History Main / TechnologyUplift

*** Much earlier, the Centauri were taught agricolture and other basic technologies necessary for civilization by a visiting alien they now worship as the Great Maker, their TopGod.
** After losing much of their empire the Centauri started selling technology to less advanced races with the intention of making them economically dependant. The strategy ultimately failed when the Narn conquered their independence and started selling weapons comparable to what the Centauri were willing to sell.
*** [[GoneHorriblyWrong Backfired horribly]] when they tried it with Earth Alliance: realizing what the Centauri were trying to do, the human government decided to buy as little technology as they could and reverse-engineer it, allowing Earth Alliance to become a major power-one that rivals the Centauri, and occupied a number of abandoned and resource-rich Centauri systems before they got around reclaiming them. They also started actively seeking new advanced technologies to do the same with them.

*** The Vorlon raised from pre-civilization into an advanced society the ancient Minbari. When the Vorlon set the record straight, the cultural shock was such the Minbari murdered the Vorlon on the planet before being bombed back into stone age. The Vorlon now heavily limit just how much technology they're willing to share with anyone.

** This practice is deconstructed in Creator/SergeyLukyanenko's ''Literature/TheStarsAreColdToys'' duology, where a HumanAlien race nicknamed the Geometers engage in a more nefarious version. Their ultimate goal is Friendship with all known races. The achieve it with a two-stage process. First, they send in [[AliensAmongUs operatives]] known as Regressors, whose purpose is to do the opposite of this trope and force the native culture to a more primitive state (frequently through war), thus allowing their race to appear from the sky and graciously uplift them, also imposing their cultural views. The protagonist, a human who infiltrates the Geometer society as a ManchurianAgent in order to see if they would make good allies to humans is repulsed by this practice and resolves himself to avoid this fate for Earth (especially since Earth is already more primitive than they are). It's stated that they have already successfully integrated two alien races, native to their star system, into their culture, which also served to perfect their methods.

* In ''Fanfic/FuryAndFlame'' the presence of the [[WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender Fire Nation]] in [[Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire Westeros]] results in this as [[PerfectlyArrangedMarriage Stannis and Azula]] build the Royal Navy with steam ships and bring industrial manufacturing to Dragonstone. [[RealityEnsues It doesn't change the fact]] that the Seven Kingdoms remain a MedievalEuropeanFantasy ruled by a DeadlyDecadentCourt and [[AristocratsAreEvil power hungry lords]] making this very much a case of LowCultureHighTech scenario.

*** [[GoneHorriblyWrong Backfired horribly]] when they tried it with Earth Alliance: realizing what the Centauri were trying to do, the human government decided to buy as little technology as they could and reverse-engineer it, allowing Earth Alliance to become a major power-one that rivals the Centauri, and occupied a number of abandoned and resource-rich Centauri systems before they got around reclaiming them.f

* In ''FanFic/{{Fractured}}'', a ''Franchise/MassEffect''[=/=]''Franchise/StarWars''[[spoiler:[=/=]''[=Borderlands=]'']] [[MassiveMultiplayerCrossover crossover]] and its sequel ''[[FanFic/SovereignGFCOrigins Origins]]'', the Trans-Galactic Republic has an AlienNonInterferenceClause that can be waived aside if the other society agrees to accept help (usually [[MyWayOrTheHighway on the Republic's terms]]). Or if you're a [[DrunkWithPower sufficiently clandestine]] [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveConnections well-connected]] [[StateSec intelligence agency]] it doesn't matter what the actual rules are...

** Or even not-so-isolated people: many experts believe that one of the key contributors to the Rwandan genocide was the too sudden emergence of mass media in a country that had a huge amount of tension and resentment in a largely uneducated populace, and had not had enough time to work them out peacefully. Wiki/TheOtherWiki [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rwandan_Genocide#Media_propaganda details in one part of its article]] how [[{{Irony}} in the hope that it would promote an informed populace and assist the spread of democracy and human rights]], various international agencies had assisted and encouraged the development of the radio and printing, but didn't realise until it was too late what the people who got control of the media could use it for.

