->''As the right of each sentient species to live in accordance with its normal cultural evolution is considered sacred, no Star Fleet personnel may interfere with the healthy development of alien life and culture. Such interference includes the introduction of superior knowledge, strength, or technology to a world whose society is incapable of handling such advantages wisely.''
-->-- '''General Order no. 1 (the Prime Directive)''', ''Franchise/StarTrek''

Even without ever having met a real culture from outer space, mankind has experienced firsthand the sort of disaster that can come from FirstContact between a technologically-advanced society and a technologically-primitive and/or culturally-different one. Case in point: much of the European age of exploration and colonization included a great deal of war, exploitation, cultural assimilation (both forced and not) and even genocide across Asia, Africa, Australia and the Americas, including cultures that, according to modern research, may have been more advanced than we once believed.

It's mainly for this reason that ScienceFiction writers came up with the concept of the Alien Non-Interference Clause: in the future, it is believed, people will have learned from the mistakes of the past and take steps from preventing the same mistakes from recurring as humans explore space.

Of course, like the original Prime Directive, such rules are ultimately an ObstructiveCodeOfConduct that brings conflict to a story. Crash landing on an inhabited world when this rule is in force brings obvious difficulties. Trying to study an alien culture without being discovered is a popular scenario. And where do you draw the line? Is there a point where a species is officially "mature" enough to let them in on the secrets of the universe? Does non-interference mean you're morally obliged to let a species suffer or die because it is their "natural development"? And what will happen when the "protectees" do develop [[WarpDrive advanced]] [[WaveMotionGun technology]] and discover that alien races have been watching them DyingLikeAnimals for generations... and consider themselves pretty darn righteous for their policy of non-assistance? There's also the little matter of how one defines a culture's "normal evolution" or "healthful development"; in addition to the aforementioned "letting them all die" aspect, if a society seems happy but social development has "stagnated", does that justify stepping in to nudge them in the right direction, or should you assume that they might possibly be able to do so in their own time?

A common twist on the trope is to have such a law in effect, and then come across an alien race that is ''eager'' to gain tech and knowledge from the humans. What happens then? Can you get away with telling the aliens YouAreNotReady? Where does the rule stop being about "preserving alien cultures" and start being about "keeping the humans (or TheFederation) as [[FantasticRacism the dominant power]]"? One ironic inversion is to have a second, more advanced set of aliens show up and refuse to help because they have this exact same clause, essentially turning the tables and putting the protagonist on the receiving end of this "benign neglect".

This also appear as the reason that aliens aware of our existence, or even visiting our planet in secret have not announced their presence to us. Usually, the condition to join interstellar society is the development of our starships, or at least to starting to colonise other planets in the Solar System.

Compare BalanceBetweenGoodAndEvil for a more cosmic variation. See also LowCultureHighTech; VillainsActHeroesReact (since laws of this kind often forbid higher powers from taking the initiative but do ''not'' prevent them from responding to a threat by the lower powers). Protagonists who tend to say ScrewTheRulesImDoingWhatsRight usually treat this as a FrequentlyBrokenUnbreakableVow.
----
!!Examples

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
* ''Anime/AnoNatsuDeMatteru'': TheFederation prohibits contact with primitive, "Class F" planets. The twist? The primitive planet is Earth.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Comic Books]]
* From MarvelComics: The Watchers have an "observe, don't interfere" law in place (thus their species' [[PlanetOfHats name]]). Eventually revealed to be the result of accidentally destroying another species by giving its members advanced scientific knowledge way too soon. (Uatu, the Watcher who is assigned to Earth, violates this law rather frequently [[ScrewTheRulesImDoingWhatsRight in order to protect the Earth]], having taken a liking to its inhabitants, and he has often gotten in trouble with his people because of it.)
* ''ComicBook/BuckGodotZapGunForHire''
** Humans are forbidden from interfering with any race not advanced enough for space travel by [[SufficientlyAdvancedAlien Lord Thezmothete]], because {{Mega Corp}}s used to enslave such species.
** Also the Teleporter considered humans to be animals because they couldn't teleport, though he did indeed interfere.
* In ''WesternAnimation/{{He-Man and the Masters of the Universe}}'', Zodac and other Cosmic Enforcers are tasked with observing all that transpires in the Universe but not interfering except to maintain the balance between good and evil. Because of this on the rare examples when they do interfere they are just as likely to help the bad guys as the heroes.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
* ''Literature/HardToBeAGod'' is a whole movie dedicated to the dilemma of a human observer on a "primitive" alien planet with one interesting twist: the main reason for his superiors to send him there was to "observe the observer" -- see if he would be able to avoid getting involved. (In fact, since 2008, there are two movies.)
* prot[sic], the [[MaybeMagicMaybeMundane mental patient/possible extraterrestrial]] in the film ''Film/{{K-PAX}}''(played by KevinSpacey) refuses to elaborate on the mechanics of light-beam travel, as at our relatively primitive stage of civilization, he's concerned humans would end up using it as an apocalyptic weapon(''"You'd be surprised how much energy there is.... in a beam of light."'')
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Literature]]
* ''Literature/StarMaker'', a 1937 novel by Olaf Stapledon (who inspired many of the "golden age" sci-fi writers) has the Symbiont race, SufficientlyAdvancedAliens who keep their existence hidden from "pre-utopian", pre-spacefaring races, revealing themselves only after a race achieves both of those so the fledgling races don't lose their "independence of mind" (pretty similar to the Vulcans that came after).
