View source for Scale of Scientific Sins

{{trope}}
[[File:Dresden Codak Caveman Science clipping3 9728.jpg|link=Dresden Codak|frame]]

{{quote|''[[After-Action Villain Analysis|The Krells, in the insolence]] of their success, tried to usurp the power of God. And were destroyed.''
|The [[Apocalyptic Log]] of '''C.X. Ostrow''' in the novelization of ''[[Forbidden Planet]]''}}

Science is a religion—an [[Religion of Evil|evil]], godless religion that isn't just [[Science Is Bad|Bad]] and [[Science Is Wrong|Wrong]], but unethical [[Harmony Versus Discipline|by nature]]. And like all religions, [[Seven Deadly Sins|it has sins]]—or, rather, "[[Evil Virtues|virtues]]". These are the sins that a [[Mad Scientist]] commits in his quests [[For Science!]]. If... no, ''[[What Could Possibly Go Wrong?|when]]'' these are violated something will [[Go Horribly Wrong]] and the transgressor will receive karmic punishment [[Hoist by His Own Petard|in accordance to the sin]], increasing in evil as the number rises. [[Karma Houdini|No exceptions.]]

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

:1. [[Ludd Was Right|Automation]].
:2. Making something, ''anything'', with [[Potential Applications]].
::2.1 [[Power Perversion Potential|Stimulating yourself.]]
::2.2 Using powers for [[Mundane Utility|things other than combat.]]
:3. [[Genetic Engineering Is the New Nuke|Genetic Engineering]] and [[No Transhumanism Allowed|Transhumanism in general]]
::3.1 When it's [[Emergency Transformation|unwilling]], but otherwise [[Sculpted Physique|mostly human.]]
::3.2 When it results in a [[Biological Mashup]].
::3.3 When [[Cybernetics Eat Your Soul]].
:4. [[Immortality Immorality|Immortality]] when it doesn't revive the dead.
:5. [[Creating Life]].
:6. [[Came Back Wrong|Cheating Death]].
:7. [[A God Am I|Usurping God.]]

Despite the name, [[The Dark Arts|magic often considers these sins as well]], the kind [[Fantastic Aesop|it is capable of but for which it must never be used]].

{{examples}}
== The First Sin of Automation ==
=== [[Film]] ===
* This is pretty much the backstory to ''[[The Matrix]]''.
* And also in ''[[The Terminator]]'', particularly in the second and third movie.
* ''I, Robot''. See Asimov's entry for literature below.

=== [[Literature]] ===
* ''[[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
* ''[[Council Wars]]'': Creating new AIs is the only thing that ''is'' banned.
* Isaac Asimov's ''Foundation'' universe combines sins 1, 2, 4 and 5 to produce his famous Three Laws and [[Zeroth Law Rebellion]].

=== [[Live Action TV]] ===
* On ''[[Star Trek]]'', taking organic oversight out of the command decision loop is almost invariably a catastrophic mistake (except when it's Data). [[We Will Use Manual Labour in The Future|Humans in the Federation almost do more manual labor than we do.]]

=== [[Tabletop Games]] ===
* ''[[Warhammer 40,000]]'': 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.

=== [[Video Games]] ===
* ''[[Mass Effect]]'' had the Quarians build the Geth as a cheap labour force... and you can how well that worked out as they've been stuck in a flotilla of ships for 300 years after the Geth kicked their asses.
** If you [[All There in the Manual|talk to Tali enough]], she reveals that the Quarians tried to shut down all Geth the minute they found out that the Geth were becoming sentient. This makes the sin less automation (as humanity still uses programs, just not AI) and more 'being [[Fantastic Racism|Robot-Bigots]] who [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero|caused this mess by their attempts to prevent it]]''
** According to Legion, the Geth considered it self-defense and bear the Quarians no real ill-will. Except for the relatively tiny group of Heretics that followed Sovereign in the first game and want to wipe out all organic life.
*** The mainstream Geth actually have preserved the Quarian Homeworld and their buildings. Why? [[Crowning Moment of Heartwarming|They regret what they had to do to save themselves, and genuinely want to see their makers come back so they can live in peace together. That's right, the robots are lonely by themselves, and if the Quarians realized this and how badly they messed up (At least one in addition to Tali DOES realize this, but nobody listens to him despite him being pretty highly ranked)...they'd probably cease to have a problem at all and be back on their home planet in relatively short order]]
* The Terrans in the [[X]] series are extremely paranoid after their own Terraformers went crazy after a bad upgrade, gained sentience and began terraforming the Terrans. Now they have a military group dedicated to eradicating AI's. Considering that the terraformers became the Xenon who spent the entire series terrorizing the commonwealth, they're quite correct.