* In ''Fanfic/FuryAndFlame'' the presence of the [[WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender Fire Nation]] in [[Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire Westeros]] results in this as [[PerfectlyArrangedMarriage Stannis and Azula]] build the Royal Navy with steam ships and bring industrial manufacturing to Dragonstone. [[RealtiyEnsues It doesn't change the fact]] that the Seven Kingdoms remain a MedievalEuropeanFantasy ruled by a DeadlyDecadentCourt and [[AristocratsAreEvil power hungry lords]] making this very much a case of LowCultureHighTech scenario.

** In ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'' Javik reveals that the Prothean Empire's modus operandi was to guide primitive races to the space age, then give them the choice between joining them or extinction. When the Reaper invasion began they were just starting on humans and Asari, and abandoned those races so the Reapers would leave them alone. [[spoiler:They did, however, leave behind a beacon to help the Asari reach the space age faster and dominate the next cycle.}]]
** Thousands of years before the current setting, the Asari discovered the Elcor homeworld and taught them to use mass effect technology, allowing them to join the galactic community.
** One species, the Drell, come from a planet where they peaked in fossil fuel consumption extremely early. As such, their population exploded while they polluted and strip-mined their own planet to the point that a major population crash was imminent. A race called [[StarfishAliens the Hanar]] brought a fleet of ships to the planet and saved the few hundred thousand Drell that they could. Those Drell were uplifted to the galactic community while the billions of others [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt killed each other in nuclear war]] before more help could arrive.
** [[AllThereInTheManual According to extra materials]] between games, a species called the Raloi were discovered by the Asari between the second and third game and brought to the galactic community. However, when [[EldritchAbomination the Reapers]] invaded the galaxy and conquered the worlds of any spacefaring species, the Raloi retreated back to their homeworld and destroyed all advanced technology in the hopes that the Reapers would consider them a "pre-spaceflight" species.
** A species called the Yahg were discovered a few decades before the series began, and an emissary group was sent to make FirstContact with them. The Yahg, a super-intelligent and hyper-aggressive species, killed the emissaries and contact was immediately cut. However, we learn in DLC for the second game that one was brought off world and made an agent of the [[KnowledgeBroker Shadow Broker]]. By the time we meet him, he's taken over his boss's old gig. In the third game, we learn that the salarian government considered that uplifting the Yahg en-masse would make for good agents and shock troops.

** [[http://www.rhjunior.com/quentyn-quinn-space-ranger-0044/ At the end]] of the arc parodying ''StarTrek'' Cmdr. Quinn tells a member of a species that the Federation left to the mercy of a PlanetEater because they were pre-spaceflight that the Empire will help them rebuild, and that their presence will no doubt screw up what was left but at least they'll treat them like people.

* ''WebOriginal/{{Infrastructure}}'' has a group of twenty-six MechanicalLifeforms stranded in a StandardFantasySetting after a BlindJump. GoodNewsBadNews;
** Good News:
##They're more than capable of defending themselves from all but the most powerful entities on the planet, and the pre-feudal tribes populating the area they land in aren't even speed bumps.
## Their fabrication equipment survived the crash, and is more than capable of maintaining their bodies indefinitely.
** Bad News:
##Their fabrication equipment is not capable of self-replication and thus would take over ''three millennia'' to build the tools to build the tools(etc) to re-connect with interstellar civilization.
## Their ''power source'' is going to fail in about twelve years.
** They thus decide to uplift the locals in order to survive, and improving the general quality of life is pretty much paying them back in the process.