* OrsonScottCard's later (chronologically) books in the ''Literature/EndersGame'' series, ''Speaker of the Dead'' and ''Xenocide'' mostly, have had this rule put in place by the Starways Congress years after the obliteration [[spoiler:almost)]] of the Buggers in the first book, and grown-up Ender's writing ''The Hive Queen'' about what they were really like. But after Ender gets involved in affairs between the humans and the ''pequeninos'' ("piggies") on his new home of Lusitania, it's discovered that the piggies want spaceships, and to become space explorers themselves, in spite of not having passed a lot of technological milestones such as electricity. This causes considerable commotion among the xenologists, and causes them to realize the dark side ("Human superiority first!") of the trope. The pequeninos' attempts at jumping a few branches up the TechnologyTree is later described as a sentient species (the piggies) exercising their rights ''as'' a sentient species to engage in trade and commerce with visiting extra-terrestrials (humans) for the betterment of piggy-kind.
* ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}''
** "The Law of Seerow's Kindness", a law passed by the Andalites forbidding them to share technology with less developed species. It was named after Prince Seerow, who passed technology onto the PuppeteerParasite Yeerks, unintentionally allowing them to become the BigBad species of the series.
** [[SufficientlyAdvancedAlien The Ellimist]] and [[EldritchAbomination Crayak]] also have rules about when they can and can't interact with other species, but for a different reason: the Ellimist wants to spread life and freedom, Crayak wants to spread genocide, and any open conflict between them would literally destroy both of them and everything else in the universe. Essentially, they're in a Cold War-style standoff, which is why they each either have to agree to let the other work openly or else act subtly enough to keep the other from knowing.
* By ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'', the Valar could be said to have taken up a style of this similar to the Ellimist and Crayak: They tried to fight [[BigBad Morgoth]] directly, and the results were [[Literature/TheSilmarillion not pretty for Arda]].
* ElizabethMoon's ''Literature/RemnantPopulation'' has "The People", StarfishAliens who until events in the book, unwittingly share their planet with human colonists. After some humans try to land new colony ships on their nests (and get killed for it), they seek out and find Ofelia, the [[IChooseToStay willing last human]] of a failed colony hundreds of miles away, who kept the colony's tech running for her own use. Unaware of the non-interference rule (which exists even though humans have never met another intelligent species, as they made many assumptions about what aliens will be like), Ofelia has to show and explain things like electricity to The People, initially so their curiosity doesn't kill them with a high voltage current. But it turns out The People are ''extremely'' intelligent and hungry for knowledge, to the surprise of all and the chagrin of the human officials and scientists who get sent to "undo the damage" (some with good but misinformed intentions and some crossing the line into "keeping the humans in charge").
* Much of the Creator/StrugatskyBrothers' NoonUniverse novels revolve around various aspects of an AlienNonInterferenceClause and its plausibility:
** ''Literature/HardToBeAGod'' investigates how would a human observer fare on a planet stuck in TheDungAges, while allowed limited intervention at best (for example, he may save a promising scientist deemed heretical by the Inquisition but has no authority to stop the planet from sliding into even further barbarism after a corrupt church gains power).
** ''Literature/PrisonersOfPower'' revolves around a civilian protagonist inadvertently crashing on a DieselPunk world rife with pointless nuclear warfare. He single-handedly forms a plan to overthrow the government and their means of MindControl... and coincidentally ruins the plan of undercover Earth operatives to solve the planet's issues in a far safer and more gradual way which, however, is implied to take decades if not centuries.
* Amy Thomson's ''The Color of Distance'' and ''Through Alien Eyes'' have humanity making first contact with a technologically primitive society of froglike aliens called the Tendu. They have little technology, but they do have impressive medical abilities; they can physically modify creatures, including themselves and humans, and heal just about anything. Humanity has to make reparations for burning down an important chunk of rainforest before they knew the Tendu were there, but they can't violate the protocols in doing so, to the Tendu's frustration; they know what humans have and are fascinated by it. When one of the Tendu decides to come to Earth, he responds to some of the doubts by saying that he, too, will abide by the protocols, and not teach humanity anything that it's not ready for.
* Also in ''Literature/{{Darkover}}'' by Creator/MarionZimmerBradley: the humans have a directive never to interfere in the business of aliens, not even if the conflict seems as meaningless as the question [[Literature/GulliversTravels how to open an egg]]. One really wonders who makes such stupid decisions.
* In Creator/CSLewis's ''[[Literature/TheSpaceTrilogy That Hideous Strength]]'', the planetary spirits are forbidden to intervene in Earth's affairs. Unfortunately for the bad guys, they are not forbidden to respond if Earth intervenes in theirs.
* In Creator/UrsulaKLeGuin's Hainish Cycle, first contact teams are often sent to rather primitive planets, and many such civilizations are incorporated in the [[TheFederation interstellar civilization]] -- since it believes that even [[SpaceAmish non-technological races]] have a lot to contribute (arts or philosophy). However, there is an embargo on teaching technology without authorization by the government. The ''Planet of Exile'' demonstrates the point when a human is wounded by an enemy dart, and must be careful, since while the natives use no poisons, the Earth LostColony does, and the used darts are sometimes fired back.
