History Main / ETGaveUsWiFi

* In ''Manga/MissKobayashisDragonMaid'', wizards from another world are responsible for UsefulNotes/JavaScript, as [[LanguageOfMagic it was apparently styled after their magic system]].

* Inverted in ''ComicBook/LesInnommables'', where the Roswell spacecraft is actually an experimental Russian aircraft with a pilot in suspended animation. The Americans are studying it, but the Chinese send agents to steal it.
* In Volume 2 of ''ComicBook/TheLeagueOfExtraordinaryGentlemen'', [[Literature/TheWarOfTheWorlds the Martians]] do their damnedest to avert this: They retrieve the parts of fallen Fighting-Machines during the battle with the ''Nautilus''.
* ''ComicBook/ScarletTraces'' posits that the tech left behind by the Martians in ''Literature/TheWarOfTheWorlds'' has been developed by humans with variable results.
* ''ComicBook/SupermanUnchained'': Humanity's technological progress has advanced steadily since 1938 through from use of an alien equation by [[GovernmentConspiracy the Machine]]. The culmination of this is [[AppliedPhlebotinum Earthstone]]. [[spoiler:The equation was made by [[HeroAntagonist Wraith]]'s species, and they have done that with many other planets across the universe. When a civilization creates technlogy with the equation, Wraith's species can easily disable it and conquer a planet.]]
* ''ComicBook/TheTransformersRobotsInDisguise:'' Garrison Blackrock states that human civilisation developed thanks to Nexus Prime's Enigma of Combination crash-landing on Earth, its energies allowing the ancient tribes of Mesopotamia to unite their thoughts and ideas and come together to build the first city, Uruk. The questionable historicity of this claim aside (Uruk is far from humanity's first known city), [[spoiler: Blackrock being a [[TomatoInTheMirror Cybertronian sleeper agent]] with fabricated memories puts this whole story into doubt anyways.]]

** Trope is inverted with the Orks, who pillage technology from other races and use it for themselves or crudely imitate it, as they cannot naturally develop new technology themselves. Some common examples include Leman Russ tanks and other Imperial Guard equipment. A famous example is Ufthak Blackhawk, an Ork Warboss who uses looted Space Marine Centurion armor.

** The Deathwatch chapter of Space Marines' Veterans use Xenophase Blades, a powerful type of sword that can cut through force fields and molecular bonds. It was reverse engineered from alien technology that is greatly hinted to be [[spoiler: Necron in origin.]]

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* Before cell phones became ubiquitous, [=PrimeCo=] ran a series of commercials featuring a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cl1WikuS4dk little pink alien]] who lost his cell phone on Earth and tried to get it back because "Earth wasn't ready" for their technology.

* According to the ''WesternAnimation/MenInBlack'' animated series, most advanced human technology was granted by a benevolent advanced alien race. Computers, hard drives and the Clapper are cited as examples and their patent revenue is TheMenInBlack's primary source of financing.

** In # 14, the team visits [[{{Area51}} Zone 91]], where the government is rumored to be studying a crashed alien spaceship. A crazy woman at the beginning of the book strongly believes this is how humans got computers, but at the end we find out [[spoiler:there ''is'' an alien construct being studied... an Andalite ''toilet''. And an obsolete model at that.]] According to Ax, humans can't learn anything from it, so they decide not to say anything to the military devoting their lives to hopefully reaching the stars.

* ''ComicBook/TheTransformersRobotsInDisguise:'' Garrison Blackrock states that human civilisation developed thanks to Nexus Prime's Enigma of Combination crash-landing on Earth, its energies allowing the ancient tribes of Mesopotamia to unite their thoughts and ideas and come together to build the first city, Uruk. The questionable chronology of this claim aside, [[spoiler: Blackrock being a [[TomatoInTheMirror Cybertronian sleeper agent]] with fabricated memories puts this whole story in doubt.]]

* ''ComicBook/TheTransformersRobotsInDisguise:'' Garrison Blackrock states that human civilisation developed thanks to Nexus Prime's Enigma of Combination crash-landing on Earth.

