History Main / BenevolentPrecursors

** Further explanation: A site in Nevada called Yucca Mountain was studied as a possible tomb for the US supply of radioactive waste. The government researched how exactly one could build a clear "Do Not Open" monument that would last for thousands of years and still be understood. (This troper's favorite suggestion is a 99-level maze full of traps and monsters.) For numerous reasons including Nevada's objection, disputes over nuclear policy, and questions about geological stability, the project seems likely to be abandoned. At least it shows we care.
*** But would even the most carefully constructed vault be effective? If we came across a thousand-year-old archeology site, buried hundreds of feet beneath the earth and covered with warnings in every known language to stay away lest death and death-like symptoms result, [[SchmuckBait would we stay away?]]
**** If the warnings were there, and understood, then it wouldn't be *our* fault if they dug into it anyway, it would be their's. That's good enough for me.

* In the new ''DoctorWho'' two-parter ''The Impossible Planet'' and ''The Satan Pit'', the MonsterOfTheWeek, who just-so-happens to be Satan is [[spoiler: [[SealedEvilInACan chained far, far underground]] on a planet orbiting a black hole (hence 'The ''Impossible'' Planet'. Should he ever be released, the planet will go spiraling into a black hole, killing The Beast.]]

** Granted, there is some FridgeLogic to be found amongst these cautionary steps that make the Cetra both benevolent and [[NeglectfulPrecursors neglectful]]. Why is there a device for changing the Temple back to the Black Materia at all? And given that anybody using the Black Materia would have to be an OmnicidalManiac, how does requiring someone to die to get at the Black Materia provide any disincentive?

* The Masari count towards this in ''UniverseAtWar'', guiding humanity's development and watching over them. When Earth is attacked by the game's Big Bad several alarms are tripped and the Masari begin coming out of hibernation. The results were predictable. [[AwakeningTheSleepingGiant The results were predictable.]]

* The Mondoshawans ("Monduchivans" in the language originally spoken by Leeloo) from ''The Fifth Element''. They set up an Ancient Tradition / secret order on Earth to safeguard the elements needed to fight the Ultimate Evil. They came back to remove the elements to a safer place when WorldWarOne threatened them, and they were in the process of returning them when they were shot down by Mangalore warriors flying illegal starfighters supplied by Mr. Zorg.

* The Mondoshawans ("Monduchivans" in the language originally spoken by Leeloo) from ''The Fifth Element''. They set up a [[Ancient Tradition secret order]] on Earth to safeguard the elements needed to fight the Ultimate Evil. They came back to remove the elements to a safer place when WorldWarOne threatened them, and they were in the process of returning them when they were shot down by Mangalore warriors flying illegal starfighters supplied by Mr. Zorg.

* The Mondoshawans ("Monduchivans" in the language originally spoken by Leeloo) from ''The Fifth Element''. They set up a [[Ancient Tradition secret order]] on Earth to safeguard the elements needed to fight the Ultimate Evil. They came back to remove the elements to a safer place when WorldWarOne threatened them, and they were in the process of returning them when they were shot down.

* The aliens from ''TheFifthElement''. They set up a [[AncientTradition secret order]] on Earth to safeguard the elements needed to fight the Ultimate Evil. They came back to remove the elements to a safer place when WorldWarOne threatened them, and they were in the process of returning them when they were shot down.

* StarTrek has the unnamed ancient humanoids from "The Chase" who seeded planets with their DNA, thus being responsible for all humanoid life. The also encoded a map in this DNA that led not to a superweapon, or a species of {{Omnicidal Maniac}}s, but to a recorded message expressing the hope that their "descendants" would cooperate with each other to discover the message. Leads to a rather epic guilt trip for Picard and (apparently) the Romulan commander.

* The Precursors in StarControlII, with some things. That bomb of theirs is labeled clearly enough for both the Utwig and the human scientists to figure out what it is. Their starship factory is user-friendly, and a certain other artifact is well-shielded.

* In L.E. Modesitt's Forever Hero series, the last survivors of civilization sealed away their nuclear and biological weapons as the Earth was dying, with a warning to not try to open the vault.
* {{Lensman}} has the Arisians, who effectively countered the Eddorian meddling with pre-spaceflight Earth, provided the predecessor of the Galactic Patrol with a better FTL drive, created the Lens, which provided the Patrol with the means to effectively fight the Boskone drug-dealers, instituted a secret breeding program which eventually culminated with the Children of the Lens. And they did all this in the full knowledge that the Children would surpass them in mental power.

