Plug N Play Technology: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
{{quote|'''Hermes Conrad''': Professor, can you wire my head directly into the BattleGrid?
'''Prof. Farnsworth''': I can wire ''anything'' directly into ''anything''! I'm ''[[the Professor]]''!
|''[[Futurama]]: Bender's Big Score''}}
{{quote|'''Pat''': I love how in the future all technology that's put in any console can just be ripped out and strapped to your fucking arm for sweet telekinesis powers.
|''[[Two Best Friends Play]] [[Dead Space 2]]''}}
This does for computers and technology what [[Translator Microbes]] do for living beings.
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In fiction, all computers, machines, hardware and software are 100 percent compatible and interoperable with each other, [[Up to Eleven|and then some]]. It's as if everything was built according to some universally agreed technical standard.
Plug any computerized control unit into any arbitrary machine, and the computer system will automatically have full communications and control over the device, regardless of how superficial the installation is or whether the device even has any electronic components to begin
A similar phenomenon occurs when two or more computers need to establish a network to communicate with each other. When the intrepid [[Wagon Train to the Stars]] makes their first contact with [[Starfish Alien
This is obviously not the case in [[Real Life]]: Without an agreement for everyone to follow fixed technical standards, computers would not be able to tell their precious 0's and 1's apart from each other in the
The matter can even be [[Hand Wave
Please note that, other than a common phrase in the titles, this trope has no relation to [[Plug N Play Friends]], and is [[Un Entendre|not a double entendre]] for certain adult toys.
Related to [[Possession Implies Mastery]], with the computer being the master. Compare [[Everything Is Online]]; contrast [[No Backwards Compatibility in the Future]].
{{examples}}
* A few [[Combining Mecha]] are made of things that weren't originally designed to work together. Examples include ''[[Vandread]]'' (to be fair, all components concerned had been extensively modified via [[Green Rocks|Green]] [[Applied Phlebotinum|Phlebotinum]]), the original SDF ''[[Macross]]'' and a few of the older ''[[Brave Series]]'' mechs. Worst of all is probably Exkaizer, an alien AI who takes over a car, turns it into a [[Transforming Mecha]], and later gains the ability to combine with other vehicles.▼
▲== Anime & Manga ==
▲* A few [[Combining Mecha]] are made of things that weren't originally designed to work together. Examples include ''[[Vandread]]'' (to be fair, all components concerned had been extensively modified via [[Green Rocks|Green]] [[Applied Phlebotinum|Phlebotinum]]), the original SDF ''[[Macross]]'' and a few of the older [[Brave Series]] mechs. Worst of all is probably Exkaizer, an alien AI who takes over a car, turns it into a [[Transforming Mecha]], and later gains the ability to combine with other vehicles.
** In ''Gurren Lagann'', the ability to combine mecha is limited only by [[Rule of Cool]], eventually reaching the point of matrioshka like robots that are ''lightyears'' in size. In the manga a particularly ridiculous looking combination (the giant Gurren on top and the small Laggan on the bottom) completely fails to work.
** It should be noted that Plug-N-Play Hijacking is explicitly Lagann's special power.
* In the ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh Tenth Anniversary Movie]]'', duel disks work with each other even if they're created in completely different eras. (although the technology probably hasn't changed since Kaiba's original design)
* In ''[[Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex]]'', [[Everything Is Online]] and can be easily accessed by [[Wetware CPU|plugging leads from a computer into the brain.]] There never seems to be a problem with interfacing, although there is the risk of [[Mind Rape|having your brain hacked]] and being forced to act against your will.
== Films ==
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** Also, there was a whole deleted scene where Dave Levinson supposedly tinkered with his Mac a bit in order to convert the virus or something. He also mentioned something about ''[[Techno Babble|trachyons]]''.
* In the [[Stephen King]] movie ''[[Maximum Overdrive]]'', the unknown alien force that affects machines serves as the "control box". It's acceptable that a weird alien energy could fire up the electrical systems in machines and make them go haywire, possibly homicidal, so that an electric knife could actually turn itself on. But how does that help the same knife ''move itself across the table'' to attack someone? Or how does it allow a truck to adjust its (non-powered) rear-view mirror? Well, it does help when you know that King himself calls the film a "[[So Bad It's Good|moron movie]]".
