History Main / ETGaveUsWiFi

* {{Paul}}, who is solely responsible for most of technological and pop culture advancement, including the idea for the movie ET.

* Nvidia created a [[http://blogs.nvidia.com/blog/2014/01/05/salinas-crop-circle-and-project-192/ crop circle]] in a California barley field as part of a viral marketing campaign for their Tegra K1 processor.

On second thought, screw it: maybe most advancements from the past few decades came from a [[{{Eureka}} town of geniuses]].

* In ''ComicBook/SupermanUnchained'', large quantities of technology since 1938 comes from the use of the alien equation by [[GovernmentConspiracy the Machine]]. The culmination of this is [[AppliedPhlebotinum Earthstone]].

* Reversed in ''Literature/ADeepnessInTheSky'' by Creator/VernorVinge: space faring humans guide the development of the alien Spiders through their equivalent of the ColdWar in order to achieve a suitable technological base for the repair of their fleet.

* In Creator/HarryTurtledove's ''{{Worldwar}}'' series, after a partly-successful AlienInvasion during WorldWarII that leaves most of the Southern Hemisphere and the tropics under the control of [[TheReptilians the Race]], the surviving human nations start reverse-engineering their technology. By TheSixties, human technology has reached 21st century levels, and in less than a hundred years they've surpassed the Race (who are very conservative about applying new technologies that could disrupt the social order) and are building FasterThanLight starships.

** It's implied that the only reason the government made the contact with alien public was because a different President was office at the time, thanks to WorldWarTwo lasting longer.

!!Examples

** In "The Warning", Visser Three's brother took a obscure human computer tech and turned him into the billionaire owner of Web Access America, the books' version of America OnLine.

* In ''Literature/TheHelmsmanSaga'', it is stated a few civilizations were given the push toward interstellar travel by the Empire's {{Escape pod}}s. [[spoiler: In book 8, the heroes land on Earth in the 60-s. After being rescued, they leave the pod for us to study.]]

* In ''Film/TheWorldsEnd'' Gary and his friends discover that [[spoiler:The Network have been influencing technological advances for decades to prepare us for life in a wider galactic community. Unfortunately some [[UnwillingRoboticisation sacrifices had to be made]] [[ForYourOwnGood For Our Own Good]]...]]

->''"We own the patents on a few things we confiscated from out-of-state visitors: velcro, microwave ovens, liposuction."''

* ''Series/DoctorWho''
** The episode "[[Recap/DoctorWhoNSS1E6Dalek Dalek]]" features a tech mogul who steals alien tech. According to him, Broadband is from {{Roswell|ThatEndsWell}}.
** A subversion in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS32E2DayOfTheMoon Day of the Moon]]", in which it is revealed [[spoiler: that many of humanity's technological advancements were ordered by a race of hypnotic, memory-wiping parasite alien things with the aim of getting to the moon, making it a case of humans giving E.T. wi-fi.]]
*** Technically they wanted [[spoiler: a space suit not moon travel, mankind just sorta took the ball and ran with it.]]
** This is the explicit purpose of the original Torchwood, as revealed in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoNSS2E12ArmyOfGhosts Army of Ghosts]]:" to defend the British Empire against Aliens and taking their stuff to make them stronger. The United Nations Intelligence Taskforce/ Unified Intelligence Taskforce (U.N.I.T.) has a similar goal.

*** Which is strange, considering he's not nearly old enough to be around in 1947. Could be justified by the tech from the crash lying around for decades before van Statten got his hands on it.

* In ''Franchise/MassEffect'', it is explained that the Human race's technology was jumped forward about 200 years after they found ancient Prothean ruins on Mars.
** The third game reveals that [[spoiler: an intact Prothean Beacon on Thessia had been secretly data-mined by the Asari government for millennia, hence the reason why their technology is some of the most advanced in the Galaxy.]]

* In a lovely FunnyAneurysmMoment (or HilariousInHindsight, your pick) moment, [[{{Series/TheXFiles}} Gillian]] [[AgentScully Anderson]] apparently believes this.

* [[SuspiciouslySpecificDenial TVTropes is not a case of this. Move along!]]
* Erich von Daniken is famous for claims that the first human civilizations were created by aliens, similar to the ''Film/{{Stargate}}'' film
** That's because ''Stargate'' was based in part on his books.
* There is a theory out there that says computers were reverse-engineered from an UFO, or something like that, under the rationale that no human could have ever conceived an universal machine that could simulate human thought. Don't expect IT professionals or anyone who knows the history of computing to take this one well.
** Hell, take anyone who says this and force feed them the life and accomplishments of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_von_Neumann John von Neumann.]] You might want to add a few servings of UsefulNotes/NikolaTesla as well (all of both at once would [[PsychicNosebleed melt their little bitty brains]]). HumansAreSpecial. "[[AncientAstronauts Aliens]]" just carve [[TrueArtIsIncomprehensible Incomprehensible Landscapes]].
** [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ada_Lovelace Ada Lovelace]] wrote the first computer program in 1843. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Babbage Charles Babbage]] designed (but did not build) the first computer, called a Difference Engine, in the 1820s. There is an [[TheThrillingAdventuresOfLovelaceAndBabbage awesome webcomic about them]].
** Then again, the ancient Greeks had [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antikythera_mechanism a device like a computer]] a millennium before that. It was for calculating the positions of celestial bodies relative to Earth, something useful for both human travelers ''and'' AncientAstronauts looking for a way home.
** That "rationale" holds a very glaring logical fallacy: those aliens that allegedly gave us the secrets of the computer, at some time of their history they HAD to conceive an universal machine that could simulate their own thought, which according to the argument in question would be inconceivable. Unless you think the aliens are much more awesome than us humans simply because they are aliens, that is.
** Not to mention that humans wouldn't have to ''imagine'' the concept of a device for calculating, because each of us already have one inside our heads. If we've been building devices to perform tasks our muscles, organs, or senses can do since prehistory, why ''not'' build some to do things our brains can? "Device to more easily do a task that a human could" is a pretty good definition of a functional machine.

