History Main / AesopTinum

* In the MarvelComics ''EarthX'', the Cosmic Consciousness grants omniscience, but due to a strange form of observer effect will slowly make those who have even a fraction of it kinder people.

* In ''Anime/SoukouNoStrain'' [[spoiler:the Strains are derived from research done on aliens that look exactly like [[{{Anvilicious}} little human girls]] and the research is supposed to continue ([[WhatHappenedToTheMouse though they don't really finish that plot thread]]) so they can achieve instantaneous communication and more with the further dissection and possible brain removal of said girls.]] [[DefectorFromDecadence Naturally, the bad guy didn't like this.]] [[FreakOut So]] [[FaceHeelTurn he decided]] [[OmnicidalManiac it would be best]] [[KillEmAll to punish humanity for this.]]
* In ''Manga/{{Inuyasha}}'', both Inuyasha's Tetsusaiga and Sesshomaru's Tenseiga were crafted specifically for them by their father to be aesoptinum. Tetsusaiga, the sword of destruction, has the power to kill one hundred demons with one swing, but only if it's wielded by a half-demon for the purpose of protecting humans. Tenseiga, the sword of healing, has the power to revive the dead but cannot harm anyone (except "minions of the underworld" which are basically a type of grim reaper like creatures). The swords are also [[EmpathicWeapon empathic weapons]], and have been known to guide their respective owners from time to time.

** In TabletopGame/WerewolfTheForsaken, spirits are the source of all magical tools, gifts, and powers. However, spirits have their own sometimes-delicate ecosystem, and removing one (to bind it into a tool or simply destroying it because it's dangerous) can have disastrous consequences for other spirits in the area and the things they embody in the real world. Since this is a Green Aesop, sometimes _failing_ to hunt or destroy certain spirits can have similarly terrible effects.

** The more-universal Humanity system makes morality itself a form of Phlebotenum. Each splat has a set of hierarchical sins, with things on the order of 'occasionally thinks unkind thoughts about others' at rank ten and 'genocide purely for the purposes of entertainment' at zero. Committing sins on the list below your current rank pulls you downward, while only abstaining and spending experience points can pull you up, so you tend to 'level out' at one rank above the sins your character abhors enough to avoid even when they're necessary... and, being a CrapsackWorld, staying above the rank of 'murder' is often near-impossible if you want to survive. Higher Humanity improves the natural reaction of things like spirits and muggles to your presence, and lower morality increases the chance of your splat's primary downside occurring.

* Creator/LarryNiven openly admits to using this trope on occasion. A believer in science, high technology, and nuclear power in specific, in ''Literature/LucifersHammer'' he made the workers at a nuclear power plant heroes who were struggling to keep civilization together. They were fighting against environmental extremist, anti-technology (and very specifically, anti-''nuclear'' technology) cannibal raiders.

* A similar idea is posed as a philosophical question by Ivan to Alyosha in ''Literature/TheBrothersKaramazov''

* In ''Manga/{{Inuyasha}}'', both Inuyasha's Tessaiga and Sesshomaru's Tenseiga were crafted specifically for them by their father to be aesoptinum. Tessaiga, the sword of destruction, has the power to kill one hundred demons with one swing, but only if it's wielded by a half-demon for the purpose of protecting humans. Tenseiga, the sword of healing, has the power to revive the dead but cannot harm anyone (except "minions of the underworld" which are basically a type of grim reaper like creatures). The swords are also [[EmpathicWeapon empathic weapons]], and have been known to guide their respective owners from time to time.

* In ''Film/{{Serenity}}'', the chemical "Pax" was created by the Alliance to sedate the populace. In case that wasn't objectionable enough to the audience, its first wide-spread test failed spectacularly, resulting in [[spoiler: nearly the entire population of a planet developing severe amotivational disorder and simply sitting quietly until they starved to death. The survivors were rendered insane and horrifically violent, becoming the Reavers.]]

* Mako in ''Videogame/FinalFantasyVII''. An energy source that is derived by leaching energy from TheLifestream. Usage causes vast expanses of land to be rendered desolate. When humans and animals are overexposed to it, expect a BodyHorror. With the Shinra Electric Power Company's hold on the public media, and everything else, [[ApatheticCitizens no one knows]]. You'd think that they would have noticed that something was wrong the ''first'' time a Mako reactor exploded, but it took an EldritchAbomination alien, an OmnicidalManiac, and a team of {{Well Intentioned Extremist}}s to shake them from their haze. Immediately after Mako fell out of favor, they [[UnfortunateImplications resorted to oil]].