* The Forerunners from Halo. Yes, they used galaxy-wide superweapons to destroy all life in the galaxy, but they really did try ''everything'' else first (getting to the point where obliterating Flood-infested worlds from orbit was a ''first'' resort, and their tactics got progressively ''more'' destructive from there) they just failed. They also clearly labeled the Flood and the Halos as dangerous--the Covenant just ignored them. After they fired the Halo Array, they even repopulated the galaxy with all the lifeforms they had indexed so that the galaxy wouldn't be devoid of sentient life.

* Most of the upgrades [[{{Metroid}} Samus Aran]] finds during her adventures have been left there by the Chozo, who foresaw that she would be needing them in the future. Of course, with Samus' [[ParentalSubstitute relationship with the Chozo]] taken into account, this could almost count as an inversion of AbusiveParents.
* The Masari count towards this in UniverseAtWar, guiding humanity's development and watching over them. When Earth is attacked by the game's Big Bad several alarms are tripped and the Masari begin coming out of hibernation. The results were predictable. [[AwakeningTheSleepingGiant The results were predictable.]]

**** If the warnings were there, and understood, then it wouldn't be *our* fault if they dug into it anyway, it would be their's. That's good enough for me.

*** But would even the most carefully constructed vault be effective? If we came across a thousand-year-old archeology site, buried hundreds of feet beneath the earth and covered with warnings in every known language to stay away lest death and death-like symptoms result, [[SchmuckBait would we stay away?]]

** Further explanation: A site in Nevada called Yucca Mountain was studied as a possible tomb for the US supply of radioactive waste. The government researched how exactly one could build a clear "Do Not Open" monument that would last for thousands of years and still be understood. (This troper's favorite suggestion is a 99-level maze full of traps and monsters.) For numerous reasons including Nevada's objection, disputes over nuclear policy, and questions about geological stability, the project seems likely to be abandoned. At least it shows we care.

* In ''FinalFantasyVII'', When some cosmic force gave the Cetra the Black Materia, a magical stone capable of destroying the entire Planet, they transmuted it into a form in which it could not be used: a giant pyramid-shaped temple. (Just go with it.) The temple cannot be entered without a Keystone, which was supposedly hidden after the temple was finished. The temple itself is populated with bloodthirsty monsters and avatars of the Cetra to deal with trespassers. The room containing the device for un-transforming the temple has a sequential mural depicting the shit that's gonna go down if it gets used. As a last resort, if the Temple is changed back into the Black Materia, it crushes anybody inside, including the person that activates the device.

** Including using the 95% unused fissionable material left in the fuel rods, and using "Deep Burn" reactors that would accept the long lived actinides in its fuel mix and leave no long lived radioactive waste problem. For good or bad, President Obama has killed the nuclear waste repository project. But there are alternatives.
*** Two clues about nuclear waste, for the clueless:
---> Nuclear waste, for the most part, isn't ''spent'' fuel, it's mountains of random garbage (gloves, suits, lubricant, instruments, containers, etc) from the nuclear industry that happen to be radioactive.
---> 'Deep Burn Reactors' are better known to non-neologistic people as breeder reactors. Y'know, those things that produce military grade plutonium as a byproduct of being run? They've been illegal since the 1970s for weapon proliferation reasons.
**** Except for those designs that generate useless-for-weapons Uranium-233, but those still need some research (such as how to contain 1000 K Fluorine gas).
*** They're only illegal if you aren't a nuclear club member and signer of the non-proliferation treaties. And all waste could be held indefinitely in salt diapirs.
**** As long that sooooo safe diapirs wouldn't loose structural safety and get water leakage. Ask the Germans about "Asse 2" and "Schacht Conrad" to hear some neat stories.
** Further explanation: A site in Nevada called Yucca Mountain was studied as a possible tomb for the US supply of radioactive waste. The government researched how exactly one could build a clear "Do Not Open" monument that would last for thousands of years and still be understood. (This troper's favorite suggestion is a 99-level maze full of traps and monsters.) For numerous political reasons including Nevada's objection and disputes over nuclear policy, the site's most likely not going to be used. Good effort on being BenevolentPrecursors though. Also, the idea of "Deep Burn" or "breeder" reactors is that they re-use "spent" nuclear fuel, generating more energy and making the final waste product potentially much less radioactive, hence less in need of epic-level storage.
*** The fact that it wasn't as environmentally safe as originally thought might have had ''something'' to do with it. Seriously, it has to be secure for more than 200,000 years (when the fuel will have mostly decayed) and the updated models have the mountain's environmental containment broken in less than 10,000 (by which time the containers will have completely failed).

