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Aliens Never Invented the Wheel: Difference between revisions
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Might be the reason some [[Aliens Steal Cable]] and [[Alien Arts Are Appreciated]]. May also be the reason that there is [[No Such Thing as Alien Pop Culture]].
{{examples}}
▲== Anime And Manga ==
* The humans in the ''[[Code Geass]]'' universe, despite their immense technical accomplishments, do not have nukes of any kind. {{spoiler|Or at least, not until one of Einstein's grandchildren finally makes one.}}
** Additionally, chemically propelled firearms were skipped and they went straight to [[Magnetic Weapons]].
* The Golden Tribe of ''[[Heroic Age]]'' was apparently so enlightened, they did not need to come up with the concept of numbers, or at least that's the theory Mobeedo comes up with.
== [[Comic Books]] ==
* ''[[Buck Godot: Zap Gun for Hire]]'' has popsicles as a purely human invention, that became immensely popular.
== [[Film]] ==
* The Thermians from ''[[Galaxy Quest]]'' don't know the concept of fiction, period. As a result, they mistake TV series like ''[[Show Within a Show|Galaxy Quest]]'' and ''[[Gilligan's Island]]'' for real events. Is related to the fact that they also didn't know what lying is, until they did meet the [[Big Bad]].
* It's been pointed out by ''[[Scary Movie|Scary Movie III]]'' that the aliens from M. Night Shyamalan's ''[[Signs]]'' have mastered interstellar travel but have trouble with wooden doors.
** They also seem to have never come up with the idea of hazmat suits. (Or, honestly, self-preservation. They appear to have landed on a planet where pretty much everything is made of flesh-dissolving acid and decided to wander around completely naked.)
* ''[[Prince of Space]]'' features aliens invading ''because'' of this trope. The invaders from Krankor have superior spacefaring technology, but their ''fuel'' technology is inferior to Earth's; they need the new formula for rocket fuel to start a true invasion of the stars (they have only one working ship, as opposed to the fleet they could fuel with the new formula).
* The aliens in ''[[Independence Day]]'' have superior technology in many respects, but their actual computer technology lacks any sort of safety protocols to prevent intrusion. A lone man with a laptop is able to hack into the network of the mothership, and by proxy, the entire fleet, shutting down their shields.
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* A literal version of this trope is [[War of the Worlds (2005 film)|Spielberg's 2005 remake of ''War of the Worlds'']], where the aliens are shown in the basement of a house, quizzically playing with the wheel of a bike, in an homage to the original novel (see the Literature section below).
== [[Literature]] ==
* In ''[[The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy]]'', Arthur Dent can never seem to find a cup of tea. At one point, a computer is so stumped by the concept of tea that it effectively shuts down.
** And then there's the alien race mentioned which invented the deodorant spray before the wheel, so at least for some time, they'd fit this trope. In their case, it's [[Rule of Funny|amusingly]] justified, since they're a species with ''fifty freaking arms.''
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* [[Clifford D Simak]]'s story ''The Big Front Yard'' has aliens {{spoiler|who never invented paint}}.
* A literal example occurs in [[Poul Anderson]]'s story "The Three-Cornered Wheel", where an alien civilization lacks wheels because their religion considers the circle too sacred to put to vulgar mundane use.
* The whole plot of [[Harry Turtledove]]'s short story
* The wizards from ''[[Harry Potter (novel)|Harry Potter]]'', despite having at least one train and at least one bus, do not use electricity or anything else discovered/invented in the last couple centuries or so, even when it would be much easier than what they do (ball-point pen, anyone?). This is [[Handwaved]] by magic interfering with technology/electronics, but there are so many mechanically simple inventions that they could be using... and if an auto can be magicked enough that the electric starter isn't an issue, then clearly it's not much of an impediment.
** Indoor plumbing is one concept they did adapt from Muggles; fans of the movies will note that the student restrooms at Hogwarts are pretty conventional as far as facilities go. Supposedly, before the 19th Century, wizards "did their business" anywhere they wanted and used magic to get rid of the results. (I swear, this is canon.) Fortunately they eventually learned this was socially unacceptable and followed the Muggles' example.
** Played overly straight where wizards, even though there is a substantial population who were "Muggle-born" (born and raised in the "real" world), don't even comprehend everyday items.
*** Even Muggle-born are only raised in the Muggle world until age 10, after that spending only relatively brief periods outside the Wizarding World for the rest of their education. How much does a 10 year old really understand about technological devices? The magical devices that imitate mundane devices (alarm clocks, and so on) are rather like the kinds of things a child might imagine technological items
** Considering how many wizards and witches ''marry'' Muggles, it's remarkable that more of them aren't exposed to technologies in getting to know their spouses.
* The Race from [[Harry Turtledove]]'s ''[[Worldwar]]'' can fly between solar system, possess nuclear weapons, and have incredibly powerful computers, yet they have no concept of chemical weaponry, or any sort of battle-field appropriate gas masks - their closest invention, filtration suits, are for cleaning up nuclear waste.