* In ''Manga/MissKobayashisDragonMaid'', wizards from another world are responsible for [=JavaScript=] ([[LanguageOfMagic it was styled after their magic system]]).

* In ''Film/Transformers2007', the technological advances of the 20th century were made by reverse engineering the captive, frozen Megatron after he was discovered in 1897. [[ArtisticLicenseCars This somehow includes automobiles, which were actually invented over 10 years earlier.]]

* In the first live-action ''Film/{{Transformers}}'' movie, the technological advances of the 20th century were made by reverse engineering the captive, frozen Megatron after he was discovered in 1897. [[ArtisticLicenseCars This somehow includes automobiles, which were actually invented over 10 years earlier.]]

* The [[TimeTravel sphere]] on ''Series/SevenDays'' was based on [[RoswellThatEndsWell Roswell tech]]. Other more mundane technology was also said to have come from Roswell.

* Preventing the reverse of this -- keeping Human/Federation tech out of the hands of alien civilizations whose society might be altered by it -- is one of the original reasons for ''Franchise/StarTrek's'' [[AlienNonInterferenceClause Prime Directive]].
* The second-season ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'' episode "Carbon Creek" implies that Vulcans stranded on Earth during TheFifties sold Velcro to support a child's education.
* ''Series/StarTrekVoyager''. In "Future's End" the IT revolution happens because a timeship crash lands next to a 60's hippie who becomes an 80's yuppie ([[NoCelebritiesWereHarmed probably based on Steve Jobs]]) by reverse-engineering its technology. Since the Federation tend to put all of human knowledge into the computer of every single starship, Sterling was able to quickly learn what he needs to just by asking the right questions. His progress is stunted when he gets to (then) modern-day technology, however, claiming that he had reached the limit of what he could adapt from the timeship. Presumably, Sterling lacked the technical knowledge and resources to adapt much more complex technologies like transporters and replicators, even though he somehow managed to reproduce holodeck technology (a product of both) in his office (why he never sold ''that'' is a mystery). He was planning a trip to the future to get more technology, apparently too egotistical to realize all the logistical problems this would entail (putting aside that he would have blown up future!Earth doing it, it seemed not to occur to him that the future might not appreciate his theft of their technology).

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%% Please do not change or remove either without starting a new thread.

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

* The setting of ''Manga/{{Gintama}}'' is basically the Edo era with technology four centuries ahead of the curve, thanks to the Amanto introducing them to some amenities that wouldn't look out of place in a modern-day setting.

* In Volume 2 of ''ComicBook/TheLeagueOfExtraordinaryGentlemen'', [[Literature/TheWarOfTheWorlds the Martians]] do their damnedest to avert this: They retrieve the parts of fallen Fighting-Machines during the battle with the ''Nautilus''.
* Inverted in ''ComicBook/LesInnommables'', where the Roswell spacecraft is actually an experimental Russian aircraft with a pilot in suspended animation. The Americans are studying it, but the Chinese send agents to steal it.

* In ''FanFic/HarryTano'', the presence of former Jedi Ahsoka Tano soon leads to Republic Tech being recreated on Earth, albeit with a large portion of it being {{Magitek}} until workarounds can be found.

[[folder:Films -- Animation]]
* The 1914 of ''Animation/WarOfTheWorldsGoliath'' is a {{Dieselpunk}} setting thanks to humans having retroengineered the technology of the downed Martian tripods. This proves to not be entirely advantageous because the second wave of invaders can easily adapt human power plants for their own ends.

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
* In the first live-action ''Film/{{Transformers}}'' movie, the technological advances of the 20th century were made by reverse engineering the captive, frozen Megatron after he was discovered in 1897. [[ArtisticLicenseCars This somehow includes automobiles, which were actually invented over 10 years earlier.]]
* Creator/TheAsylum film ''Film/{{Transmorphers}}'' has the human resistance's weaponry reverse-engineered from the alien robots'.