* ''WebOriginal/{{Infrastructure}}'' is an attempt to examine this from every angle; drop a space-age group in a flint-knapping era with nothing but [[ThisIsMyBoomstick Boomsticks]] and a complete tech database. Though they're able to get a ''lot'' accomplished ''really'' fast, it still takes them four decades to get to the Age of Steam, whereupon they get stuck; though they've peacefully claimed rich oil fields, they can't actually ''get'' the oil until they deal with the Age of Sail-era pirates who won't quit harassing their fleets.

* In ''TabletopGame/{{Mindjammer}}'' this is the Commonality's preferred method of assimilating lost colonies, usually starting by installing a local [[TheAlternet Mindscape]] node. Though some planets are deemed "unacceptable" and quarantined for some time. They also have a habit of letting [[MegaCorp Corporacies]] do most of the work.
* ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'': The Tau are willing to share their advanced plasma rifles with some of their auxiliaries, though of course they don't give them the tech to build them.
** The Imperium of Man forcibly does this to any lost human colonies they find, which have often reverted to medieval (or in extreme cases Stone Age) technology levels. Being wildly xenophobic, they of course do not uplift any non-humans. Also, the Imperium only provides enough tech to make a planet useful to their war effort. Most often lost colonies become Agri-Worlds or recruiting grounds for the Imperial Guard, in which case they rarely have more than animal power.
** The Emperor himself previously did this when he first led the Great Crusade to reclaim all human worlds and form the Imperium, humanities original civilisation having collapsed due to warp storms cutting off most planets from interstellar travel (and, this being Warhammer, plenty of infighting, alien attacks, robot rebellions, and so on to help the collapse along). He tended to be a bit nicer about it when first approaching a planet, but ultimately wouldn't take no for an answer.
* In ''TabletopGame/MyriadSong'' the Syndics uplifted all of the Myriad races, but treated most of them as slaves. Still, many revere them as "the Patrons".

* ''Franchise/MassEffect''"

* In ''VideoGame/GalacticCivilizations'' the Arceans gave humanity the blueprints to a Warp Gate, which suspiciously had no "off" switch, but instead humans combined it with their fusion technology (which the Arceans may have wanted to take by invading) to develop a ship-portable hyperdrive. They then gave hyperdrive and fusion to every sapient species they could contact, and then the game begins.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Stellaris}}'' it is possible to uplift pre-FTL species with "Enlightenment" missions and have them join your Empire as a protectorate. It's fairly expensive and can take a long time depending on the species' starting tech level, ranging from 40-500 months, and if your Empire's primary species is Xenophobic they won't like it. Alternately, you can invade the planet, which causes a "culture shock" penalty as the local species are raised immediately to the space age without being properly introduced, or infiltrate their leadership which doesn't carry the culture shock penalty.

* The central conflict in ''VideoGame/MightAndMagic VII'' centres around a dispute between two factions of an interstellar crew (ironically from a culture no more [[LostTechnology advanced]] itself, but they've learned a ''lot'' during the trip) about the best way to go about this. One faction argues for settling down and uplifting the world they're on specifically, with a later hardening into forcibly (if their path is followed they repair an ancient replication device and mass-produce energy weapons for a world conquest bid). The other faction still has an interest in trying to find the [[{{Precursors}} Ancients]] who actually ''developed'' all the advanced technology floating around, so their goal is to finish the local entry-point to a PortalNetwork and use the contacts and resources found on other worlds to help raise everyone up while the Ancients are being searched for.
* This is the reason behind the China-punk setting of ''VideoGame/FreedomPlanet'': The dominant kingdoms were originally straight-up similar to Earth's feudal China, but they were given access to technology from [[spoiler:an extraterrestrial group of dragons who were stranded on the planet. With no means of communication with the rest of their civilization nor a means to leave the planet, they instead shared their technology and vast, nearly limitless energy source with the planet's inhabitants. The dragons had since also died off, the only surviving descendants being Lilac and Merga, neither of which have any knowledge of dragon engineering, so technology is more or less stuck at where it is.]]
* It's mentioned in ''VideoGame/StarControlII'' that nearly all spacefaring races have been uplifted by another. The Yehat, in particular, take a rather paternal view toward the Shofixti for this reason. Humans are one of the [[HumansAreSpecial very few]] races who made it into space all on our own.
** Humans may have made it to space on their own, but they received hyperdrive tech from the [[SiliconBasedLife Chenjesu]]. Interestingly, their ServantRace the Androsynch developed the hyperdrive all on their own.