* {{Lensman}} has the Arisians, who effectively countered the Eddorian meddling with pre-spaceflight Earth, provided the predecessor of the Galactic Patrol with a better FTL drive, created the Lens, which provided the Patrol with the means to effectively fight the Boskone drug-dealers, instituted a secret breeding program which eventually culminated with the Children of the Lens. And they did all this in the full knowledge that the Children would suppass them in mental power.

* In the new ''DoctorWho'' two-parter ''The Impossible Planet'' and ''The Satan Pit'', the MonsterOfTheWeek, who just-so-happens to be Satan is [[spoiler: [[SealedEvilInACan chained far, far underground]] on a planet orbiting a black hole (hence 'The ''Impossible'' Planet'. Should he ever be released the planet will go spiralling into a black hole, killing The Beast.]]

** In ''StarTrekOnline'', the Preservers are [[spoiler: The same, and after the Breen/Deferi story arc, back out and mingling]] with their descendants.

* The Masari count towards this in UniverseAtWar, guiding humanity's development and watching over them. When Earth is attacked by the game's Big Bad several alarms are tripped and the Masari begin coming out of hibernation. The results were predictable.[[AwakeningTheSleepingGiant The results were predictable.]]

*** They're ony illegal if you aren't a nuclear club member and signer of the non-poliferation treaties. And all waste could be held indefinately in salt diapirs.
**** As long that sooooo safe diapirs wouldnt loose structual safety and get water leakage. Ask the Germans about "Asse 2" and "Schacht Conrad" to hear some neat storys.

* The Forerunners from Halo. Yes, they used galaxy-wide superweapons to destroy all life in the galaxy, but they really did try ''everything'' else first, they just failed. They also clearly labeled the Flood and the Halos as dangerous--the Covenant just ignored them. After they fired the Halo Array, they even repopulated the galaxy with all the lifeforms they had indexed so that the galaxy wouldn't be devoid of sentient life.

* StarTrek has the unnamed ancient humanoids from "The Chase" who seeded planets with their DNA, thus being responsible for all humanoid life. The also encoded a map in this DNA that led not to a superweapon, or a species of {{Omnicidal Maniac}}s, but to a recorded message expressing the hope that their "descendants" would cooperate with each other to discover the message.

* The Masari count towards this in UniverseAtWar, guilding humanity's development and watching over them. When the world is attacked by the game's BigBad several alarms are tripped and the Masari begin coming out of hybernation. [[AwakeningTheSleepingGiant The results were predictable.]]

* Most of the upgrades [[{{Metroid}} Samus Aran]] finds during her adventures have been left there by the Chozo, who foresaw that she would be needing them in the future.

* {{Lensman}} has the Arisians, who effectively countered the Eddorian meddling with pre-spaceflight Earth, provided the predecessor of the Galactic Patrol with a better FTL drive, created the Lens, which provided the Patrol with the means to effectively fight the Boskone drug-dealers, instituted a secret breeding program which eventually culminated with the Children of the Lens. And they did all this in the full knowledge that the Children would suppress them in mental power.

* StarTrek has the unnamed ancient humanoids from "The Chase" who seeded planets with their DNA, thus being responsible for all humanoid life. The also encoded a map in this DNA that led not to a superweapon, or a specis of {{Omnicidal Manic}}s, but to a recorded message expressing the hope that their "descendants" would cooperate with each other to discover the message.

** Further explanation: A site in Nevada called Yucca Mountain was studied as a possible tomb for the US supply of radioactive waste. The government researched how exactly one could build a clear "Do Not Open" monument that would last for thousands of years and still be understood. (This troper's favorite suggestion is a 99-level maze full of traps and monsters.) For numerous political reasons including Nevada's objection and disputes over nuclear policy, the site's most likely not going to be used. Good effort on being BenevolentPrecursors though. Also, the idea of "Deep Burn" or "breeder" reactors is that they re-use "spent" nuclear fuel, generating more energy and making the final waste product potentially much less radioactive, hence less in need of epic-level storage.