* In ''{{Inuyasha}}'', both Inuyasha's Tessaiga and Sesshomaru's Tenseiga were crafted specifically for them by their father to be aesoptinum. Tessaiga, the sword of destruction, has the power to kill one hundred demons with one swing, but only if it's wielded by a half-demon for the purpose of protecting humans. Tenseiga, the sword of healing, has the power to revive the dead but cannot harm anyone (except "minions of the underworld" which are basically a type of grim reaper like creatures). The swords are also [[EmpathicWeapon empathic weapons]], and have been known to guide their respective owners from time to time.

[[folder:Film]]

* The drug Prozium in ''{{Equilibrium}}'' subdues emotions to prevent such things as violence and war. This is helped along by the banning of anything with an Emotional Content rating of ten, which can include anything even remotely artistic, and anyone caught with such contraband is burned alive (or shot repeatedly if they try to make things difficult). Naturally, there's an underground resistance [[spoiler: that the main character eventually champions after he stops taking his meds]].
* In ''Franchise/GhostInTheShell Innocence'', [[spoiler:the gynoids' sentience is due to their containing copies of the ghosts of abducted preteen girls. The ghost-copying procedure eventually kills the girls. Even more disturbingly, they were first brainwashed into near-robots so that the gynoids wouldn't be ''too'' human-like - and that they were intended to be [[{{Sexbot}} Sexbots]]. Despite all this, a surviving girl and her rescuer are actually chastised by the heroine, as she says that [[WhatMeasureIsANonHuman the real victims were the robots]].]]
* ''Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbean: On Stranger Tides'' has a fountain of youth [[spoiler:that requires a human sacrifice to work.]]

* ''LostInSpace'' had an early episode in which the Robinsons discover an alien machine (in a crashed spaceship) that provides whatever they think of. The machine makes life so easy for the family that some of them stop taking care of things or showing initiative. Then all the goodies start falling apart/not working, and the machine's guardian shows up to take it back into the spaceship.

* ''[[ShockSocialScienceFiction Shock: Social Science Fiction]]'' encourages this in its worldbuilding phase.

* The Creator/JohnBrunner novel, ''Literature/TheStoneThatNeverCameDown'', centers around an artificial, self-replicating protein (today, we'd call it a prion) that eliminates selective inattention -- the brain ''has'' to make connections between pieces of information that it previously ignored. In addition to an intelligence boost, this bestows automatic empathy, since those infected can no longer disregard the genuine pain that others feel.

* Creator/NormanSpinrad's '60s sci-fi novel ''Literature/BugJackBarron'' has an Evil Rich White Man gaining immortality from [[spoiler:[[PoweredByAForsakenChild the glands of irradiated-to-death children]]]], with the one we know about in the book being [[spoiler: African-American]]. Good book, {{anvilicious}} {{Aesop}}.

** A similar idea is posed as a philosophical question by Ivan to Alyosha in ''Literature/TheBrothersKaramazov''

* An episode of ''LightNovel/KyouKaraMaou'' involved a mountain covered by a ghostly miasma that would infect people and cause them to stop trusting anyone. The only one unaffected was the kid hero Yuuri, who had previously decided to never doubt anyone.

* The central premise of Creator/UrsulaKLeGuin's short story ''The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas'' was a city whose [[UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans happiness depended]] upon the [[PoweredByAForsakenChild suffering of one innocent child]].

* Similarly, Creator/StanislawLem's short story ''[[Literature/TheCyberiad Highest Possible Level of Development]]'' had a drug, Altruzine, that caused tele-empathy, but the story is much more tongue-in-cheek. The results are still not altruistic, though: a man with a toothache has his painful tooth ripped out by nearby people who don't want to feel the pain, a newlywed couple is nearly mobbed outside their hotel where they consummate the marriage (and criticized on their poor performance), and depressed people are driven from towns rather than treated.

* Robert Sawyer has written several books that feature a technological loss of privacy as leading to a better society. His Neanderthal Parallax series features a society in which everyone wears a gadget that records everything they do 24/7, storing it in an archive that can only be accessed by the person in question, or by the authorities if they have sufficient cause. Another story features plans sent by aliens. The plans are for a gadget that lets people read each others minds without limit, and it is strongly implied that this will lead to utopia.