* The ''[[My Favorite Martian (film)|My Favorite Martian]]'' movie shows Martin replacing his ship's "electron accelerator" with a car's alternator.
*
**
*** Vision has evolved independently 40-60 different times. It's just too useful not to. The predictable result is that the type of eye (there are about 10), acuity and resolution, number of colors perceptible, precise parts of spectrum it uses, ability to perceive polarization, etc, all vary wildly.
* In ''[[Thor (film)|
== Literature ==
* In ''[[Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency]]'' by [[Douglas Adams]], any computing device placed in a particular place in Professor Chronotis' time machine will interface with the machine and become its control
** In fact, it's stated that the computer running the time machine is more powerful than every other computer in existence, ''including itself''. And more than 90% of the computer is used for this plug-and-play feature.
* Averted in ''[[Soon I Will Be Invincible]]'', where [[Hollywood Cyborg|Fatale,]] only a few years out of date, has a hard time finding a port she can still plug into.
* In [[Iain Banks]]'s ''[[Surface Detail]]'', a character defending her home orbital against a massive surprise attack ends up plugging her neural lace into into an ancient, virtually forgotten piece of heavy-duty, last-ditch effort machinery. The author notes casually how two systems written millennia apart perform a standard discovery sequence and quickly agree on an efficient data exchange protocol. (Yes, [[The Culture]] even is a software utopia!)
== Live Action TV ==
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** Something very similar happened in ''Knight Rider 2000'', where the original KITT AI gets first installed in Michael's '57 Chevy, and then in the body of the more advanced Knight 4000.
** We can't talk about KITT without mentioning the numerous times he uses his electronic short circuiting equipment to open mechanical locks.
* The ''[[Star Trek: The Original Series]]'' episode "The Enterprise Incident": After stealing a cloaking
** Justified ''very'' thinly by the implication that the cloaking device is a single, self-contained unit rather than lots of emitters and other stuff all over the hull; all Scotty had to do was get it wired into the internal electrical grid and fiddle with the field diameter settings.
** The ''[[Star Trek: The Next Generation]]'' episode "Contagion" features a software virus which (predating the ''ID4'' example above) is compatible with computers as diverse as Federation and Romulan starship systems, and even androids. Even more striking when you consider that the computer systems in question didn't ''exist'' when the virus was created.
*** The virus was just randomly overwriting stuff, a bit like me just scribbling over a page of text makes it unreadable, as it were.
** ''[[Star Trek: Voyager]]'' averts this in an early episode. The crew manages to acquire a long-distance teleporter capable of getting them home and discovers it's completely incompatible with their systems, forcing them to blow it up. They managed to do the same thing with a quantum slipstream drive they encountered later on, again failing because it wasn't compatible and thus had ship-destroying faults, so they dismantled it. They also had a Borg transwarp coil at one point, which plays the trope straight as it worked flawlessly with both the ship and shuttles up until it burnt out (Though they ''do'' have an ex-Borg aboard). Averted by Voyager itself, as it's revealed in "The Cloud" that the power system for the holodeck is completely separate and incompatible with the rest of the ship.
** Justified in ''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine]]'' where they spend many early episodes on the effects on O'Brien's psyche and stress levels caused by being tasked with getting Federation and
* ''[[Doctor Who]]'' [[Hangs a Lampshade|lampshades]] this in the new series, with the Doctor patching the TARDIS controls with odd items like a bicycle pump.
** As far back as the very first episode of the classic series, the Doctor replaced a "faulty filament" in the TARDIS with something he presumably obtained from 1960s Earth.
** In "[[Doctor Who/Recap/S18
*** Perhaps [[Justified Trope|justified]] in a [[Fridge Logic]] sort of way when you realize that the TARDIS is psychically linked to the Doctor and at least semi-sentient. Presumably any technology he figures out how to use, she can too.
