum]] that were created by the Protheans, a mysterious race that died out 50,000 years ago. However, {{spoiler|it is later revealed that the Phlebotinum were in fact [[Lost Technology]] to the Protheans as well; they were created ''aeons'' ago about the reapers, a race of [[Deus Est Machina|Mechanical]] [[Eldritch Abomination|Eldritch Abominations]]s who serve as the original [[Abusive Precursors]] to all of ''[[Mass Effect]]'s'' [[Recursive Precursors]].}}

* [[Bio WareBioWare]] also invoked this Trope with [[Knights of the Old Republic]]. The Rataka technology and Star Maps were an unholy cross of well-built, heavily-guarded technology infused with the [[Dark Side]] of [[The Force]]. A virulent plague, slave revolts, [[Always ChaoticExclusively Evil|warring amongst themselves]], and a mutation rendering the species Force-deaf sent the planet back to the stone age. By the era of Darth Bane, the species is extinct, meaning any hope of recovering the tech is lost forever.

* The RPG ''[[Dokapon Kingdom]]'' actually has an item CALLED "Lost Technology." It unlocks a new character class, the Robo-Knight--maleKnight—male characters who use it become [[Sentai]]-style mechs, while female characters become [[Robot Girl|Robot Girls]]s.

* ''[[MegamanMega Man Legends]]'' is all over this trope. From the [[Scavenger World|setting]] to the [[Sealed Evil in Aa Can|plot]] to the [[Drama Bomb Finale|Big Reveal]] at the end of the sequel to the ''[[Global Currency|world's money]]'', it all has to do with [[Lost Technology]].

* ''[[Might and Magic|Might & Magic]]''. {{spoiler|In the case of the first five games, possibly deliberately lost, to keep people from messing up with the experiment that is the reason why their worlds' names are written in all Capital Letters. From a certain point of view, the [[Big Bad]] is ''himself'' a piece of malfunctioning Lost Technology. Might & Magic 6, 7 and 8? [[The End of the World Asas We Know It]] resulted in a collapse of civilization bringing them down from energy-weapons to just being up to cannons a thousand years later, but some pieces of what was before are still around...}}

* Played with in ''[[Tales of Symphonia (Video Game)|Tales of Symphonia]]'' and ''[[Tales of Phantasia (Video Game)|Tales of Phantasia]]'', where magitechnology ''was'' lost, but is just being rediscovered. [[What an Idiot!|In both cases, as well as during the 4000 years inbetween, one of the first pieces of technology to be reconstructed and rebuilt by archaeologist/scientists is the Mana Canon, the superweapon the use of which destroyed the ancient civilizations that invented (and reinvented, and re-reinvented) magitechnology in the first place]].

** [[Justified Trope|Done by a]] [[Mad Scientist]] [[Putting Onon the Reich|bad guy in favour of genocide]] [[Does This Remind You of Anything?|and the opression of human beings]] [[The Starscream|planning to usurp power within his organisation.]]

** Played with further in ''[[Tales of Vesperia]]'', which revolves around "Blastia": [[Lost Technology]] that is well-researched, widely-used and vital to modern life in the world. Even though the knowledge on how to create blastia has been lost, research has advanced to the point where basic preliminary models can be created. In another subversion of the usual formula, the solution to the heroes' problems is ''not'' using them.

* The artifacts of the Xel'Naga in the ''[[StarcraftStarCraft]]'' series. Even Protoss technology pales in comparison.

* Retrieving their [[Lost Technology]] is one of the major reasons the Dwarves continue to launch expeditions into the Darkspawn infested Deep Roads in ''[[Dragon Age]]'' ''Origins''. Some of the lost thaigs still hold valuable secrets that could help turn the tide against the Darkspawn. Others have secrets that are better off buried and forgotten.

* Very common in ''[[The Legend of Zelda]]'', where a few centuries prior to ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword]]'', there was a thriving civilization made up mostly of sapient robots (and, probably, a related civilization that made the robots), with antigravity technology, mastery of electricity, and other technology to put modern Earth to shame. The civilization vanished around the time of a war against the [[Bigger Bad]], and ancient ridiculously high-tech relics show up in dungeons and as monsters for the rest of the series, a span covering literally thousands of years.