* In the ''Franchise/StarTrek'' novel ''Uhura's Song'' orders given directly to Kirk by the Federation President and the Commander of Starfleet. To emphasize (to both the readers and the characters) the severity of the situation (a plague that is threatening to cause the collapse of the Federation and kill a large portion of the population of multiple species), the President gives the following statement:
-->'''President:''' The Federation Council has agreed to waive the non-interference directive.
:: That almost-casual statement is the President telling Kirk that the PRIME DIRECTIVE IS GONE.
* ''Literature/EnchantressFromTheStars'' talks quite a bit about the implications of this trope. Short version: it's worth it in the very, very long run, but ''damn'' does it suck in the short run.
* In MikhailAkhmanov's ''[[ArrivalsFromTheDark Trevellyan's Mission]]'' series, humanity and many other starfaring races specifically invert this trope, believing themselves to be duty-bound to help guide younger races, although they go to great lengths to avoid revealing themselves. The series goes into great detail as to the criteria for choosing which humanoid species to "progress", as attempts to help an alien species at the wrong stage of development ultimately made things worse for them. Some are hinted to have resulted in extinctions. As such, only pre-Renaissance races are interfered with. On one occasion, the human scientists and their [[HumanAlien Kni'lina]] counterparts are debating which of two StoneAge species which evolved on one world to eliminate. The first novel specifically deals with the protagonist attempting to figure out why a world is stuck in MedievalStasis and why humanity's attempts at making changes utterly fail. It turns out the cause is a previously-unknown advanced alien race who follows a strict policy of non-interference except to stop a major threat against the very survival of the younger races. These "Paraprims" are {{Technical Pacifist}}s who have descended from primates but are not humanoids (they're more like chimps and still have fur).
* Usually averted in DavidBrin's ''Literature/{{Uplift}}'' series. "Pre-sentient" species are nearly always [[UpliftedAnimal uplifted]] by the time they reach a stone age level of technology at the latest. However the Institute of Migration often designates planets or even entire regions of space to "lie fallow" for several million years so their ecosystems can recover before allowing re-colonization. Earth was in the middle of a cluster of fallow systems that had been devastated in a war and was overlooked (except perhaps by our mysterious patrons)
* Thoroughly averted and inverted in Iain M. Banks' ''Literature/TheCulture'' novels. The Culture, especially its exploratory organisation Contact, see it as their moral duty to make other civilisations (usually those less advanced) more like the Culture (and by implication, statistically better and happier). It usually takes the form of making sure the right rulers stay alive long enough to make their world a better place; whether through alien medicine or impossibly proficient bodyguards and armies. There are factions within the Culture who feel that this practice is wrong, resulting in diaspora like the Peace Faction (who believe in pacifistic non-interaction) and the Elench (who believe that they should be the ones changed by alien planets, not the other way round). And this doesn't even count the actions of Contact's darker cousin, Special Circumstances.
* Elizabeth Bear's novel ''Undertow'' has an inversion: If a planet is inhabited, humans can only colonize it if the natives are pre-space. As you might expect, this sometimes results in a situation similar to what happened in most European colonies. But that's not even the best part. [[TheReveal The book's major twist]] is that [[spoiler:the natives of the world the book takes place on ''voluntarily gave up space travel'' and reverted to a pre-technological state. Which according to a literal interpretation of the Alien Non-Interference Clause, means the current colony is illegal.]]
* Creator/PatriciaMcKillip wrote a duology (''MoonFlash'' and ''TheMoonAndTheFace'') that discusses this with two dissimilar cultures on one planet.
* GregoryMcdonald wrote ''FletchToo'' about visiting Africa and the discussion arose that concerned the rightness of Africa being put under a glass shield to protect them from technology/interference/etc.
* Creator/JackMcDevitt's short story "Kaminsky at War" (set in the Literature/PriscillaHutchins universe) explores the morality of such a rule, from the perspective of a researcher observing a planet locked in an endless and pointless war.
* The very first ''Literature/HonorHarrington'' novel involves the technologically-primitive Medusans, who the Manticorans try to keep semi-isolated from modern tech, assisted by the fact the planet really doesn't have anything anyone wants. When the Peeps provide advanced rifled muskets to assorted nomadic tribes, carefully designed so that they could be replicated with existing Medusan technology, the Manticoran governor sadly accepts the Manticorans will probably have to provide similar weapons to the more civilized (and friendly) Medusan city-states so they can defend themselves.
* In the back story of the ''Literature/{{Foreigner}}'' series, the Pilots' Guild (the leaders of the thoroughly lost ''Phoenix'' starship) want all the humans to stay in orbit in their SpaceStation rather than land on the life-bearing planet below so as to not contaminate the culture of the indigenous sapient species. Or at least they ''claim'' that's their reason for not wanting anyone to go down to the planet. The humans who eventually do land on the planet think that the Guild doesn't give a crap about the indigenous population, and that their Alien Non-Interference Clause is merely a pretext to keep all humans in the system under their control. [[spoiler:It turns out that they were both wrong and right. The Guild did have ''some'' genuine concern about humans contaminating the indigenous culture, but that was nonetheless a pretext for their greater concern: that aliens would contaminate human culture.]] The protagonist of the story, a descendant of the humans who landed on the planet, has as his main job to turn over human tech to the alien natives - but ''only'' at a rate won't disrupt their culture or society, and he specifically has veto powers to make sure of it.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
* ''Franchise/StarTrek'' is the TropeCodifier: whether or not they did it first, they're the one most people have likely heard about. The series has been [[ContinuitySnarl somewhat inconsistent]] over where the borders of the rule lie. There is usually a hole somewhere "big enough to fly the ''Enterprise'' through".