**** According to the spin-offs, the TARDIS is built out of ''mathematics''. Presumably all it takes is for her to change a few constants in the equations here and there.
** Partially averted in book The Pirate
** Also mentioned with the newest incarnation of the Cybermen - supposedly they're compatible or able to forge compatibility with nearly everything they come in contact with. The Doctor turns this against them in their first appearance: when Mickey gets the code that will deactivate their emotional inhibitors, all he has to do is text it to the Doctor, who plugs the phone into their central computer.
** It is really remarkable how many devices have a port for the sonic screwdriver. (See "Silence in the Library" for example.)
* This is a core trope of ''[[Jake 2.0]]''. The title character is basically a modern-day
** Of course, there's also the time he nearly got a ticket because he couldn't interface with a parking meter.
*
** In their defense, they probably installed some sort of software package to allow her to interact with the ''Galactica''{{'}}s computers.
** Also, the Cylons learned to hack the human networks long before Athena defected. She's just running it the other direction for once.
* ''[[Stargate SG-1]]'' did this on occasion, but the spin-off series ''[[Stargate Atlantis]]'' took it to a whole other level, when Rodney would regularly stumble across some long-forgotten piece of technology left behind by [[Precursors|the Ancients]], and have it running from his laptop (or sometimes his Windows CE-powered tablet) within five minutes.
** Justified in that the SGC has been working closely with Ancient technology for quite a while, so has probably come up with software and hardware to interface human and Ancient devices.
** It's also mentioned that the dialing computer in Stargate Command is only minimally functional: it took them ''forever'' to build a computer that controls the Stargate, and even then it ignores half the signals the gate sends it (this is the reason Earth's Stargate malfunctions so often).
* In ''[[Stargate Universe]]'' Icarus Base personnel were using a special dialing laptop in place of the planet's DHD. Eli Wallace managed to import and edit Kino video on his laptop. The crew also discovered "recharging" plates which provide power to all of their electric and electronic devices.
* ''[[Kamen Rider Dragon Knight]]'': Both Xaviax and the Ventarans use USB.
** Later ''[[Kamen Rider Double]]'' uses this kind of technology.
* In ''[[Babylon 5]]'', the Earth-Minbari war was sparked over an incident where an Earthforce captain who made first contact with Minbari ships thought that their powerful [[Everything Sensor|scanners]] were some kind of weapon system. In the meantime, they were able to contact the ships using an audio channel, but the Minbari didn't respond as they couldn't translate human speech.
** It didn't help that the Minbari ships had their gunports open, which the Minbari warrior caste considers the equivalent of a handshake (i.e. open hands), but humans see it as a clearly hostile gesture. Interestingly, the Minbari leader Dukhat did realize the gesture could be misconstrued but did not have time to order the gunports closed.
* In ''[[Dollhouse]]'', [[Too Clever by Half|Topher]] develops a device that [[Mind Rape|disables]] all actives
== Tabletop Games ==
* In the ''[[Old World of Darkness]]'' setting, the Glass Walker tribe of [[Werewolf: The Apocalypse|werewolves]] devised a magic item called "Vulcan's Interface", which allowed any two electronic items to be linked together in this fashion.
* It is specifically stated in ''[[Eclipse Phase]]'' that there are no standard software formats. But AI conversion tools are so common that it isn't an issue.
== Video Games ==
* This tends to apply to the [[Power-Up]] system in some [[Video Games]].
* Most versions of ''[[Mega Man (video game)|Mega Man]]'' have this, as the title character is usually able to use built-in weapons collected from defeated enemies. [[Hand Wave|Handwaved]] by Mega Man possessing a "Variable Weapons System" which allows him to [[Mega Manning|scan and copy the powers of his defeated foes]].
** The ''[[Mega Man (animation)|Mega Man]]'' cartoon takes it even further, where Mega Man is able to not only scan a bomb (not Bomb Man; an actual IED) to gain a complete schematic, he's able to transfer the information to Rush to take to Dr. Light (I guess the system can't work over wireless, only Personal Area Networking).
** In the ''[[Mega Man X]]'' series, this is further justified by all the other robots being duplicates of X's technology (poor ones at that).