* In ''[[Fine Structure (Literature)|Fine Structure]]'', one of the protagonists {{spoiler|sends human civilization back to the stone age every time they get close to re-developing nuclear weapons. Nukes are [[Lost Technology]] and she intends to ''keep'' it that way.}}

* Many of the Arkadian devices in ''[[Spartakus and Thethe Sun Beneath Thethe Sea]]'' could count as [[Lost Technology]]; their creators died long ago and nobody today knows how to fix them - which is Very Bad because their artificial sun is dying.

* [[Living Relic|Xyber 9]], the Garden of the Ancients, battle medallions/battle armor, and probably most of the tech in the Underworld of ''[[Xyber 9: New Dawn]]''.

* In ''[[Thundercats 2011 (Western Animation)|ThunderCats (2011)]]'' the [[Catfolk|Cats]] of the magical [[The Kingdom|kingdom]] of Thundera, stuck in [[Medieval Stasis]], consider technology to be the stuff of [[Outgrown Such Silly Superstitions|fairy tales they tell their cubs]], and any physical evidence thereof as [[Worthless Yellow Rocks]] forged to take in the gullible. Young Prince Lion-O believes otherwise, and scours the [[Black Market]] for [[Black Box|salvaged tech]]. Unfortunately, technology is very real, as their longtime rivals the [[Lizard Folk|Lizards]] prove when they ally with a benefactor to unleash a [[Superweapon Surprise]], using shockingly ''futuristic'' war-tech like [[Humongous Mecha]] and laser rifles to conquer the Kingdom of Thundera in ''one night''.

* Even as [[The Dung Ages]] unfolded after the fall of the Greco-Roman cultures, people's ingenuity still worked, if their living depended on it. Something like [https://web.archive.org/web/20150502231127/http://etnomon.cimec.ro/pics/medium/9DB22A6A4DE340818DE111FF5BEEB542.jpg this], but stronger and made of metal, you may find in your nearby hydropower plant, or in your car's turbocharger. But these turbines have been known at least since the Late Middle Ages in water mills. The best part of it? The craftsmen who built them were in most cases illiterate and most certainly had never known maths.

* The [http://en.[wikipedia.org/wiki/Antikythera_mechanism:Antikythera mechanism|Antikythera mechanism]] was a mechanical device for [http://www.math.sunysb.edu/~tony/whatsnew/column/antikytheraI-0400/kyth1.html computing the position of the Sun, Moon, and the planets] from a date and time. Its parts are on par with 18th century clocks in terms of complexity. It was made in the ''2nd century BC''.

** Said studies however, are only on the properties of the wood. The famous "Italian sound" of the violins on the other hand, is a completely different story altogether. It is worth noting that Stradivari violins do not perform particularly well in blind tests, which have repeatedly failed to find any significant differences between them and the best modern instruments (an example of which can be read [http://www.npr.org/blogs/deceptivecadence/2012/01/02/144482863/double-blind-violin-test-can-you-pick-the-strad here]). It is very common for the more modern violin in any such test to be identified as the "Stradivari," which is taken to mean the best violin of the ones being tested. This even occurred in a blind test when two violin experts were allowed to play the instruments, and still could not correctly identify the Stradivari. In double blind tests, where neither the players nor those carrying out the test knew which violin was which, [https://web.archive.org/web/20130908144722/http://www.fritz-reuter.com/articles/discover/index.htm even experienced violin makers failed to identify the Strad or Guarneri and often end up preferring a modern instrument instead.]

*** [http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2081558/Out-tune-Concert-violinists-identify-sound-multi-million-pound-Stradivarius.html Speaking of] [https://web.archive.org/web/20130908144722/http://www.fritz-reuter.com/articles/discover/index.htm blind tests], audiences and expert violinists and even experienced makers alike have been completely fooled when a modern violin was deliberately introduced as a Strad or Guarneri and the real violins as ordinary instruments, which suggests that psychology has a major impact on the way human beings hear an instrument. Over and above that, while there is agreement on what is a bad sound, but what constitutes a good tone itself is too subjective to draw any conclusive ground.