== The Second Sin of Hubris ==
=== [[Film]] ===
* ''[[I Am Legend]]'', the movie: we cured cancer and everybody died. [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero|And turned into an evil horde of zombie-vampires.]]

=== [[Live Action TV]] ===
* On ''[[Doctor Who]]'', 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.

=== [[Tabletop Games]] ===
* ''[[Warhammer 40,000]]''. Adeptus Mechanicus. Necrons. Enough said.

=== Videogames ===
* To quote ''[[BioShock (series)]]'s'' Dr. Suchong "Adam is the canvas, [[Lego Genetics|Plasmids]] are the paint." Boy, did ''that'' ever [[Go Horribly Wrong]].
** They tried to paint paradise, but thanks to Ryan's refusal to regulate the paint, they ended up creating a [[Hieronymous Bosch]] piece.
* [[Dragon Age|"The Chantry teaches us that it was the hubris of men the one that brought the Darkspawn into the world. The mages seeked 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]].

== The Third Sin of GE and Transhumanism ==
=== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ===
* In ''[[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha]]'', the creation of [[Super Soldier|Artificial Mages]] is explicitly banned. This is one of the reasons why [[Big Bad|Jail Scaglietti]], a [[Mad Scientist]] with a passion for [[Evilutionary Biologist|biological manipulation]], is considered an interdimensional criminal.
** Interestingly, [[The Federation|the TSAB]] only comes down hard on the people that built and commissioned artificial mages/cyborgs. The creations themselves are only punished if they're found to have been gleefully kicking dogs or something. Otherwise, they're treated the same as any other person, with no limits on what they're allowed to do. Also interestingly, the majority of these created beings seem to turn out to ultimately be pretty nice people; turning out as well as they do when built and raised by insane women and/or mad scientists, one has to wonder how well off they'd be if the process ''wasn't'' illegal and thus only used by [[Mad Scientist]] types.
*** Although, given the many, many flaws, ethical problems, and the fairly stinking big, obvious [[Turned Against Their Masters|logical problem]] inherent in the [[Super Soldier]] trope, it's not particularly shocking that the TSAB is [[Genre Savvy]] enough to want to prevent this kind of thing going on.
* This is ultimately the goal of the Human Instrumentality Project in ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]'', and it is most certainly portrayed in a fairly negative light. [[Science Fantasy|Of course, the scientificity of this sin is somewhat questionable.]]
* Aside from the ghouls, ''[[Hellsing]]'' has  {{spoiler|The Major's Body. Schrödinger (Schroedinger) may and/or may not count}}
* This trope is extensively played with in ''[[Ghost in the Shell]]'' - the impact of extensive technical progress in the area of AI and cybernetics on society forms the premise of the series.
* ''[[Franken Fran]]'': No explanation needed here.{{context|reason=MOD: Yes, there is. As for why, see Small Reference Pools.}}

=== [[Literature]] ===
* ''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 ''[[Master of Orion]]'' 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 [[Deus Ex Machina]] immortality humanity has obtained is yet better than advancing mechanisation.}}

=== [[Live-Action TV]] ===
* On ''[[Star Trek]]'', human genetic engineering is banned, and most of the products of it are dangerously deranged.
** This is a major point about the origins of [[Memetic Mutation|KHAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!!]]
** The Dominion, Federation's [[Evil Counterpart]], 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.}}
** 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.
** The flaws are explicitly due to flaws in their black-market augmentations. It isn't a reason for the ban (which is explicitly just Khan), but a result of it.
* Kit Pedler, a writer/scientific advisor for ''[[Doctor Who]]'' in 1966, sincerely believed that [[Cybernetics Eat Your Soul]], 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.
** In the new series, the re-envisioned Cybermen are more straightforward [[Body Horror]] than [[Cybernetics Eat Your Soul]]. They're designed with "emotion inhibitor" chips from the start; without these, the realization of what they'd become would [[Your Head Asplode|lead to head asplody]]. The creator of these new Cybermen is forced to become one earlier than he'd planned, but, other than that, there's no real penalty for tampering with the natural order.
* Also on ''[[Doctor Who]]'', the Daleks were a [[Genetic Engineering]] 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.