* According to a quote in this article, [[http://www.news.com.au/breaking-news/aussie-student-amelia-fraser-mckelvie/story-e6frfku0-1226064320755 cell phone technology was derived from black hole research]].
** TruthInTelevision. The basic technology behind [=WiFi=] and later, cellphones, was developed by [=CSIRO=] to assist in radio astronomy research on black holes. E.T. really did give us [=WiFi=]!

[[folder: Graphic Novels/Comics]]

* ''ComicBook/ScarletTraces'' posits that the tech left behind by the Martians in ''Literature/TheWarOfTheWorlds'' has been developed by humans with variable results.
* In ''ComicBook/SupermanUnchained'', large quantities of technology since 1938 comes from the use of the alien equation by [[GovernmentConspiracy the Machine]]. The culmination of this is [[AppliedPhlebotinum Earthstone]].

[[/folder]]

* In ''[[GarrettPI Angry Lead Skies]]'', two of the "[[UnusualEuphemism silver elves [[TouchedByVorlons enhance Kip Prose's brain]] so he'll invent better and better technology, hoping that he'll eventually create the industrial base for them to repair their ship. [[spoiler: They're taken home by some of the other Visitors, but Kip retains his inventiveness and uses it to introduce stuff like tricycles, nib pens, and collapsible umbrellas to [=TunFaire=] in later books.]]

** That "rationale" holds a very glaring logical fallacy: those aliens that allegedly gave us the secrets of the computer, at some time of their history they HAD to conceive an universal machine that could simulate their own thougt, which according to the argument in question would be inconceivable. Unless you think the aliens are much more awesome than un humans simply because they are aliens, that is.

* About a month into the war with The Race in ''FanFic/WorldwarWarOfEquals'', the US and the European Union were very interested in the captured Hydrogen engines from Race vehicles. Europe reverse engineers the, and is expected to be mass produced by January.

[[folder:Western Animation]]
* Similar to the 2007 film, ''TransformersAnimated'' has the robotic technology of the 22nd century all reverse-engineered from Megatron's dormant head.
* According to the ''WesternAnimation/MenInBlack'' animated series, most advanced human technology was granted by a benevolent advanced alien race. Computers, hard drives and the Clapper are cited as examples and their patent revenue is TheMenInBlack's primary source of financing.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Video Games]]
* In ''VideoGame/{{Assassins Creed|I}}'', the [[TheKnightsTemplar Templars]] (and by extension, society) are implied to have gotten all of our advances from reverse-engineering alien artifacts (with a couple of failures, see Philadelphia Experiment (done by by US government, not Templars)). Later on in the series, [[spoiler:it turns out it's not aliens exactly, but rather the [[{{Precursors}} First Civilization]] of humans on this planet, who created ''homo sapiens'' to serve them but were overthrown and wiped out.]]
** In ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedRevelations'', it's confirmed that [[spoiler:Altaïr had learned the design for the first handgun -- and forearm-mounted at that! --]] from a vision given by one of these, which had been implied in ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedII''. Also, in a brief scene at the beginning of the "Battle of Forli" DLC for ''II'', a brief activation of the Apple shows images of designs that LeonardoDaVinci (who was watching the Apple) would later set to paper.
* In ''Franchise/MassEffect'', it is explained that the Human race's technology was jumped forward about 200 years after they found ancient Prothean ruins on Mars.
** The third game reveals that [[spoiler: an intact Prothean Beacon on Thessia had been secretly data-mined by the Asari government for millennia, hence the reason why their technology is some of the most advanced in the Galaxy.]]
[[/folder]]

** Hell, take anyone who says this and force feed them the life and accomplishments of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_von_Neumann John von Neumann.]] You might want to add a few servings of NikolaTesla as well (all of both at once would [[PsychicNosebleed melt their little bitty brains]]). HumansAreSpecial. "[[AncientAstronauts Aliens]]" just carve [[TrueArtIsIncomprehensible Incomprehensible Landscapes]].

* In the IsaacAsimov short story ''Does a Bee Care?'' an immortal alien stranded on Earth guides human technological development through most of history until it has reached the point where he can stow away aboard an early unmanned satellite and thus make his way home. He's no more concerned about where Mankind goes after he leaves than a bee cares about the flower it has just pollinated.

** Technically the communication isn't reverse engineered, because the aliens didn't use technology to do it in the first place. It was rather that the aliens were living proof that it was possible, which inspired humans to figure out how to replicate it using our own technology.