** By contrast, "Errand of Mercy" has Kirk offering to share technological goodies with the pre-industrial Organians, who seem oddly disinterested in such things. (This is before the Prime Directive was written into the show.) It then turns out that [[spoiler:the Organians have already evolved beyond the need for any physical considerations and only project the illusion of an agrarian society]].

* In ''FanFic/{{Fractured}}'', a ''MassEffect''[=/=]''StarWars''[[spoiler:[=/=]''[=Borderlands=]'']] [[MassiveMultiplayerCrossover crossover]] and its sequel ''[[FanFic/SovereignGFCOrigins Origins]]'', the Trans-Galactic Republic has an AlienNonInterferenceClause that can be waived aside if the other society agrees to accept help (usually [[MyWayOrTheHighway on the Republic's terms]]). Or if you're a [[DrunkWithPower sufficiently clandestine]] [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveConnections well-connected]] [[StateSec intelligence agency]] it doesn't matter what the actual rules are...

* ''Franchise/MassEffect''

* Unlike most advanced civilizations, which nearly all have an AlienNonInterferenceClause, the Celestial Empire in ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/10917821/1/The-questionable-burdens-of-leadership-of-a-troll-Emperor The (Questionable) Burdens of Leadership of a Troll Emperor]]'' has no problems sharing their technology. But only of course if you join said empire. Given that said empire has technology a couple centuries ahead of Earth (and thousands of years ahead of most other planets) and joining doesn't entail much more than "Follow our laws", most planets welcome them openly.

** In ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'' Javik reveals that the Prothean Empire's modus operandi was to guide primitive races to the space age, then give them the choice between joining them or extinction. When the Reaper invasion began they were just starting on humans and Asari, and abandoned those races so the Reapers would leave them alone. {{spoiler:They did, however, leave behind a beacon to help the Asari reach the space age faster and dominate the next cycle.}}

** In ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'' Javik reveals that the Prothean Empire's modus operandi was to guide primitive races to the space age, then give them the choice between joining them or extinction. When the Reaper invasion began they were just starting on humans and Asari, and abandoned those races so the Reapers would leave them alone.

*** [[GoneHorriblyWrong Backfired horribly]] when they tried it with Earth Alliance: realizing what the Centauri were trying to do, the human government decided to buy as little technology as they could and reverse-engineer it, allowing Earth Alliance to become a major power-one that rivals the Centauri, and occupied a number of abandoned and resource-rich Centauri systems before they got around reclaiming them.

** This is the goal of the Foundation for the Development of Alien Cultures. They initially focus on primitive HumanAlien cultures, but later [[BodySurfing technological developments]] allow them to move on to InsectoidAliens and others. The plot of the first novel involves the titular character being sent into the planet Osier to find out why the local humanoids have been stuck in MedievalStasis for over a millennium with every attempt by the FDAC to subtly introduce new ideas and inventions failing miserably. [[spoiler:It turns out that the planet is under the watch of another advanced race, who subscribe to the AlienNonInterferenceClause viewpoint. They are the ones who have been subverting human attempts at instigating progress, viewing stability as more important]]. It's also stated that centuries of studies and attempts have resulted in a fine-tuned system for how this trope is supposed to be done to avoid catastrophic consequences (which have happened in FDAC history, resulting in the destruction of several native cultures). One of the biggest rules is to never interfere in a post-Medieval culture.