-->'''Website/TheAgonyBooth''': ''It really makes me wonder why such a troublesome plot device was ever introduced in the first place. Every captain in Trek history has [[CowboyCop basically wiped their ass with it]], and it really does little besides call attention to the flaws within the franchise itself, something no good story should ever do.''
** [[Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries The Original Series]], at the very least, typically bypassed the Prime Directive by placing the ship and/or the crew in dire peril, with the only solution being one that would devastate/completely change the local society (see "[[Recap/StarTrekS2E5TheApple The Apple]]" or "[[Recap/StarTrekS1E23ATasteOfArmageddon A Taste of Armageddon]]"), or by having the crew fix a problem caused by humans in the first place. In "[[Recap/StarTrekS1E21TheReturnOfTheArchons The Return of the Archons]]", Kirk justified pulling the plug on the master computer Landru by saying that the Prime Directive was meant to apply to living cultures and the computer-controlled world was not one, which is a very thin justification indeed.
** There are also at least two rules which override the Prime Directive: the Temporal Prime Directive (prevent/reverse [[TimeTravel changes to the timestream]]) and the top-secret Omega Directive (prevent anyone from learning of or producing the Omega molecule, which destroys SubSpace).
** One ''[[Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration Next Generation]]'' episode, "First Contact" (no relation to [[Film/StarTrekFirstContact the movie]]) deals with the justified aspects of the Prime Directive. The ''Enterprise'' crew are on a secret FirstContact mission to the Malcorians, a species on the verge of discovering WarpDrive. Over wine with the planetary Chancellor, Picard discusses with him the justifications of the Prime Directive and their obligation to leave the Malcorians alone if that is their wish. The Malcorians, who mirror 20th century humans in many ways, are undergoing cultural turmoil because of their rapid march of technology. Meanwhile, Riker was doing covert surveillance when he was injured and hospitalized: it becomes [[HumanOutsideAlienInside difficult to hide the fact that he's not one of them]] and he almost dies because the distrustful minister of security tries to use him to convince the Chancellor not to trust the humans. Because of this, Chancelor Durken ultimately decides that his people are not ready to learn they're not alone, though he promises to spend money and effort on education so they'll be prepared when the time comes.
** In some instances, though, there have been {{Sufficiently Advanced Alien}}s who use a similar rule on the Federation protagonists, just to point out how douchey it looks when you're on the short end of it. Big example being "Prime Factors" in ''[[Series/StarTrekVoyager Voyager]]'', where aliens that were entirely aware of and even sympathetic to ''Voyager'''s situation and capable of transporting most of the way across the galaxy decided that they had to be LawfulStupid about sending the ship well on its way home. Of course, part of it was that they were just unwilling to lose a potential source of entertainment that ''Voyager's'' extensive database could provide. In the end groups of low-ranking crew and citizens from both sides just trade for it, and the tech turns out to be incompatible.
** And then there are the times when they do finally feel justified in breaking the rule such as in the TOS episode where it is discovered that the Klingons have been arming one of the tribes of a primitive planet. Kirk feels its their obligation to offer the competing tribe a similar level of weaponry to defend themselves. In this case, its more of an extension of the existing Cold War metaphor the Klingon-Federation conflict already represented.
*** At least some ExpandedUniverse material has stated that the Prime Directive does not apply in cases where a pre-warp civilization has already been affected by another outside influence. It is possible this freedom is limited to countering said influence.
** By the time of ''[[Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration The Next Generation]]'', the Prime Directive has been interpreted to prohibit interference in the internal affairs of other cultures even if the culture is an advanced star-faring civilization. This came up during the brief Klingon civil war where the Federation was unable to get involved until they could prove that the Romulans were secretly instigating the conflict to weaken their enemies and/or install more friendly leadership. (Some have more cynically suggested that this is not so much a principle as a convenient excuse.)
** And ultimately, we learn that the Federation's prime directive is derived from the Vulcans, who would not have made FirstContact had they not observed humanity's first warp drive flight.
** Disturbingly invoked (and possibly incorrectly at that) in an episode of ''Series/StarTrekVoyager''. Janeway and Paris are stranded on a prewarp (but still advanced) planet that is using a source of energy that will literally wipe out all life on the planet the next day. Despite Paris' wish to warn them, Janeway orders him not to, citing the Prime Directive... despite the fact that this interference would literally save everyone and doesn't seem to contradict the actual Prime Directive.
** Also seen in TNG "Pen Pals". Apparently, extinction is part of a culture's "natural development."
*** Although the rules changed once ''someone actually asked for help''.
** TOS' "The Paradise Syndrome" indicated that the Starfleet of the time disagreed. Evidently Starfleet re-interpreted the Prime Directive to no longer be a shield for less developed cultures but rather a dogma at some point between TOS and TNG.
** In the TNG episode "Symbiosis", the Ornarans are suffering from a fatal disease and are dependent on medicine provided by the Brekkians, but this has lead to the Ornaran society falling apart, while the Brekkians have become so wealthy from the profits that they have centered their entire society on exploiting the Ornarans. It doesn't take long for Dr. Crusher to realize the disease was cured ages ago, and that they were suffering from the withdrawal symptoms; she wants to put an end to this, but Capt. Picard points to the Prime Directive, saying they cannot interfere. Picard then points out they can't interfere to maintain the status quo either. The Ornaran ships were no longer able to make supply runs for the medicine, and they wanted the ''Enterprise'''s help in repairing their fleet; by refusing, the Ornarans would have to face the withdrawal and hopefully get over it on their own.
