History Main / PlacebotinumEffect

* In WebOriginal/UnrealEstate, [[spoiler: all the reality-water-containing duplicate people have this ability]]. It takes the protagonist a while to figure this out.

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* In UnrealEstate, [[spoiler: all the reality-water-containing duplicate people have this ability]]. It takes the protagonist a while to figure this out.

* In AlanMoore's ''TomStrong'' comic, there's a flashback in which the villain has a phlogiston machine. In the present day, Tom and the villain briefly discuss how it's now known that phlogiston doesn't exist, yet the machine worked back then (no conclusion is reached as to why).

* Not only is this how magic works in MageTheAscension, but it's heavily implied that most modern technology works only because enough {{Muggle}}s are convinced that it works.

* In Dave Van Domelen's online shared writing universe ''{{ASH}}'', lots of SuperHero gear is like this, due to the fact that all super-powers are [[MetaOrigin variations on an ability]] to break the laws of physics. At least one story mentions "inventions" that have nothing but a drawing of circuitry inside.

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* In the {{Xanth}} book ''Ogre, Ogre'', Smash Ogre get hit with an Eye Queue that makes him smart (ogres are usually dumb) and suddenly is coming up with complex and ingenious plans. In the end, he discovers that the Eye Queue vine doesn't actually make you smart, it makes you ''think'' you're smart - ''and'' it lasts much less time than he thought it did. The usual effect is acting pompous with DelusionsOfEloquence for a few hours, and Smash was actually smart all along.

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* A borderline case but I believe it qualifies. In the novel ''{{The Mouse That Roared}}'' (and the later lower-quality movie), the hideously-destructive Q-Bomb managed to make the entire world quake in terror and turned a literal postage-stamp country into one of the Great Powers, while simultaneously acting as the enforcer or world nuclear disarmament. The trick is, of course, that the super-bomb was a dud. But as long as everyone ''believed'' it would destroy everything, it worked fine. ("Perfection in war is achieved when your enemy surrenders without fighting" - Sun-Tzu) [[spoiler:In the end, though, after the only people who "know" that the bomb is a dud leave, having decided not to tell anyone, a small white mouse crawls out of the Q-Bomb and the lights on either end of the bomb flicker on...]]
* Similar to the ''WildCards'' example is Cranston, a WWII MadScientist in the backstory of the ''Literature/{{Temps}}'' universe. His giant robot is unaffected by a character with psychic control of computers because "he never liked Turing, and used entirely different principles". He died when he sucessfully split an atom with a hammer and chisel.

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* In ''TheMatrix'' Neo has to believe he can manipulate the laws of the matrix before he can actually do anything superhuman.

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* According to some practitioners of the Wiccan faith, magick works like this.

* Orkish tanks in ''{{Warhammer 40000}}'' go faster when they're painted red. There's no scientific reason, but the PsychicPowers of the Orks make it so.
** For that matter, pretty much ''all'' Orkish technology works this way; many of their more advanced "shootas", for example, merely have some bullets and gears inside them, and it's their PsychicPowers that actually make the weapons work. Any Orkish technology more advanced than a basic firearm or an internal combustion engine won't work for anyone else.

* In ''{{Deadlands}}'', Junkers from ''Hell on Earth'' work on the fine inventing art of "Hell, that's close enough." Basically, they duct-tape together a bunch of parts that are kind of like what they need, then invoke the power of the [[MagiTek technology spirits]] to make all the separate parts function like they "should".

** It's later discovered [[spoiler: this is due to Dave being a latent mad scientist on par if not surpassing Helen, who is no slouch herself.]]

* In Dave Van Domelen's online shared writing universe ''{{ASH}}'', lots of SuperHero gear is like this, due to the fact that all super-powers are [[MetaOrigin variations on an ability]] to break the laws of physics. At least one story mentions "inventions" that have nothing but a drawing of circuitry inside.
** Done by the WildCards in ''the eighties,'' as mentioned below.
*** Does this entry belong here? It appears that it should be in web original, as there are no novels about this.

* Similar to the ''WildCards'' example is Cranston, a WWII MadScientist in the backstory of the ''{{Temps}}'' universe. His giant robot is unaffected by a character with psychic control of computers because "he never liked Turing, and used entirely different principles". He died when he sucessfully split an atom with a hammer and chisel.
** That's why you're supposed to use [[YoungEinstein beer]] [[ElementsDoNotWorkThatWay atoms.]]

* In the {{Xanth}} book ''Ogre, Ogre'', Smash Ogre get hit with an Eye Queue that makes him smart (ogres are usually dumb) and suddenly is coming up with complex and ingenious plans. In the end, he discovers that the Eye Queue vine doesn't actually make you smart, it makes you ''think'' you're smart - ''and'' it lasts much less time than he thought it did. The usual effect is acting pompous with ShlubbAndKlumpEnglish for a few hours, and Smash was actually smart all along.

* This is one possible explanation for how mad science works in ''[[GeniusTheTransgression Genius: The Transgression]].''

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* ''{{Magellan Justice Academy}}'': Gizmo Girl / Gizmo Woman created impossible gadgets.

* "Where No One Has Gone Before", an early episode of ''StarTrekTheNextGeneration'', had a scientist try to upgrade the engines on the Enterprise. It turned out that his upgrades were (nearly) useless, but his assistant had psychic powers that were activated by the [[ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve belief of the crew]].
** Actually, regarding the second half of that, the crew had to believe because they had warped into a distant region of the universe where reality was susceptible to thought. But the entry is right about the enhanced warp drive only working because of the assistant.

** Actually in earlier comics he really needed the wand, making this either a case of [[Retcon Retcon]] or him being with the wand for so long he [[DeadlyUpgrade absorbed its powers.]]

** Actually in earlier comics he really needed the wand, making this either a case of [[Retcon]] or him being with the wand for so long he [[DeadlyUpgrade absorbed its powers.]]

** Their [[CoolSpaceship ships]] are meteors with rockets on them. It works because nobody told them it shouldn't. OrSoIHeard anyway.

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* In ''DragonBall'', the Sacred Water in Korin's Tower supposedly gives one super strength. But when General Tao goes for it, Korin reveals that it's just regular tap water, and it was just Goku's exertion in climbing the tower that made him stronger.