=== [[Tabletop Games]] ===
* ''[[Warhammer 40,000]]'', 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.
* ''Shadowrun'' universe features different examples of this trope:
** Genetically engineered animals
** Cybernetically enhanced animals
** Massive scale human cybernetics. For the sake of balance [[Cybernetics Eat Your Soul]] - any mechanical and electronic modifications chip away at magic-defining character traits and at the character's humanity score. This includes the creation of [[Fate Worse Than Death|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.

=== [[Video Games]] ===
* ''[[BioShock (series)]]''. 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 ''[[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.
* [[Deus Ex: Human Revolution|Deus Ex Human Revolution]] focuses on this as its primary setting. Whether or not human augmentation is evil is up for the player to decide, but it does make the world worse to a degree.

=== [[Web Comics]] ===
* The ''[[El Goonish Shive]]'' universe makes some sort of [[Genetic Engineering]] easy, given some of its non-human (but not alien) residents. Still, Project Lycanthrope starts up to make weird hybrids to go on missions and assassinate. Before [[America Saves the Day]], though, the intended target (Damien) shows up, 'liberates' (read: enslaves) the results, and kills everyone else save one. Note that in an alternate universe, one of the Project Lycanthrope products is hinted to be the reason it's now ruled by an [[Evil Overlord]].
* ''[[Crimson Dark]] '' shows humanity's way from prosthetics to augmentation. While there are laws to prevent [[Ghost in the Shell]] scenarios, at least one side of the in-universe conflict employs literal cases of [[Cybernetics Eat Your Soul]] - technically dead human bodies, augmented and modified beyond recognition, held alive by said augmentations with conscience replaced by AI, referred in-universe as JAKs.

=== [[Web Original]] ===
* Pretty much Jobe Wilkins' ''raison d'etre'' in the [[Whateley Universe]]. He has genetically engineered a synthetic [[The Fair Folk|Sidhe]] that is essentially a dark elf hottie. He has invented serums that can turn people into transhuman monsters... and he ''has used them on people who annoyed him''. He has invented a serum that gives people strength, endurance, and healing abilities... by turning them into what amounts to feral orcs who are put to work in his father's mines.

== The Fourth Sin of Anti-Thanatosis ==

=== Anime and 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.
* [[Neon Genesis Evangelion]] gives us the  {{spoiler|Mass Production Evangelions.}}

=== [[Literature]] ===
* Sergej Luk'yanenko's ''Линия Грёз'' and ''Императоры Иллюзий'', set in the ''[[Master of Orion]]'' 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:
** Recent memories can and will be used for surveillance purposes.
** Faking the death triggered signal nets you a body in the "vegetable state". If the original dies afterwards, the previously "vegetable" body will nigh-instantly come to sentience. As Arthur, the A-Than [[Mega Corp]] heir notes, the Church gave A-Than their blessing because they had "scientifically proven the existence of immortal souls".
**  {{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.}}

=== [[Tabletop Games]] ===
* ''[[Warhammer 40,000]]'' The Astartes are long lived, though not immortal and tending to die a glorious death in battle before old age becomes an issue. 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.

=== [[Video Games]] ===
* ''[[BioShock (series)]]'', 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.}}
* Jacob Crow in ''[[Time Splitters]]: Future Perfect'' {{spoiler|creates the Timesplitters}} as part of an attempt to gain immortality.
* Marquis DeSinge in ''[[Tales of Monkey Island]]''.
* ''[[The Dig]]'' 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 [[Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence]] 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.

== The Fifth Sin of Autogenesis ==
=== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ===
* ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist]]'' (first anime) has Homunculi, who score a 4.5 being both {{spoiler|botched resurrections}} and attempts at creating life.
**  {{spoiler|Father}} in the manga. The poor Xerxesians...
* ''[[Hellsing]]'' has a backstory in which  {{spoiler|the Major is nearly killed during the battle of Stalingrad, but is found and made a cyborg by the Doktor. Not only that, but he's now pretty much immortal.}}
* The creation of [[Neon Genesis Evangelion|Evas]] might be this, but how they are created is never properly explained.

=== [[Film]] ===
* The Genesis Planet from ''[[Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan]]'' didn't exactly turn out well in the end.
* ''[[Forbidden Planet]]'', where the Krell's subconsciousnesses created creatures which had the power to destroy but not be destroyed.

=== [[Literature]] ===
* ''[[Frankenstein's Monster]]'' - 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.

=== [[Live Action TV]] ===
* "[[Battlestar Galactica|The Cylons were created by man...]]"
** To be fair, their situation is more similar to that of Geth. Plus, it was a plan of god(s) all along.

=== [[Tabletop Games]] ===
* ''[[Warhammer 40,000]]''. 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.