* A ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'' episode involves the ''Enterprise'' finding a pre-warp race that is dying from species-wide genetic disorder. They have met other warp-capable cultures (the Ferengi were one of them), were unable (or unwilling) to help them either with the cure or with achieving warp flight. Phlox manages to find the cure but in the process discovers that there is another sentient race living on the same world who are being deliberately kept down by the dying race. He argues to Archer that evolution is killing off one race to raise another (try not to head-desk at that). While Archer initially dismisses Phlox's concerns and prepares to hand them the cure, he eventually agrees that it's not up to him to play God. Mind you, this is before the Prime Directive. He also refuses to give them warp technology, but only because it would be irresponsible to give it to someone with no experience handling AntiMatter. Basically, the episode canonizes the Prime Directive and everyone who invokes it as HeadInTheSandManagement.
** A few other ENT episodes involve them finding primitive cultures and exploring them without interference. On one of them they stop a group of off-planet criminals who are poisoning the local water supply. On another, a thief steals a communicator from a member of the (disguised) landing party, forcing them to come back to retrieve it, only to be captured by the local StateSec suspecting them of being spies for their enemies. Human technology and various biological differences baffle the captors, but Reed manages to convince them that they're SuperSoldiers genetically-engineered by their rivals. They manage to escape with the communicator, only for Archer to grimly point out that they have already interfered in local affairs. Now they think that their enemies are growing an army of SuperSoldiers with advanced weapons.
* ''Series/BabylonFive'' may or may not have had a formal rule but advanced races could and did deny technology to other races believed to be "not ready".
** In the episode, "Deathwalker", a renegade Dilgar scientist named Jha'dur is captured but bargains her freedom with a breakthrough medication that grants immortality. Before her medication can be mass-produced, she is killed by the Vorlons. Ambassador Kosh tells an assembled audience, "You are not ready for immortality."
** Epsilon III was declared off limits to all (episode "A Voice In The Wilderness") because the technology of the giant computer contained there would give any one race that got it an unfair advantage.
** After the Vorlons had left the galaxy, a number of people attempted to travel to Vorlon to lay claim to the advanced technology there; all of them got shot down. Lyta explains that humanity was not presently meant to have Vorlon technology and won't be for about a million years.
** On the other hand, in the ''Series/{{Crusade}}'' spin-off series, Captain Matthew Gideon would launch a full spread of modified probes (uploaded with considerable information about Earth and the Interstellar alliance) at a pre-hyperspace planet at the end of ''Visitors From Down the Street'', which abounds in ''[[{{TheX-Files}} X-Files]]'' [[ShoutOut references]]. The ''Excalibur'' picked up two agents from an alien world who are looking for proof of a government cover-up. They show pictures of Mount Rushmore and old Earth blimps. They also dress in Earth fashions from 200 years go (ie: from the time period at the time of the show's shoot). One of them can ''[[AliensSpeakingEnglish speak English]]'' because of information stolen from the conspirators. TheReveal: Years before, the government had found itself in a time of social unrest similar to TheSixties. Upon discovering Earth broadcasts, they used them as part of a truly [[MagnificentBastard Magnificent]] conspiracy; manufacture appropriate "evidence", then dispatch TheMenInBlack to suppress it. The resultant subculture of {{Conspiracy Theorist}}s absorbed the government's critics and kept them wasting their time [[AgentMulder chasing "aliens"]] rather than [[LaResistance engaging in civil disobedience]]. ''[[NoDelaysForTheWicked Every crime the government committed afterward was thus blamed on "Outsiders" who secretly manipulated their civilization, permitting them to do as they pleased.]]'' Gideon's reasoning for launching the probes to expose the real conspiracy: the government already knew about alien life, and was using humans as scapegoats for unpopular domestic decisions. If that went on unimpeded, they would be a hostile power once they ''did'' discover starflight. Gideon's interference was motivated as a rebuttal to the accusations being made against Earth. He was questioned about whether this violated any non-interference principles and replied "[[ScrewTheRulesImDoingWhatsRight Screw 'em]]."
** One minor race that embraced the idea was featured in a single episode, and everyone they met reacted with abject horror at their callousness. Other than using the word "inferior" instead of "less advanced" it was basically the original Prime Directive.
** The Interstellar Alliance has rules about not monkeying about with the cultural and internal affairs of its members, but it also has a Declaration of Principles that all of those members have to sign, so we can be fairly certain none of them have anything really obnoxious in their culture (like killing people for stepping in the wrong field).
** An important point is that none of the races now around developed hyperspace travel. They all copied it at first, and it dates back to the First Ones. Furthermore, rather than being out of concern for a species development, technology is traded purely on selfish reasons. When Humanity was contacted we sent a few sublight probes to the nearest stars not to arrive until years later. We bought most of our better technology from the Centauri and then developed it. However one thing is clear, joining the Interstellar Alliance gives the nice carrot of artificial gravity to less developed races.