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*** ''The Hork-Bajir Chronicles'' show that this is indeed the case. The first Yeerks to leave their planet attack the Andalites with stone age weapons, plus one stolen Andalite [[Ray Gun|shredder]]. They escaped with assorted Andalite technology and developed their own weapons and spacecraft from there.
* The Tran from [[Alan Dean Foster]]'s [[Humanx Commonwealth|Icerigger trilogy]] justifiably never invented the wheel, because they're natives of an ice-covered world where it's easier to move things on skate-blades and skis.
* In ''[[Dragon's
== Live Action TV ==▼
* In one episode of ''[[Star Trek: Voyager]]'', the crew meets an alien race which is quite advanced, but was completely oblivious to the concept of ''music'' before hearing the Doctor sing. Even after they did become fond of it, they seem to enjoy the music primarily because of its mathematical rather than its artistic aspects.
* The NBC [[Sitcom]] ''[[3rd Rock from the Sun]]'' pretty much ran on this concept. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1b7Xi26Mkfw This] is a particularly good example.
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* In the pilot episode of his series, [[ALF]] examines the Tanner's toilet and exclaims "Interesting concept."
* In ''[[Stargate SG-1]]'', the Asgard, who are ridiculously far ahead of humans, have to enlist the Earthlings' help to fight the Replicators, against whom Asgard beam weaponry was useless, but [[Kinetic Weapons Are Just Better|guns worked wonders]]. Thor mentions that the thought of using chemical propellants to fire a slug of blunt lead simply never occurred to them. Presumably, they hadn't used propellant weapons in several million years and didn't think of using them.
* Somewhat amusingly inverted in ''[[Babylon 5]]''. According to G'kar it is one of the great mysteries of the universe that every known race has created a foodstuff identical to what on Earth would be called Swedish Meatballs.
== [[Tabletop Games]] ==
* In ''[[Planescape]]'', denizens of the Lower Planes (demons, devils, and other fiendish beings) all have a wide variety of supernatural abilities, and can cast spells via "innate magic". Learned magic - which is how mortals do it, using arcane magic by studying spellbooks or divine magic by praying to deities - is different. Some fiends can learn this type of magic, but while they'd ''like'' everyone to believe they taught this craft to mortals, it's actually the other way around.
== [[Video Games]] ==
* Some ''[[Civilization]]'' games allow players to progress up the tech tree while skipping at least one basic tech. It can be rather [[Steampunk|enjoyable]] to achieve flight without understanding electricity, even if the units look no different...
** Done literally in the sci-fi scenario of ''Civilization II: The Test of Time''. One of the earliest alien technologies is "circular supports", reading the flavour text reveals that they copied this technology off the humans, who call them "weelz". The text goes on to express bafflement that they invented interstellar travel before coming up with this idea.
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** The Covenant in general don't seem to truly understand the advanced technology they wield.
** They also cripple said AI with the same religious limitations as their flesh-and-blood followers. When Cortana starts messing around with the Covenant ship's settings, vastly improving its FTL drive and weapons, the Covvie AI "jumps out" and calls it heresy.
* The alternate Earth that the ''[[Ace Combat]]'' franchise takes place in, dubbed "Strangereal" out of universe, has technology equal to or better than the the real Earth in the equivalent Earth year (ranging from a prequel in 1995 to the then-near-future of 2020) but never invented the ICBM until 1995 (where a "V2" is portrayed as an unusual, one-off, superweapon) and only primitive nuclear weapons exist despite widespread use of advanced jet fighters. Even when the planet has space flight and designs missiles for anti-asteroid acts in 2005, the use of these missiles against Earthly targets is treated as an unusual concept. The exception is central to the world, as the series is all about modern fighter planes fighting each other, something that unlikely to happen with that pesky [[Mutually Assured Destruction]] thing we have getting in the way.
== [[Web Original]] ==
* Apparently, [[The Mercury Men]] have sophisticated technology; they can transport between worlds and manipulate gravity. But going from planet to planet via chemical-propelled rockets is something new and threatening to them.
== [[Western Animation]] ==
* ''[[The Simpsons (animation)|
▲* [[The Simpsons (animation)|''The Simpsons'']]: A ''Treehouse of Horror'' episode had Kang and Kodos coming to Earth to share their alien technology, which included the most advanced video game they'd ever created: Pong.
* On ''[[The Superhero Squad Show]],'' Skrulls never figured out how to make string cheese.
== [[Real Life]] ==
* In addition to the Chinese example above, the Incans, despite being a considerably large and powerful empire, really never did invent the wheel. This makes more sense when you realize that they lived in rocky, mountainous areas, where wheels would be, in a word, useless. They used pack alpacas instead.
** More precisely, they never adopted the wheel for practical use. Some wheeled children's toys have been found.
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