=== Videogames ===
* ''[[BioShock (series)]]'' depending on how you want to look at it,  {{spoiler|Jack, a normal baby made into a fast growing [[Tyke Bomb]] aimed at his father, sure did make his "creator" Fontaine regret doing so.}} Albeit, this because the child became a [[Phlebotinum Rebel]] against his villainous creators.
* ''[[Tales of the Abyss]]'' 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 [[Clone Degeneration|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.

== The Sixth Sin of Resurrection ==
=== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ===
* Project F of ''[[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha]]'', which attempts to bring back the dead by creating a clone [[Genetic Memory|with the memories and personality of the original]]. As it's a subset of Artificial Mage research mentioned under Genetic Engineering, this is also banned by [[The Federation]].
* [[Omniscient Council of Vagueness|SEELE]] has a big problem with [[Manipulative Bastard|Gendou Ikari]]'s apparent attempts at this in ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]''.
** Mainly because it got in the way of ''their'' attempts.
* ''[[Hellsing]]'' gets a 9 out of 10 for  {{spoiler|cheating death, gaining immortality (kind of), and creating a transhuman with The Major. Also, for the failed attempt that is the SHE. Doc must be so proud.}}
* This is THE plot point in ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist]]''. Any attempts to bring back the dead are bound to fail and anyone attempting it will lose a body part as a [[Karmic Punishment]].
* ''[[Bleach]]'': [[Mad Scientist]] Espada Szayel sees scientific pursuit as seeking "perfection" which can only be achieved by finding a way to cheat death, something he believes he's achieved with his resurrection and therefore feels he's achieved the perfect form in science. Fellow [[Mad Scientist]] Captain Kurotsuchi strenuously disagrees with this requirement [[For Science!]] by proving Szayel hadn't quite succeeded in cheating death, after all.

=== [[Film]] ===
* Herbert West in ''[[Re-Animator]]'' has a serum that brings the dead back to life, which he uses on anything dead he comes across. He also makes a few interesting attempts at create new life, with varied results.

=== [[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.
** 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 [[Mega Corp]] 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 [[Mega Corp]] stands, and that's in centuries) as ultimate punishment for his mercenaries.
* ''[[Wild Cards]]'' universe:
** Demise, a projecting telepath. Projects the memory of his own death to kill. Demise had drawn the Black Queen (in the setting's [[Superpower Lottery]], 90% of those afflicted by the Mass Empowerment Event just die horribly) and was treated with the experimental Trump cure. He [[Came Back Wrong]].
* [[H.P. Lovecraft]]'s series of short stories ''Herbert West- Reanimator'', on which the film was loosely based. Which ends with the titular 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}}

=== [[Live Action TV]] ===
* ''[[Star Trek]]'' , 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.
* The Goa'uld sarcophagus from ''[[Stargate SG-1]]'' 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 [[Exclusively Evil]].
** And being effectively immortal, they began eating their own offspring to prevent competition.
* The resurrection gauntlets (the second, Weevil related one moreso than the original Risen Mitten) of ''[[Torchwood]]''.
* Averted and played straight in [[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]. When Dawn revives their recently deceased mother while it is never seen it is implied it would have [[Gone Horribly Wrong|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.}}
** Although being pulled out of Heaven is a bummer.
** 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.

=== [[Tabletop Games]] ===
* ''[[Running Gag|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.
** The Necrons (or rather their Necrontyr precursors) mix this with number four and a [[Deal with the Devil|Deal With The C'Tan]], having been reborn as soulless automatons after getting fed up of living short painful and powerless lives in a galaxy with [[Physical God|Star Gods]] and the [[Sufficiently Advanced Aliens|Old Ones]].

=== [[Video Games]] ===
* One of the major recurring themes in ''[[Shadow Hearts]]'' is a manuscript that can resurrect the dead, but [[Came Back Wrong|it never turns out like intended]].
* ''[[The Dig]]'' again! One of the first inventions of the Cocytans to achieve immortality were the "life crystals", which resurrected the death, again, the individual resurrected [[Came Back Wrong|came back addicted to them]].
* ''[[Tales of the Abyss]]'' again, under the same concept. Fomicry as used to create human clones was originally an attempt to bring back the dead. It [[Came Back Wrong|never worked]] right, though - not only were many replicas physically imperfect, [[Body Horror|often in horrifying ways]], but not a single one of them ever had the original's memories.

=== [[Web Comics]] ===
* ''[[Girl Genius]]'' features resurrection as a major issue among royalty. To prevent [[Who Wants to Live Forever?|eternal reigns]] death and resurrection are considered an abdication.