*** An interesting detail about hyperspace travel is that, according to the ExpandedUniverse, at least, not only has no currently present species developed it, but none ''ever could''. The key material for all known forms of hyperspace travel, Quantium-40, is explicitly stated to never be found in systems with habitable planets.
* The races of the ''StargateVerse'' vary in their approach to this.
** The Tau'ri (Earth humans) reject it and hold it as their duty to help humans and less advanced, non-hostile races on other worlds, usually from aggressive and more powerful enemies who seek to either enslave or destroy them. Whilst they will gladly offer beneficial industrial or medical technology to their allies, they (generally) draw the line at giving up advanced military technology, especially when it's obvious that doing so would be detrimental either to their civilisation or give their allies an unfair advantage over other foreign powers present on their world.
** The Tollan follow it strictly after their neighboring planet self-destructed because of technology they were given. They firmly refuse to give up ''any'' technology to less-advanced races, even beneficial devices that have no military or strategic value at all.
** The Asgard generally don't share their tech with less advanced races, but make numerous exceptions for the Tau'ri because over the course of the series, they have proven themselves both trusted allies and responsible enough to use the technology wisely. [[spoiler: To the point where Thor convinced the Asgard to bequeath the Tau'ri ''all'' of their technology, when the Asgard chose to commit ritual suicide after their clone degeneration became irreversible.]]
** The Ori and the Goa'uld flaunt their tech and meddle all the time, posing as gods to less advanced civilizations.
** In addition, the Asgard and the Goa'uld have a treaty which leaves certain human worlds free from Goa'uld influence in exchange for limiting their development and preventing direct Asgard interference (they can pose as gods, though, a necessity for those primitive cultures to understand their situation). Earth gets lumped into this treaty, but they wormed their way out of the tech restriction. In one episode Stargate Command discovered an asteroid on a collision course with Earth. They asked the Asgard for help, but the Asgard refused on the grounds that their treaty with the Goa'uld prohibited averting natural disasters. The asteroid turned out to have been artificially created and dropped off by hyperspace, but by that time Earth had to save itself.
** There's also the Ancients, who turn out to have [[AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence Ascended]] long ago. Where ''[[Franchise/StarTrek Star Trek's]]'' Prime Directive draws the line at the invention of FasterThanLightTravel, ''these'' guys won't interfere with those who are still corporeal. Unfortunately, this also extends to (1) what's done with all the supertech they left behind when they Ascended, and (2) allowing evil by fellow ascended individuals, such as Anubis and the Ori. If as an Ancient, ''you'' try to stop the bad guys from abusing Ancient tech, or even ''try to prevent a half-ascended EvilOverlord ''(whose idea was it to make frakkin' ''Anubis'' a candidate for ascension, anyway? No, really, who?[[note]]It was Oma Desala, obviously[[/note]])'' from razing a whole planet,'' you ''will'' find yourself kickbanned right back to corporeality. There's a reason the NeglectfulPrecursors page has ''an entire section devoted to these guys alone.'' Daniel only allowed himself to be ascended to the Ancients' level because he thought he could do more good among them, and is human again now because, well... he was wrong.\\\
Of course, the real reason the Ancients are such NeglectfulPrecursors are because the power we see on the rare occasions they cut loose means they are capable of solving the plot in ten seconds flat. The Ascended Prime Directive is how the writers got out of painting themselves into the corner with finally revealing who the Ancients are (presumably, when all we knew about them was "once upon a time, someone built awesome tech, and then the Goa'uld ganked it," the writers ''didn't'' have in mind a race that was ''nigh-omnipotent and still present.'') They could [[Series/StargateSG1 finish the Goa'uld]], [[Series/StargateAtlantis deal with the Wraith and the Asurans]], and bring the crew of the ''[[Series/StargateUniverse Destiny]]'' back to Earth with a thought -- the main problems of the three series, '''all problems they created by leaving their stuff lying around''' -- but where's the fun in that?
** In ''Series/StargateAtlantis'', a coalition of various Pegasus Galaxy civilisations ''wish'' that Humanity had one of these. They capture the Atlantis team to put HumanityOnTrial over the sheer amount of death and destruction that has occurred ever since they showed up. Mostly because they were doing just fine with the "get culled every few centuries" thing and the Atlantis team bumped that date up by a considerable amount, ruining all their lives.
*** They also didn't win any points for accidentally teaching the Asurans how to alter their base-code, leading them to be able to go on the war-path against the Wraith. Which ''sounds'' good on paper, but considering their primary tactic consisted of wiping out ''human'' worlds to deprive Wraith of their only source of food... they were understandably a little miffed.
*** And they were responsible for [[WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds Michael]], who after being experimented on to create a drug that suppressed Wraith DNA and leave the Human elements behind, was left with a ''huge'' chip on his shoulder. Michael later would use this research to create Hybrids and build an army to take over the galaxy. In at least one BadFuture, he even '''won'''.
*** ''And'' they accidentally perfected the Hoffan drug, a vaccine that prevents Wraith feeding, but kills half of those vaccinated with it. This lead to the Wraith wiping out ''any'' world they even suspected had been exposed.