** ''[[Mega Man Legends|Legends]]'' averts this trope, as Roll has to modify the weapons you pick up in her workshop before you can equip them.
*** If you call building fully functioning combat weaponry from a [[Infinity+1 Sword|laser pointer]] modification.
** Averted in one story in ''[[Mega Man Battle Network]]'' when a virtual idol jokes about being affected by a virus that affects the main characters, but turns out to be unaffected since she is a different type of program. Tragically averted later on with the same character, when she and Mega Man fall in love. Because they are different types of programs, they are unable to even touch each other.
** Justifiable in the first game since Dr. Light actually built the original robot masters, so Mega Man could have been specifically designed to be able to operate their weaponry. Through most of the rest of the series, Dr. Wily could still be using hardware and software similar enough to ex-partner Dr. Light's stuff to still be compatible. ''Mega Man IV'' is the first major exception, with the robot masters having been built by Dr. Cossack.
* Strogg computers in ''[[Quake 4
* The cyberjack implant in ''[[System Shock]]''.
{{quote|''[The cyberjack implant] is a wonderful piece of kit. You can take anything with a battery in it and plug it directly into your brain. Hoo! Even more magical, whatever you install, it always works and you never ever have an IRQ conflict. So my player is called PNP man (plug'n'play man).''|[http://www.it-he.org/sshock.htm System Shock Hacker's Guide to Sin]}}
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* In ''[[Chrono Trigger]]'' smart girl Lucca has the skills and knowledge necessary to repair and reprogram a robot from the distant future to be her friend and party member . Good thing the future still uses C.
* The Data Uplink in ''[[Perfect Dark]]'' is compatible with absolutely every computer you come across, including alien starships. There is a loose [[Hand Wave]] in that the game's futuristic tech is based on reverse-engineered alien devices, but it's still pretty flimsy.
== Web Comics ==
* ''[[xkcd]]'' on [http://xkcd.com/644/
** "[http://xkcd.com/927/ There are 14 competing standards...]" (See also the [[Alt Text]].)
== Western Animation ==
* On at least one occasion in ''[[Code Lyoko]]'', Jérémie has had to borrow one of Odd's portable game systems for a quick memory boost to the Supercomputer. Despite, you know, the fact that the Supercomputer was built anywhere between the mid-1980s and 1994, and even modern computers not having any first-party components that can connect to a video game system or accessory.
** Though the portable game was connected to a laptop used as interface with the Supercomputer. That still plenty
** [[Fridge Brilliance|Actually,]] it could work as ''virtual'' memory if the game console had an onboard hard disk. A flash drive would have worked as well.
** A later aversion of the trope occurs when Jérémie has Yumi connect his laptop to a radio antenna by touching loose wires into the laptop's
* [[Hangs a Lampshade|Lampshaded]] by Dib of ''[[Invader Zim]]'': while attempting to hack Zim's computer, he says, "I only hope the Irkans just happen to use the same operating system as me". Of course they do.
* One particular episode of
* On ''[[Danny Phantom]]'', Tucker can often stop a technology-based ghost from a handheld PDA. When a future version comes back in time, he comments on how he can still hack him.
{{quote|'''Tucker:''' Wow, I can still hack his system with my PDA. I don't know if that's exciting... or sad.}}
** Justified (in this particular example) in that the ghost in question had integrated a copy of Tucker's PDA into his suit, and had to obey whatever data was programmed into the PDA. Tucker was able to program the PDA, which in turn "
* In the ''[[Futurama]]'' movie ''Bender's Big Score'', the Professor links Hermes' bottled head up to an entire fleet of spaceships.
* Much of the technology in ''[[Megas XLR]]'' works this way. While the eponymous robot ''may'' be explained as coming from the future and having some of this compatibility built in, [[Word of God]] states that the race that built this robot didn't even ''exist'' at the time of the story. Also, with ''some'' effort, Coop is able to wire a several
* During an episode of ''[[The Avengers: Earth's
== Real Life ==
* Region 1 (North America) DVD players exist that have the option to output to the European PAL format as well as the North American NTSC format... even though it only has a regular North American power plug.