*** [[GoneHorriblyWrong Backfired horribly]] when they tried it with Earth Alliance: realizing what the Centauri were trying to do, the human government decided to buy as little technology as they could and reverse-engineer it]], allowing Earth Alliance to become a major power-one that rivals the Centauri, and occupied a number of abandoned and resource-rich Centauri systems before they got around reclaiming them.

May result in LowCultureHighTech if screwed up. GivingRadioToTheRomans is when the uplifted and uplifting culture are temporally rather than spacially separated. ETGaveUsWifi is kind of an unintentional example. Often involves ImportedAlienPhlebotinum. See also UpliftedAnimal, when the client race initially isn't even sapient and is modified by their patrons.

* Probably the most famous example is the "To Serve Man" episode of ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'', in which alien benefactors arrive on Earth and provide technology that ends war by nullifying all weaponry, cures to all known diseases, and other remarkable benefits of their advanced technology. [[ItWasHisSled In the now-stock twist,]] it turns out it's all a scheme to make human helpless and dependent so they can be bred as food stock.

** A lot of the technology of the known Younger Races derive from Centauri technology aquired when they were Centauri subjects (they also make a few attempts to justify their first conquest and enslavement of the Narns as bringing them to the stars). Ironically, the Centauri themselves got to the stars when they themselves received a technological boost from passing Technomages, who taught them enough to allow them to defeat the Shroggen invasion (the Shroggen being there because they were chasing the Technomages to begin with) and then reverse-engineer their technology.

** A episode also features the Aschen, a race that ''appear'' to do this but are doing so for their own ends.

** In ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'' Javik reveals that the Prothean Empire's modus operandi was to guide primitive races to the space age, then give them the choice between joining them or extinction. When the Reaper invasion began they were just starting on humans and asari, and abandoned those races so the Reapers would leave them alone.
** Thousands of years before the current setting, the asari discovered the elcor homeworld and taught them to use mass effect technology, allowing them to join the galactic community.
** One species, the drell, come from a planet where they peaked in fossil fuel consumption extremely early. As such, their population exploded while they polluted and strip-mined their own planet to the point that a major population crash was imminent. A race called [[StarfishAliens the hanar]] brought a fleet of ships to the planet and saved the few hundred thousand drell that they could. Those drell were uplifted to the galactic community while the billions of others [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt killed each other in nuclear war]] before more help could arrive.
** [[AllThereInTheManual According to extra materials]] between games, a species called the raloi were discovered by the asari between the second and third game and brought to the galactic community. However, when [[EldritchAbomination the Reapers]] invaded the galaxy and conquered the worlds of any spacefaring species, the raloi retreated back to their homeworld and destroyed all advanced technology in the hopes that the Reapers would consider them a "pre-spaceflight" species.
** A species called the yahg were discovered a few decades before the series began, and an emissary group was sent to make FirstContact with them. The yahg, a super-intelligent and hyper-aggressive species, killed the emissaries and contact was immediately cut. However, we learn in DLC for the second game that one was brought off world and made an agent of the [[KnowledgeBroker Shadow Broker]]. By the time we meet him, he's taken over his boss's old gig. In the third game, we learn that the salarian government considered that uplifting the yahg en-masse would make for good agents and shock troops.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Wildstar}}'' the [[TheEmpire Dominion]] uplifted the [[ProudWarriorRace Draken]] and [[IntelligentGerbil Chua]] so that they could serve the empire. In the Chua's case they took to advanced technology so well that after strip-mining their homeworld in less than a century they became the Dominon's top scientists and mechanics.

** To disastrous results. Much of the famine in Africa in the 1980s was directly attributable to this. Much of the aid to Africa in the earlier parts of the 20th century involved bringing tractors to farmers who were, up until that point, still using wooden plows for their fields. Initially, the tractors boosted farmer productivity greatly, causing population booms as food became plentiful. However, since the aid did not include parts, gasoline, or technicians, the tractors over time broke down and the farmers had no means to repair them. Made worse by the gasoline crisis of the 1970s, which made the tractors too expensive to run, even if they were still operable.