In some fictional worlds, all the crazy (and mundane) technology is powered by a single kind of
Applied Phlebotinum, often even the very simplest things that otherwise would be very simple to do, such as electricity or even
fire.
Related to, but not quite the same as
Minovsky Physics (In that it might not be heavily explained, and particles that follow
Minovsky Physics may be joined by other Phlebotinum) and
Green Rocks (which vaguely defined enough to be used for everything, aren't necessarily always used as such.) A
Phlebotinum Muncher takes this to its logical conclusion by feeding on the phlebotinum.
Steampunk and
other *punks tend to be like this to a greater or lesser degree.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- Giant Robo: The Shizuma Drive (Explained in that it's pretty much free unlimited cheap power and it's totally scalable, subverted in that it shows you shouldn't put all your eggs in one Phlebasket.)
- Code Geass: Sakuradite, although there are other forces at work, every piece of non-real-life technology is Sakuradite-based.
- As well as, apparently, all the power plants; the Gefjun Disturber is explicitly stated to affect only Sakuradite-based tech, and when used to cripple Tokyo's defences in the Second Battle for Tokyo knocks out every electrically-powered device in the city.
- The manga of Sakura Taisen included a reference to "steam mobile phones."
- In Tower Of God, everything runs on Shinsoo.
- In LastExile, Claudia, which allows for all flying ships as well as serving as a currency.
Comic Books
- Warriors of Plasm is set in an alien world where absolutely everything is based on Biological Technology. Justified in that their world itself is a giant, squishy living organism.
Literature
Newspaper Comics
- While it didn't run everything, an awful lot of the heroes' technology in Buck Rogers was based on the synthetic antigravity substance "inertron." This is really a perfectly justifiable application of Niven's Law—if an antigravity substance existed, it would be incredibly useful; once the stuff was introduced into the series's continuity, it would be odd if it didn't start appearing in all kinds of machinery.
Live Action TV
- Everything in the Stargate Verse runs on Naquadah or Naquadriah (which is really just a more potent variety of the former.) The gates are made out of it, bombs, the starships run on it, it's the core element in the Replicators... If what you want to do can't be done with Naquadriah, the you don't have enough of it. Stargate Universe kicks off the plot by using a planet which has its entire core made up of Naquadriah to reach the Destiny.
Real Life
- Truth in Television: back in the 1950s they thought everything in the future would be nuclear. Cars, planes, toasters, the water in your house. All improved thanks to the power of your friend, the atom!
- ...but in actual reality, most everything seems to depend on oil :(
- We're not in the future yet.
- Not until we have flying cars and personal jetpacks. Also flying skateboards.
- Wait...
what?
- Blake Snyder's Save the Cat book on screenwriting specifically advises authors to do this under his Double Mumbo Jumbo theory. According to him, if you try to make the audience buy two separate supramundane elements it stretches the film's credibility to the breaking point. He pointed out a flop like Signs which asked the audience to juggle a debate over whether or not God exists and one over whether or not evil space aliens exist. *
*According to the author: "And if you don't believe me, try substituting the word "Allah" for the word "God" and see if your brain doesn't melt."
Tabletop Games
- Deadlands: Ghost rock.
- Mostly, but there are other minor Phlebotinums; ghost rock isn't responsible for the powers of hucksters, shamans, and blessed, for example.
- Shock Social Science Fiction does this, recommending only one Shock per session.
Video Games
- Skies Of Arcadia: Moon Stones. They even make
liqour Loqua out of it. There are several varities of moonstone, each with their own elemental flavor, useful for specific applications. The yellow (electric) moonstones are put to very effective use by The Empire (which is based out of the region where yellow stones are found)
- Mass Effect: Element Zero.
- Mega Man Battle Network: The Internet.
- Zone Of The Enders: Metatron, powering everything from repair, to making prosthetic hands out of it, to being the secret behind advanced AI's.
- Valkyria Chronicles: Ragnite.
- The eponymous Elebits.
- Iji has nanomachines.
- X-COM: Elerium
- Final Fantasy VII: Mako, which is actually the Lifestream, and all Materia is a condensed form thereof.
- The Crystal Chronicles series has magicite, which is used for everything from making fires to purifying water. Kinda justified though, as it does warp reality.
Western Animation
- Storm Hawks: Crystals. They even have flavoring crystals for making food, including one that turns things into cheese.
- Flavoring crystals? Like salt?
- BIONICLE: Protodermis in the Matoran Universe.
- Pretty much everything in the Transformers Verse runs on Energon. The earliest Marvel Comics stories avert this, having them use a liquid fuel that can be derived from oil, but the writers quickly adopted energon from the TV series and never looked back.
