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A form of phlebotinum that has only one logical reason for existing: so that the author can build An Aesop out of it. May or may not turn into a Fantastic Aesop. Can result in a Phlebotinum Muncher.
Compare with Soylent Green; sometimes these tropes overlap.
Examples:
Literature
- The short story "The Giving Plague
 " by David Brin features an especially egregious example; it includes a microbe (Acquired Lavish Altruism Syndrome, or ALAS) which makes one's blood feel "full", which, in turn, makes one want to go and donate blood in order to alleviate the feeling; the germ would then reproduce and spread among blood recipients. Then, apparently, feeling that one had to "justify" going to the blood bank, the person would start acting more altruistic.
- The central premise of Ursula K. Le Guin's short story "The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas" was a city whose happiness depended upon the suffering of one innocent child.
- A few of Aesop's original fables could be described this way. Probably the best example is the story of the man who was granted a wish on the condition that his greatest rival would get the same thing, doubled. For instance, if he wished for a hundred pounds of gold, his rival would get two hundred. So what did he wish for? To be blind in one eye.
- This has evolved into a common bar joke: A man finds a genie who, for whatever reason, will give the man three wishes... and his boss double what he got. The man wishes in turn for one million dollars, a Rolls-Royce, and to be beaten half to death. Another version occurs with lawyers, where a genie pops up, and will grant three wishes, but all the lawyers in the world get double that. The man wishes for a million dollars, a house, and to donate one of his kidneys.
- The Same To You Doubled by Robert Sheckley, in which the man asks for a lover who will almost kill him with ecstasy.
- Another variation had a recently-divorced woman whose wishes would come true but, for some reason (perhaps the genie disapproved of divorce), would also be granted to her ex-husband severalfold. Her last wish was to be pregnant with triplets.
- Yet another variation has the man hating his former mother-in-law or his ex-wife, and asking for riches, to be young and beautiful, and for a 20-inch penis...
- A version has the character in the story (whose worst enemy was the person he'd considered his best friend) wish for a hundred thousand dollars, a brand-new Porsche ... and his ideal lover, whom he described in exacting detail, ending with the phrase "... and insanely jealous of any other women in my life."
- This troper just wonders why no one else has mentioned the version where the man wishes to lose a testicle.
- Very subtly parodied (along with phlebotinum in general) in the novel Generation Dead, as the proposals by scientists to "explain" the whole "teenagers suddenly coming back as zombies" phenomenon, which are mentioned in asides throughout the book, tend somewhat towards this. Choice examples include proposals that it was caused by "too much fast food" (that would be Aesoptinum about blind consumerism, or about how we should eat more organic foods, etc.), "too many First Person Shooter games" (that would be Aesoptinum about the supposed dehumanizing effects of video game violence or need for social interaction during youth), and - thanks to the expansion of the book's accompanying Character Blog - "too many generations eating microwaved food" (which would be Aesoptinum about either laziness, eating organic, dangers lurking in seemingly innocent places... take your pick). Naturally and appropriately enough, though... none of them is true.
- Norman Spinrad's 60s sci-fi novel Bug Jack Barron has an Evil Rich White Man using an immortality serum made from ground up African-Americans. Good book, anvilicious Aesop.
Live Action TV
- Star Trek is fond of these. A recurring episode conflict involved the crew finding a (near) Utopia planet with a morally questionable requirement in its upkeep. Much navel gazing would take place, and they'd usually pass judgment on the planet as backwards, either leaving them to their luck or forcing them to change.
- One episode had a planet with truly awesome technology—but that technology damaged their ozone, allowing excess ultraviolet light to the surface, causing radiation damage and sterilizing the entire species.
- And the one with the dragon-head computer that ate rocks and gave people eternal youth at the cost of total stagnation. And the floating city with all the pretty art and smart people. And the society that made war bloodless by automating it. And the ones that almost killed The Wesley (so close!). Etc.