** "Region 0" DVD players also exist, which can play any region of DVD without any problems. They're particularly common in East Asia, where at least three of these regions exist in close proximity, and people often buy discs from neighboring countries. It makes one wonder why they bothered with region codes in the first place.
*** Probably to kick the people (in the you-know-where region) who buy these things legally, as the pirates don't have that problem. Oh, and to profit, although we are not sure if they are actually accomplishing this one.
*** It's really the distributors who profit on the region locking. It reduces competition and ensures they can keep their price differences. Bad for publishers, bad for stores, bad for customers but somebody has to ship the things.
*** Many DVD players can be "unlocked" into region 0 by entering a special code with the remote.
** The point is that those are designed to be compatible or at least overcome the standard incompatibility. It's not really the same thing.
* Saab market their [[Cool Plane|Gripen fighter aircraft]] by saying that the aircraft can interface with both [[NATO]] and [[Warsaw Pact]] weaponry, unlike other fighters of that generation. It's paid some
* Intel Macs can both run MacOS and Windows, albeit through Boot Camp, a multi-boot solution allowing Apple users to run non-Mac operating systems on Macs. Conversely, x86 builds of MacOS can run on commodity Intel PCs, but not without much work as MacOS isn't designed to boot on a non-Apple device to begin with.
** This no longer holds true with the ARM-powered Macs though, as they no longer support Boot Camp; those wanting to run Windows on an ARM Mac would have to resort to using an emulator.
* Ironically [[Truth in Television|played straight]] in 70-es and 80-es, when the [[Soviet Union]] adopted PDP-11 compatibility as an industry-wide IT standard. It was done exactly for the reason stated above: the interoperability makes life so much ''easier'', and adoption of an already established standard gives you the access to all the software and hardware already developed for it.
* USB-based devices are supposedly this in theory. In practice, you need to install drivers for more complex devices (e.g. cameras, scanners, printers) as not all devices have generic drivers included with operating systems.
** Although many of them are getting better about that. Often the driver is now on the device itself, or it uses a standard 'profile.' Pending no problems between the two devices, it'll install itself. Many devices are now Plug, Wait about 30 seconds, N Play.
***
** USB-C more seriously aims to become this, though there are certainly hurdles and peculiarities with the spec that make this not quite a reality. Typically a single Type C cable could handle power, and data just like classic USB ports, though there are exceptions even to this.<ref>Some cables are sold without support for data, or for support for high current devices.</ref> Theoretically it also supports more standards, allowing for things like display signals, but support for this is less universal.
* If it has a CPU, you can run NetBSD on it, period. Linux is a close second.
** If a piece of software has been built to be POSIX-compliant, it'll run on just about every
* [http://wiki.qemu.org/Main_Page QEMU] is a CPU virtualizer. If you don't mind some things being really slow, it can theoretically be made to run pretty much any operating system (and by extension, its software) on pretty much any host computer.
* The standardized ATX form factor for computer parts insures that anything compliant with the standards will at least fit.
** There are a lot of standards from the IBM PC that are essentially plug and play. At least in theory. But these standards got incompatible upgrades over time. Only three today are both forwards (supposedly) and backwards compatible: USB, SATA, and PCI-Express.
* The [[Trope Namer]] may be the [[wikipedia:Plug and play#ISA and PCI self-configuration|ISA bus PnP standard]] from the early 1990s. It allowed peripheral cards inserted into one of a PC's ISA slots to automatically determine which IRQ and DMA channels it should use. Previous generations of ISA cards required the person installing them to manually flip
* The claim to fame for some brands of single board computers.
** One of the main reasons for [[wikipedia: Makey Makey|Makey Makey]] is that it allows one to interface their computer with things like play-doh, bananas, and other objects with the right conductive properties as input devices.
** For more technical users, [[Wikipedia:Arduino|Arduino]], [[Wikipedia:Raspberry Pi|Raspberry Pi]] and other single board computers are commonly used to interface items not designed to be used with a computer.
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Futuristic Tech Index]]
[[Category:Magical Computer]]
[[Category:
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