== The Seventh Sin of Autodeification ==
=== Anime and Manga ===
* ''[[Hellsing]]'' - He's ''everyvere und novere.''
* [[Omniscient Council of Vagueness|SEELE]] has a big problem with [[Manipulative Bastard|Gendou Ikari]]'s apparent attempts at this in ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]''. Cause they wanted to do it. As with the previous sin. SEELE and Gendo tie with Doc from [[Hellsing]] for general Scientific Evilness, matching him sin for sin.
* ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist]]''. Human transmutation has aspects of this (see #6 above) and  {{spoiler|Truth was not amused by Father's plan}}.
** Parodied in ''[[VG Cats]]'' (as "[http://www.vgcats.com/comics/?strip_id=187 Fullmetal Botanist]").
* ''[[Bleach]]'': [[Big Bad|Aizen]] has been using [[Applied Phlebotinum|shinigami science]] to attempt this. He's even been willing to steal the scientific achievements of others (especially Urahara's) in his pursuit of this.

=== Literature ===
* ''[[Doctor Faustus]]'' set out to "gain a deity" through the study of [[Things Man Was Not Meant to Know|forbidden magic]] and the consequently-named [[Deal with the Devil|Faustian Pact]]. To say it [[Gone Horribly Wrong|went horribly wrong]] would be an understatement, but then the terms of his bargain were [[Too Dumb to Live|pretty stupid to begin with]].

=== [[Live Action TV]] ===
* ''[[Stargate SG-1]]'' : Proclaiming themselves gods is the villainous Goa'uld's main operating procedure.
** Don't forget the [[Stargate SG-1|Ori]]!
* [[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine]] : Jem'Haddar and Vorta are genetically bred (see above) to regard Founders as gods.

=== [[Tabletop Games]] ===
* Surprise, surprise, ''[[Warhammer 40,000]]'', 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 [[Physical God]].
** Although to be fair to the old boy, he essentially made it extremely clear that he was just a (hyperpowered and nigh on invulnerable) man, not a god. You can thank the lackeys after his death who set him up as a new deity.
** But those very same lackeys may have actually turned him into a deity, through the power of belief and due to how the Immaterium works.
** Also, he may have known he WAS a god, but because he knew that the 40k verse runs on [[Clap Your Hands If You Believe]] he may have set out to stop any and all belief in gods in the galaxy as a way to kill of his ''rival'' gods.

=== [[Video Games]] ===
* ''[[Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis]]''. [[Biological Mashup]]s, [[Eldritch Abomination]]s, [[Bamboo Technology]] Automatons made out of stone and bronze and powered by [[Orichalcum]], followed by [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|The God Machine]] set on top of an underwater volcano, which cause the characters to either [[Soul Jar|possess the wearer]] or mutate into [[A Fate Worse Than Death]]. Oh, and the [[Ghostapo|Nazis want to]] restart the whole shebang.
* Fontaine in ''[[BioShock (series)]]'' becomes a horrendously powerful [[Psycho Serum|Adam overdosed]] [[Sculpted Physique|human statue]].
* The General in ''[[Psi-Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy|Psi Ops the Mindgate Conspiracy]]'' used an alien psi device to gain massive psychic powers, in the process he killed dozens, lobotomized hundreds, and betrayed every one of his allies. His comeuppance was getting beat by the protagonist.
* The ultimate goal of Bob Page from [[Deus Ex]], 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".
* ''[[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.

== All of the Above ==
=== Anime and Manga ===
* ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist]]'' The [[Big Bad]] accomplishes just about everything this list and even some of the good guys try a few.

=== Tabletop Games ===
* [[Genius: The Transgression]] incorporates almost the entire list into the [[Karma Meter]]. In order of severity Transgressions include: automation, minor transhumanism, making zombies, dangerous experimentation on humans, creating intelligence, deadly experimentation on humans, moderate transhumanism, very deadly experimentation, major transhumanism, raising the dead, genocide.
* [[Warhammer 40,000|Notice a certain setting that has an example on every point of the list?]]
* ''[[Eclipse Phase]]'' has checked off each of them, although number 7 was carried out by superintelligent AI's, the TITANs, who proceeded to forcibly upload many humans, reduce Earth to a blasted hellscape, and vanish through hyper-advanced wormhole gates. Most of them are considered routine everywhere except the Jovian Junta, although attempting to create another TITAN-style "seed AI" with unlimited potential is so illegal that if you attempt it you will be killed and of your backups will be wiped, and if your habitat doesn't take you down, Firewall will.

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