- Ditto Stargate SG-1. This plot occurs with some variations in at least "The Broca Divide", "Brief Candle", "Learning Curve", "Beneath the Surface", "2001", "Cure", and "Revisions".
- In an unusual example where such a society is the future Earth, the episode "2010" featured an alternate timeline where the Tau'ri (humans from Earth) allied with another human civilization called the Aschen and defeated the Goa'uld, and so, the Aschen gave the Tau'ri medical supplies, including an anti-aging vaccine whose true purpose was to sterilize human populations to create agrarian planets.
- The crew of the Equinox in Star Trek Voyager were built up as sympathetic and being more down on their luck than Voyager, when they did a Face Heel Turn. Any audience sympathy they might have had was destroyed by the discovery that their improved warp drive runs on the corpses of sentient aliens.
- Babylon 5, "Deathwalker": The Dilgar war criminal Jha'dur develops an anti-aging serum that can be used repeatedly to extend an individual's life indefinitely. The cost? It requires a non-synthesizable ingredient available only in other sentients (one treatment requires one sentient). Her intention was to disperse the knowledge of the serum to start genocidal wars as vengeance for her species dying. Fortunately, the Vorlons take it upon themselves to destroy the serum, Deathwalker and her ship to prevent that.
Film
- In Serenity, the chemical "Pax" was created by the Alliance to sedate the populace. In case that wasn't objectionable enough to the audience, its first wide-spread test failed spectacularly, resulting in nearly the entire population of a planet developing severe amotivational disorder and simply sitting quietly until they starved to death. The survivors were rendered insane and horrifically violent, becoming the Reavers.
- The movie world of Logans Run is utopic, no hunger, want, or need to work. The catch? Everything is run by a Computer, Children 0-7 are raised in tubes, Youth 7-14 are set to run wild, and once you become 30 a gem on your palm (or Palm Flower) turns black and you're sent to compete to be "Renewed" unfortunately The Computer Is A Cheating Bastard and kills all contestants for being "too old". Most of the people living there were for the arrangement, except for Runners, who want to escape to Sanctuary and live longer.
- The drug Prozeum in Equilibrium subdues emotions to prevent such things as violence and war. This is helped along by the banning of anything with an Emotional Content rating of ten, which can include anything even remotely artistic, and anyone caught with such contraband is burned alive. Naturally, there's an underground resistance that the main character eventually champions after he stops taking it.
- Running Man allows convicted criminals to compete against gladiators for their freedom. But those who win are killed and left to rot and the network invents them living in luxury in a tropical paradise
- In The Island, a large group of people lives comfortably in a high-tech city doing safe, not especially taxing make-work. Every now and then, it's announced that one of the city's inhabitants has won a trip to the titular Island, which is portrayed as an idyllic retirement spot. The hero discovers, however, that the inhabitants of the city are actually clones being maintained to provide spare parts for their 'originals,' and that 'going to the Island' is actually a death sentence.
Comic Books
- In the Marvel Comics Elseworld Earth X, the Cosmic Consciousness grants omniscience, but due to a strange form of observer effect will slowly make those who have even a fraction of it kinder people.
Western Animation
- One Ducktales episode features a "Pearl of Wisdom", which will grant whoever holds it at a certain point at sunrise temporary infinite wisdom. Every person who has ever stolen it and used it in this manner realizes the error of their ways during their "moment of wisdom," and voluntarily returns the pearl to the islanders from whom it was stolen. (This is, of course, why the islanders are never bent out of shape whenever the pearl is stolen — they know it will eventually be brought back to them.)
Video Games
- The Crusader games sport a variant of the trope. The second game features a new element called "di-correllium", which is revealed to be a sort of super-uranium in that it's used to meet almost all of the world's energy supply. This results, of course, in over-dependence on one source of energy. Further, the cartel that controls the main source of di-correllium sabotages attempts at alternative energy research—and by "sabotage", they mean "kill everyone but the lead scientists and steal their accumulated research". Finally, at the end of the game, about half the world's supply of the element comes under the control of terrorists. So Yeah.
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