* ''Hard Landing'' by Creator/AlgisBudrys, in which a bunch of crash landed alien Joes have to get by on Earth, and one of them decides to sell alien tech to the US.
* Reversed in ''Literature/ADeepnessInTheSky'' by Creator/VernorVinge: space faring humans guide the development of the alien Spiders through their equivalent of the UsefulNotes/ColdWar in order to achieve a suitable technological base for the repair of their fleet.
* In the ''Literature/MyTeacherIsAnAlien'' series by Creator/BruceCoville, an alien helps humanity develop television in hopes that it will slow humanity's development. He later regrets the interference[[note]]The idea was to be so much of a distraction that it ''slowed down'' human technological development (already much [[HumansAdvanceSwiftly faster]] than any other race) to allow society to catch up. The result was... pretty much the opposite of that.[[/note]].
* Inverted and played straight in ''Literature/GoMutants'', where the human invention of nuclear weapons brings our planet to the attention of alien races [[spoiler:leading one of them to invent the [[strike:internet]] PLEX for us.]]
* In ''Literature/TheManWhoFellToEarth'' (both book and film), alien protagonist Thomas Jerome Newton starts an Earthly corporate empire via his people's inventions (electronics, film stock, etc., all far ahead of human technology) with the intent of raising the capital he needs to fulfill his mission.

* The Creator/StrugatskyBrothers' ''Literature/RoadsidePicnic'' transfers this trope into the future: In a setting TwentyMinutesInTheFuture, humanity makes progress by studying and finding uses for alien artefacts dropped on Earth by an unknown extraterrestrial civilization. Some characters also discuss the artifacts, pondering if the way we are using them is the intended way, or if there are other ways to use them we just don't have the knowledge base to understand and are doing the equivalent of using a computer screen as a night-light.
* In ''Literature/TheHelmsmanSaga'', it is stated a few civilizations were given the push toward interstellar travel by the Empire's {{Escape pod}}s. [[spoiler: In book 8, the heroes land on Earth in the 60s. After being rescued, they leave the pod for us to study.]]

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

* In the Creator/IsaacAsimov short story "Literature/DoesABeeCare", a larval alien, left on Earth, [[BeenThereShapedHistory guides human technological development through most of history]] until it has reached the point where he can stow away aboard an early unmanned satellite and thus make his way home. He's no more concerned about where Mankind goes after he leaves than a bee cares about the flower it has just pollinated.
* The Hayford Peirce short story ''High Yield Bondage'' features an alien ship crashing on Earth in 1972 and starting businesses to both advance technology and build capital, which it can use to purchase parts to repair their starship.
* In ''[[Literature/GarrettPI Angry Lead Skies]]'', two of the "[[UnusualEuphemism silver elves]]" [[TouchedByVorlons enhance Kip Prose's brain]] so he'll invent better and better technology, hoping that he'll eventually create the industrial base for them to repair their ship. [[spoiler: They're taken home by some of the other Visitors, but Kip retains his inventiveness and uses it to introduce stuff like tricycles, pencils, and folding umbrellas to [=TunFaire=] in later books.]]
* In ''Creator/JacekDukaj'''s novel ''Córka łupieżcy'', all the advanced technology of the future (including augmented reality, virtual avatars for dead/unborn people etc.) is secretly acquired from abandoned alien cities accessible through [[PortalCrossroadWorld the City]]. One character remarks that the moment the City was discovered, it pretty much rendered all science moot, except for archeology: there's no point in researching anything if you can already find the answer in the records of some highly advanced civilization.
* ''Literature/Area51'': The atomic bomb is revealed to be based in part on alien technology.

* In ''VideoGame/NexusTheJupiterIncident'', it's heavily implied that the last of the [[{{Precursors}} Creators]] influenced humanity's development up until the 19th century (when the last one died) in order to result in the creation of compatible computing technology and [=AIs=] that could merge with Angel, the AI they left behind in an asteroid base near Pluto. All to combat their own creations, the [[AIIsACrapshoot Mechanoids]].

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

->''"This morning we were able to transmit a mildly amusing image of a cat halfway across the world, suggesting it will be an excellent tool for sharing classified information within our organization. I named this impressive creation the "internetwork", and would be very surprised if it didn't catch on."''