* In ''Series/DoctorWho'', the Time Lords adopted an official policy of neutrality and non-interference, acting only as observers save in cases of great injustice, after granting advanced technology to the Minyans who then destroyed themselves in a series of nuclear wars. Which is not to say they always adhered to it... Or in the Doctor's case, ever. He at least tends to limit his involvement to "stop the threat of the week, then hop back in the TARDIS", and isn't too keen on the idea of, say, 21st century Britain having particle guns. In ''Aliens of London'', he tells Rose that he can't get involved in FirstContact, because it's something humans have to do on their own. Once he realizes the aliens are a ''threat''...\\\
Captain Jack Harkness actually calls him out on this in his first appearance in "The Empty Child", saying that he "Should've known [they] weren't Time Agents [by their poor attempts at fitting in in WWII England]." Played completely for laughs by the time of the 11th Doctor, who explains his Prime-Directive-ish policy to Amy Pond in ''The Beast Below'' -- she turns away to digest it, and by the time she's turned back, the Doctor has zipped away to start actively interfering on board Starship UK.
* A rare non-science fiction example of this trope is from the 8th season ''Series/{{JAG}}'' episode “In Country”, where Bud bonds with a suspected terrorist by discussing the merits of the ''Prime Directive'', as both are [[{{Trekkie}} fans of ''Star Trek'']], using this to obtain useful information. (All this as opposed to an ineffective asshole CIA Officer who’d advocated torture to extract information.)
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
* In Classic ''TabletopGame/{{Traveller}}'', the Scout service asked for Red Zone classification for planets with developing civilizations to protect them from off world interference.
* ''Manhunter''. The A.T.P.D.S. places Protected World status on planets with young civilizations to stop interference that could change the course of the civilization's natural advancement. It also has laws that prevent its citizens from interfering with the civilizations on unexplored planets.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Video Games]]
* The Pangalactic Federation of ''Franchise/StarOcean'' has the Undeveloped Planet Preservation Pact, which differs from the Star Trek version in that people don't get in as much trouble if they break out the advanced tech to save their own lives. The [=UP3=] was made with good reason, even if only a handful of the architects of it knew the real reason why it was put in place. Someone accidentally destroying a planet because of providing advanced tech, and the provider of said tech becomes the main architect of the [=UP3=] due to this. Which may be somewhat of a plot hole when you consider that in the rules of the [=UP3=], a 20th century world can be upgraded from "Protected Planet" (no interference) to "Developing Planet" (eligible for contact and technological uplifting). The planet that was destroyed leading to the creation of the [=UP3=] was mid-20th century. On the other hand it can also be interpreted as cooler heads prevailing, and realizing that one guy feeling guilty about picking up the IdiotBall and giving ''antimatter'' to a MadScientist who blows up her planet with it doesn't mean other worlds can't be contacted in a more reasonable manner.
* ''Franchise/MassEffect'' plays with this trope a fair bit.
** While none of the civilizations of the verse have such a rule, salarian scientist Mordin Solus holds the view that there '''should''' be one, citing the fiasco with the [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy krogan]] as an example. Background: as a primitive species, the krogan had been given advanced technology to help turn around a losing BugWar against the rachni. But the krogans' prodigious birth rate (previously balanced out by the fact that they came from a DeathWorld where only ''one in a thousand'' krogan survived to reach adulthood), combined with their natural aggression, led to them turning around and becoming as much of a menace to other sapient species as the aforementioned rachni. It took the "genophage" sterility plague to keep them from overrunning the galaxy.
** We learn in ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'''s Lair of the Shadow Broker DLC that when new pre-spaceflight races are discovered, the Citadel sends "First Contact Teams" to their home planets to begin sharing technology, updating translators and explaining Citadel laws and culture to the newly discovered species, preparing them to join the galactic scene. Then they ran into the yahg, a species even more brutal than the krogan, who massacred the first contact team. This led to the Council 'blockading' the planet, preventing anyone getting off it (with one exception, an individual that was snuck off-planet possibly as a sort of living trophy. [[spoiler:The sneaker was The Shadow Broker, and that yahg took his place by killing him.]]) So while they don't hold a general rule requiring it, they do seem to adopt this policy on a case-by-case basis.
** This forms part of the backstory before the game. The turians first discovered humanity trying to activate an uncharted mass relay, and intervened because doing so is [[SeriousBusiness a major faux-pas]]: the last time someone did it, they found the rachni, which [[BlatantLies ended well]]. Of course, instead of ''contacting'' the humans and explaining what was going on (how were pre-contact humanity ''supposed'' to know an unknown Galactic Law prevents them from tinkering with the relays?), the turians opened fire instead. This started a 3-month-long conflict which humans call "the First Contact War" and turians "the [[InsistentTerminology Relay 314 Incident]]." It only ended when the Council finally learned of the situation. The Council were naturally ''[[WhatTheHellHero furious]]'' to find out that the turians had performed a pre-emptive strike on an unknown species ''without'' getting authorisation.
** The geth enforce this on themselves as they believe all species should self-determinate.
* The Protoss of ''VideoGame/StarCraft'' had this policy ever since an incident with a minor race called the Kalath. Some researchers revealed themselves in an attempt to stop a civil war and both sides attacked the Protoss instead, Collossi were built and used to decimate their population. The Protoss even considered the warp-capable Terrans to qualify as "lesser races" under that policy and only revealed themselves to [[DeathFromAbove "purify"]] Terran colonies that became infested by the [[HordeOfAlienLocusts Zerg]].
* In ''VideoGame/KingdomHearts'', the protagonists have a self-imposed "No meddling" rule that's summarized as "Don't let anybody know you're from another world" and "Don't interfere in the normal affairs of the world you're visiting". The only exceptions allowed is when it would go against not stopping the bad guys which are using dimension-invading monsters you're supposed to be fighting. This rule is mostly forgotten in subsequent games, mostly because the villains have meddled ''so much'' that not doing anything would lead to the collapse of the universe.