** [http://www.ervinviolins.com/tourte_bows.shtml Not to mention improvements to] '''the bow'''. Modern violin technique would not exist without it. The development of the modern bow since the time of [[httpwikipedia://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fran<!-- C3A7ois_TourteFrançois Tourte|Francois Tourte]] had a remarkable effect on the timbre of violins, allowing for much more power and meeting the demand for expression and technique required by the music that was being composed at the time. The bow is half of violin playing and great violinists could be very particular about the bows they wanted. Over and above the improvements in sound, the mechanical properties of a very good bow facilitate an enormous range of tonal expression and technique which would be impossible to achieve on an inferior bow. Music from the time of Beethoven onward just cannot be played with the kind of bow that existed in the late 17th and early 18th century. -->

** The single biggest variable in the violin sound is '''the player.''' There are numerous occasions where expert violinists have taken the inferior instruments of their students and reproduced the same incredible sound of their own violins. It is also well known that different players sound totally different on the same instrument. [https://web.archive.org/web/20130908154952/http://www.fritz-reuter.com/articles/philip_kass/ There are extensive documented cases of great violinists being unable to reproduce their tone when having to play on an unfamiliar instrument.]

** In fact, the Stadivarius and Guarnerius lore might be a major case of YMMV. [https://web.archive.org/web/20130908152537/http://www.fritz-reuter.com/ There are many experts] who hold that [http://www.dw.de/dw/article/0,,15642750,00.html there is no such thing] [https://web.archive.org/web/20130908144722/http://www.fritz-reuter.com/articles/discover/index.htm as the Stradivarius secret] and the mystique around it [https://web.archive.org/web/20130908144328/http://www.fritz-reuter.com/reports/rin048.htm is just a romanticized brand mythology] for the market to keep raising their prices higher and higher. Old instruments are a valuable investment and some sell for millions of dollars.

* The so-called [http://en.[wikipedia.org/wiki/Baghdad_Battery:Baghdad Battery|Baghdad Batteries]] (which are technically fuel cells, not batteries). While significantly less powerful than that 99 cent Duracell you buy at 7-11, and requiring an entire vase (not a cheap item in those days), they were fully functional 1800 years ago. Naturally, this raised the question of why people made them in the first place. While no one actually knows for sure what their intended purpose was; archaeological evidence indicates that they were most likely used for electroplating gold (which would not require a large current).

* The schematics for the Apollo vehicles, which were written on computers that no longer function, and cannot be read with modern computers. See [[No Backwards Compatibility in Thethe Future]].

* Heron Alexandrinus (10-70 AD) made (supposedly first): [https://web.archive.org/web/20051211215037/http://www.mlahanas.de/Greeks/HeronAlexandria.htm steam turbine] -- ages—ages before the piston steam engine that first got on trains and boats; several self-regulating feedback control systems -- precursorssystems—precursors of things like the regulator which made possible the steam engine (and again) as we know it; and a slot-machine -- dropmachine—drop a coin, get a drink.

* Aside of an organ (hydraulis), which was the first keyboard musical instrument ever -- andever—and, by the way, [[Older Than They Think|quickly found its place as a church organ]]<ref>in the temple of Venus</ref> -- Ctesibius—Ctesibius invented: a pump (ironically, it was lost in the fires that ravaged Alexandria); a water clock (a direct precursor to the flushing toilet); solar-powered mechanisms and a pneumatic cannon. In the third century B.C.

* The Chinese [[Automatic Crossbows|magazine-fed crossbows]] (Chu-Ko-Nus) are rather famous, but there were more advanced forms. The first known chain-driven weapon was not "Chaingun", it was the chute-fed [[http://www.google.com/search?q=%2BDionysius+<!-- 2B22repeating%2B%22repeating+catapult%22 Repeating Catapult by Dionysius of Alexandria]]. -->

** This means ''it wouldn't have required anything new'' to have [[More Dakka|full-auto]] turrets centuries before anything similar appeared. Add steam artillery and pumps above for complete [[Schizo -Tech]] imagery in the vein of quadreme battleships -- [[Wooden Ships and Iron Men|Wooden Ships and Bronze Men]], if you want.

* [[GotzGötz Vonvon Berlichingen (historical figure)|Götz von Berlichingen]], the knight most renowned for his wit due to [[Johann Wolfgang Vonvon Goethe|Goethe]], designed a mechanical prosthetic iron hand for himself to replace [[Handicapped Badass|his right hand and forearm lost in combat]]. It was so advanced anatomically that it could handle the reins of a horse, the shaft of a lance, a playing card and even a feather quill to write a letter, [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|while modern age prosthetics designers studied it as a model]]. But there was one thing the 16th century lacked -- thelacked—the energy source (springs would be either too weak or too big) -- the hand needed first to be tightened by the other hand around the object to be handled.

* Another Chinese example would be the [http://en.[wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Pointing_Chariot:South Pointing Chariot|south-pointing chariot]]