* ''Series/{{Sliders}}'' episode "The Return of Maggie Beckett" showcased a parallel world where TheGreys gave Earth new technologies and allowed for significant advances. Rembrandt says he always believed this was the case for his own world and cites several technologies, including Velcro. (Both this and the ''Enterprise'' episode listed above were written by Chris Black.)

* The 1914 of ''Animation/WarOfTheWorldsGoliath'' is a {{Dieselpunk}} setting thanks to humans having retroengineered the technology of the downed Martian tripods. This proves to not be entirely advantageous because the second wave of invaders can easily adapt human power plants for their own ends.

* ''Wiki/SCPFoundation'', [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-1073 SCP-1073 ("Computing Microbes")]]. The silicon chip technology that almost 90% of the Earth's computer systems are based on came from information provided by SCP-1073.

** A quick Google search confirms she isn't the only one. This little factoid made it hard to search off-Wiki/TVTropes for more examples of this trope.

[[folder:Film]]

* A recent Alienware advert suggests that the company's range of high-power gaming [=PCs=] was created in this way.

* A variation occurs in the ''WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty'' episode "The Ricks must be Crazy." When the power supply of Rick's car suddenly dies, he takes Morty into the battery, and tells him that he's created a "Microverse," waited until a sapient life form evolved, told them he was an alien and introduced to the wonders of electricity via [[HamsterWheelPower "Gooble Boxes," which produce the power necessary to run his car when used to run or walk in place.]] When Morty tells [[SlaveRace Rick he's essentially enslaved an entire planet,]] Rick says they aren't slaves since they created a complex society, when Morty says "that's slavery with extra steps," Rick just brushes him off. Inside the Microverse they encounter Zeep, basically a [[InsufferableGenius Rick]] {{Expy}}, who created a "Miniverse," waited until a sapient life form evolved, told them he was an alien, and gave them "Flooble Cranks," which produce the electricity needed to power his world, and render the "Gooble Box" obsolete. When [[IronicEcho Rick tells Zeep he's essentially enslaved an entire planet,]] Zeep says they aren't slaves since they created a complex society, when Rick says [[{{Hypocrite}} "that's slavery with extra steps,"]] Zeep just brushes him off. Inside the "Miniverse" they find a researcher named Kyle, who's just created a "Teenyverse," and is waiting for a sapient life form to evolve, so that he can give them "Blooble Yanks," a pulley based exercise device that will power his world, and render the "Flooble Crank" obsolete. When Zeep tries to explain that Kyle plans to enslave an entire planet, Kyle says that since the people of the Teenyverse will live in a complex society, they won't be slaves. Just as Zeep begins to explain "that's slavery with extra steps," [[EurekaMoment he figures out what why they are there,]] and he attacks Rick. Hearing them fight, Kyle figures out that Zeep, Rick, and Morty aren't aliens, [[DespairEventHorizon that he couldn't make time for his father's funeral because he was making his Teenyverse, and was only born to power Zeep's world.]] Despite Morty's attempted consolation, Kyle goes into his ship, [[DrivenToSuicide and crashes it on a nearby cliff side.]] After being stranded for months inside the "Teenyverse," Rick, Morty, and Zeep make it all the way to the "Microverse," where [[InferredHolocaust Rick destroys Zeep's "Miniverse."]] After escaping the "Mcroverse" Rick starts his car, and tells morty he told Zeep to tell everyone in the "Microverse" that he [[DeadlyEuphemism "would either have toss a broken battery or the battery wouldn't be broken.'']]

* The titular organization in ''Film/MenInBlack'' gets its funding from holding various patents based on alien technology. This includes velcro and a little disc thingy that's "gonna replace the compact disc." In ''Film/MenInBlack3'', this is PlayedForLaughs: in the 60s, Agent O talks about a meeting with some aliens called the Viagrins that developed a revolutionary pill.

* The titular organization in ''Film/MenInBlack'' gets its funding from holding various patents based on alien technology. This includes velcro and a little disc thingy that's "gonna replace the compact disc."