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Author: elwoz

Sep 10th 2011 at 9:42:48 AM

I think the distinction you're looking for is:

* If you have a BlackBox, you may be able to make it do one or two canned things, but you don't know everything it is capable of, and you might not even know how to investigate it safely.  (Example: ANIMA from BlissStage.)
* If you have a device with NoPlansNoPrototypeNoBackup, you know what it does and how to make it do everything in its repertoire, but you don't understand ''how'' or ''why'' it works, so you can't improve on it, repair it, or replicate it. (Example: the stargates in {{Stargate}}.)
* This trope is for when your scientists ''do'' understand how and why your gadget works, at least in principle, but you haven't got the technology base to build a factory that could make more of them; perhaps not even to make proper repairs to the one you have. (Example: the fancy turbine power plant in SixteenThirtyTwo.)

and

* LostTechnology is the supertrope of all the above.

ISOT time-travel scenarios are the most common case of this trope, because the characters ''come from'' a civilization that ''did'' understand how to build and repair their technological gadgets, but they don't get to bring everything necessary with them.  In ''SixteenThirtyTwo'', for instance, at one point one character regrets that the time bubble didn't include the university in the next town over, with its laboratories, libraries, and engineering professors.  But you can get this with alien tech too: in ''OldMansWar'' there is a captured piece of SufficientlyAdvancedAlien technology that includes complete blueprints and they still can't build more.  And it could easily also pop up in SchizoTech and ScavengerWorld scenarios.