* An episode of Kyo Kara Maoh! involved a mountain covered by a ghostly miasma that would infect people and cause them to stop trusting anyone. The only one unaffected was the kid hero Yuuri, who had previously decided to never doubt anyone.

* ''{{Dune}}'': The Spice is petroleum. Given that that the spice is [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything found only in a desert wasteland inhabited by deeply religious Arabic-speaking tribes]], [[{{Greed}} everyone and his brother is willing to make insidious plots and outright go to war just to control it]], and a major reason people care about spice is that it is essential for transportation, and immortality.

* The Death Notes from ''Manga/DeathNote'' qualify.

* The NewWorldOfDarkness gives us at least two:
** In WerewolfTheForsaken, spirits are the source of all magical tools, gifts, and powers. However, spirits have their own sometimes-delicate ecosystem, and removing one (to bind it into a tool or simply destroying it because it's dangerous) can have disastrous consequences for other spirits in the area and the things they embody in the real world. Since this is a Green Aesop, sometimes _failing_ to hunt or destroy certain spirits can have similarly terrible effects.
** In MageTheAwakening souls are a viable power source, as are demons from "the void". You can probably figure out what the issues with tapping either [[MoralEventHorizon tend to be]]. On the plus side: immortality!

* Truffula Trees. You know, the ones for which ''Literature/TheLorax'' speaks. They're used for making thneeds.

* In ''{{Inuyasha}}'', both Inuyasha's Tetsusaiga and Sesshomaru's Tensuseiga were crafted specifically for them by their father to be aesoptinum. Testsusaiga, the sword of destruction, has the power to kill one hundred demons with one swing, but only if it's wielded by a half-demon for the purpose of protecting humans. Tensuseiga, the sword of healing, has the power to revive the dead but cannot harm anyone (except "minions of the underworld" which are basically a type of grim reaper like creatures). The swords are also [[EmpathicWeapon empathic weapons]], and have been known to guide their respective owners from time to time.

* The ring of Gyges (mentioned by, but not original to, Socrates) allows the wearer to become invisible. Gyges, freed from the fear of punishment, kills the king and marries the queen, making this one OlderThanFeudalism.

* The movie world of ''Film/LogansRun'' is [[{{Utopia}} utopic]], no hunger, want, or need to work. The catch? Everything is run by a [[MasterComputer Computer]], Children 0-7 years are raised in tubes, Youth 7-14 are set to run wild, and once you become 30 a gem on your palm (or Palm Flower) turns black and you're sent to compete to be "Renewed". Unfortunately, TheComputerIsACheatingBastard and kills all contestants for being "too old". Most of the people living there were for the arrangement, except for Runners, who want to escape to Sanctuary and live longer.

* The ''Manga/DeathNote'' qualifies.

A form of {{phlebotinum}} with a moral component which exists only so that the author can build [[AnAesop a moral lesson]] out of it.


When listing examples below, please remember that Aesoptinium is a type of Phlebotinum, and thus a substance or technology providing a vehicle for an Aesop. Many examples have been deleted which were just regular old moral lessons.

Compare with PoweredByAForsakenChild; sometimes these tropes overlap. May or may not turn into a FantasticAesop. Can result in a PhlebotinumMuncher or MarySuetopia.

* ''Series/BabylonFive'': In "Deathwalker", The Dilgar war criminal Jha'dur develops an anti-aging serum that can be used repeatedly to extend an individual's life indefinitely. The cost? It requires a non-synthesizable ingredient available only in [[PoweredByAForsakenChild other sentients]] (one treatment requires one sentient). Her intention was to disperse the knowledge of the serum to ''start'' genocidal wars as vengeance for her species dying (and to establish that, for all their self-righteous condemnation of the Dilgar, the other races are NotSoDifferent). The Vorlons [[YouAreNotReady take it upon themselves]] to destroy the serum, Deathwalker and her ship to prevent that (and destroy any chance of researching the process to give the younger races true immortality and become rivals of the Vorlons).

** A similar idea is posed as a philosophical question by Ivan to Alyosha in ''TheBrothersKaramazov''

** In MageTheAwakening souls are a viable power source, as are demons from "the void". You can probably figure out what the issues with tapping either [[MoralEventHorizon: tend to be]]. On the plus side: immortality!