* Zig-zags in {{Spore}}. The player cannot communicate with pre-Space-Stage civilizations, but he can very well place Monoliths on the planet to accelerate their technological advancement, or simply attack them and steal their Spice!
** The player can also make CropCircles - which have no significant effect.
** On a side note: "Primitive" NPC cultures cannot develop space flight on their own in Spore. If left undisturbed, their civilizations will inevitably collapse, sending them back to the Tribal Stage and finally to extinction.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Comics]]
* In ''Webcomic/{{Spacetrawler}}''
** "Dark Planets" home to sapient life with no significant space presence are not supposed to be contacted. The system is still ripe for exploitation: species can be declared non-sapient for spurious reasons like ''bad fashion sense'', and species who do achieve space travel immediately become fair game for any other species to conquer.
** The truth turns out to be more insidious, Qwahntoo, the founder of the GOB, used the classification to cut off planets he considered to be threats. [[spoiler: For instance humans are related to the Eebs that he enslaved.]]
* {{Deconstructed}} in ''Webcomic/QuentynQuinnSpaceRanger''. The [[http://www.rhjunior.com/QQSR/00029.html "First Law"]] is pointed out to have been written for preventing con artists to start {{cargo cult}}s... not to ignore when a civilisation is to be eaten by an alien probe, just because they haven't mastered FTL yet. Unfortunately, this is all pointed out by TheWesley of the crew, who (despite basically being the only person onboard with half a brain) is promptly told to shut up about halfway through his explanation.
* ''Webcomic/SchlockMercenary'':
** [[http://www.schlockmercenary.com/2002-02-05 Deconstructed via author's note]]. Of course, the civilization Tagon was running guns to was already being exploited and enslaved by other aliens, so Prime Directive type rules probably wouldn't apply anyway.
** Later, when the company is hiding from the Teraport Wars, they discover a primitive planet with two species on it.
*** The first are pseudo-whales who meet the mercenaries when one of them tries to eat the captain, who quite justifiably kills it. While the company chaplain is trying to figure out if it was sentient, the rest of the company is ''eating'' it. And when the chaplain complains that he needed to examine the brain they ate, he is told "We can always kill a few more for you. We can get more brains."
--->'''Theo:''' Lord have mercy on their souls, because I am ''certain'' they know not what they do.
*** The second are a humanoid tool-using species Schlock encounters while fighting a carnivorous plant. Once again, the chaplain is wondering whether or not they should interfere, while some of the company have already taught the natives volleyball, and the demolitionist is almost done teaching them how to make gunpowder.
*** When the company has to leave, they leave behind an UpliftedAnimal robot to bring the humanoids up to a modern standard of living in just a few generations. Unfortunately, the natives [[AppeaseTheVolcanoGod toss it into a volcano in an attempt to bring the mercenaries back]]. Fortunately, they happen to encounter the pseudo-whales on the beach just a few days later, making an alliance that promises to benefit both species.

[[/folder]]

[[folder:Western Animation]]
* Parodied by ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' with Directive B10.8:1 A.K.A. "Brannigan's Law"; the law itself is pretty straight but Brannigan doesn't actually understand it himself, and ends up breaking it at one point. As Leela points out in the episode this comes up in, the law is inconsistently applied. In this case, it prevents people from interfering by evacuating the local life-forms from a planet which is doomed because people already came and interfered by mining out its entire core.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Real Life]]
* TheOtherWiki has a [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncontacted_peoples list of peoples]] who have kept culturally isolated or were until fairly recently. Most of them have an estimated three hundred or fewer people (which is not a sustainable population without massive problems due to inbreeding). In general unconnected people are left alone to protect them from disease, or because they are actively hostile.
* IF (bigger than you can think) there are aliens out there, this may be the reason they do not contact us.
* NASA once prevented the Galileo probe, which was exploring Jupiter, from crashing into the moon Europa. Europa has a chance of holding life, and they don't want risk "infecting" the moon with microbes from Earth, which could kill all life on Europa before it is even confirmed to exist. (They de-orbited it into Jupiter instead.)
** For the protection of any ecosystems that might exist on possibly life-bearing worlds, there exist specific international rules governing how 'clean' spacecraft must be if they are going to contact such worlds. NASA has Planetary Protection Officers charged with overseeing the compliance with these rules. (Galileo itself would have been in the least strict classification, being a remote sensing platform that would not be expected to physically contact a possibly life-bearing world. The Huygens lander was in a higher category, since it was to land on a world we cannot be certain contains no life of any kind. A lander like Viking is in the most strict category, since it needs to be both clean enough to not risk contaminating the target world, but also it's own life-detecting experiments. This is required because it was proven with the portions of the Surveyor 3 probe recovered by Apollo 12 that microbes can survive for years in protected spots inside spacecraft otherwise exposed to open space.)
* Laws established for the protection of endangered species often require that they be left entirely undisturbed by humans, even when taking action might preserve individual members of that species (e.g. letting baby sea turtles crawl into the sea without help). Like the prime directive, this can have bizarrely inconsistent effects. Areas are made inaccessible to development because they are an edge territory for a protected species, while the nearby area where they thrive has no protection at all.
[[/folder]]
----