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[[Steampunk]] and [[Punk Punk|other *punks]] tend to be like this to a greater or lesser degree, [[Phlebotinum Du Jour]] based works as often as not.
Subtrope of [[The "Unicorn In The Garden" Rule]].
{{examples}}
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* ''[[Code Geass]]:'' Sakuradite, although there are other forces at work, every piece of non-real-life technology is Sakuradite-based.
** As well as, apparently, all the power plants; the Gefjun Disturber is explicitly stated to affect only Sakuradite-based tech, and when used to cripple Tokyo's defences in the Second Battle for Tokyo knocks out every electrically-powered device in the city.
*
== [[
* ''[[Warriors of Plasm]]'' is set in an alien world where absolutely everything is based on [[Biological Technology]]. Justified in that their world itself is a giant, squishy living organism.
== [[Literature]] ==
* ''[[Discworld]]
* The Eastern Empire in [[Mercedes Lackey]]'s ''[[Heralds of Valdemar]]'' books
* Everything in the [[Stargate Verse]] runs on Naquadah or Naquadriah (which is really just a more potent variety of the former.) The gates are made out of it, bombs, the starships run on it, it's the core element in the Replicators... If what you want to do can't be done with Naquadriah, the you don't have enough of it. ''[[Stargate Universe]]'' kicks off the plot by using ''[[Up to Eleven|a planet which has its entire core]]'' made up of Naquadriah to reach the Destiny.▼
== [[Newspaper Comics]] ==
* While it didn't run ''everything,'' an awful lot of the heroes' technology in ''[[Buck Rogers]]'' was based on the synthetic antigravity substance "inertron." This is really a perfectly justifiable application of [[Forgotten Phlebotinum|Niven's Law]]—if an antigravity substance existed, it ''would'' be incredibly useful; once the stuff was introduced into the series's continuity, it would be odd if it ''didn't'' start appearing in all kinds of machinery.
▲== [[Live Action TV]] ==
▲* Everything in the [[Stargate Verse]] runs on Naquadah or Naquadriah (which is really just a more potent variety of the former.) The gates are made out of it, bombs, the starships run on it, it's the core element in the Replicators... If what you want to do can't be done with Naquadriah, the you don't have enough of it. ''[[Stargate Universe]]'' kicks off the plot by using ''[[Up to Eleven|a planet which has its entire core]]'' made up of Naquadriah to reach the Destiny.
== [[Tabletop Games]] ==
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* ''[[Valkyria Chronicles]]:'' Ragnite.
* The tititular ''[[Elebits]]''.
* ''[[Iji]]'' has [[nanomachines]].
** As does ''[[Metal Gear]]''.
* ''[[X-COM]]:'' Elerium
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** And [[Obstructive Bureaucrat|bureaucracy]]. "[http://awkwardzombie.com/index.php?page=0&comic=051214 I'm pretty sure] even mass effect can't explain a bureaucratic process [[Ridiculously-Fast Construction|getting instantaneous, tangible results]]."
== [[Web Original]]
* The substance known as "handwavium" from the collaborative writing project ''[[Fenspace]]'' basically "uplifts" ordinary technology into ultratech.
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** Flavoring crystals? Like salt?
* ''[[Bionicle]]'': Protodermis in the Matoran Universe.
* Pretty much everything in the ''[[Transformers]]'' [[Verse]] runs on Energon. The earliest [[Marvel Comics]] stories avert this, having them use a liquid fuel that can be derived from oil, but the writers quickly adopted energon [[Canon Immigrant|from the TV series]] and never looked back.
== [[Real Life]] ==
* [[Truth in Television]]:
* ...but in actual reality, most everything seems to depend on oil :(
** We're not in the future yet.
*** Not until we have flying cars and personal jetpacks. Also flying skateboards.
**** [http://www.ebaumsworld.com/video/watch/81028358/ Wait...] [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gf-wwPpU5BI what?]
* Blake Snyder's ''Save the Cat'' book on screenwriting specifically advises authors to do this under his Double Mumbo Jumbo theory. According to him, if you try to make the audience buy two separate supramundane elements it stretches the film's credibility to the breaking point. He pointed out a flop like [[Signs]] which asked the audience to juggle a debate over whether or not God exists ''and'' one over whether or not evil space aliens exist.<ref>
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Applied Phlebotinum]]
[[Category:Speculative Fiction Tropes]]
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