History Main / ETGaveUsWiFi

* Reversed in ''{{A Deepness in the Sky}}'', by VernorVinge: space faring humans guide the development of the alien Spiders through their equivalent of the ColdWar in order to achieve a suitable technological base for the repair of their fleet.

** TheAsylum version, ''Transmorphers'', has the human resistance's weaponry reverse-engineered from the alien robots'.

** In ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedRevelations'', it's confirmed that [[spoiler:Altaïr had learned the design for the first handgun -- and forearm-mounted at that! --]] from a vision given by one of these, which had been implied in ''VideoGames/AssassinsCreedII''. Also, in a brief scene at the beginning of the "Battle of Forli" DLC for ''II'', a brief activation of the Apple shows images of designs that LeonardoDaVinci (who was watching the Apple) would later set to paper.

** In ''VideoGames/AssassinsCreedRevelations'', it's confirmed that [[spoiler:Altaïr had learned the design for the first handgun -- and forearm-mounted at that! --]] from a vision given by one of these, which had been implied in ''VideoGames/AssassinsCreedII''. Also, in a brief scene at the beginning of the "Battle of Forli" DLC for ''II'', a brief activation of the Apple shows images of designs that LeonardoDaVinci (who was watching the Apple) would later set to paper.

* The StrugatskyBrothers' ''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.

* In ''AssassinsCreed'', the [[TheKnightsTemplar Templars]] (and by extension, society) are implied to have gotten all of our advances from reverse engineering alien artifacts (with a couple of failures, see Philadelphia Experiment (done by US government, not Templars)). Later on in the series, [[spoiler:it turns out it's not aliens exactly, but rather the [[{{Precursors}} first civilization]] of humans on this planet, who created the ''Homo sapiens'' to serve them but were overthrown and wiped out.]]

* Pseudo-example in TheStinger of the second ''NightAtTheMuseum'' movie, where a cell phone left in a ''portrait-sized photograph'' prompted a guy from just after WWII to attempt to reverse engineer it. According to the photo, his name was Joey Motorola.
* In the ''Film/{{Stargate}}'' film, Ra claimed to have created Earth civilization. He may have been lying or exaggerating, though.
** In ''StargateSG1'', it's revealed that he and his kind, while not leaving behind the sort of goodies that we would like (lasers, anti-gravity, FTL drives, etc), did serve as gods for many primitive religions. So it's less of ETGaveUsWiFi and more of ET Gave Us Church And Shaped Our Culture.

* Erich von Daniken is famous for claims that the first human civilizations were created by aliens, similar to the ''{{Stargate}}'' film

* In the ''{{Stargate}}'' film, Ra claimed to have created Earth civilization. He may have been lying or exaggerating, though.
** In the TV show, it's revealed that he and his kind, while not leaving behind the sort of goodies that we would like (lasers, anti-gravity, FTL drives, etc), did serve as gods for many primitive religions. So it's less of ETGaveUsWiFi and more of ET Gave Us Church And Shaped Our Culture.

* In {{Animorphs}}, The Andalite Chronicles, Elfangor says he talked to a guy named Bill who worked at a computer company...obviously intended to be Bill Gates. He also mentions a guy named Steve, which could indicate one of Apple's Steves.

-->--'''K''', ''MenInBlack''

* The titular organization in ''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."

** Which is [[{{Narm}} unintentionally hilarious]] considering that anyone who knows ''anything'' about computers, or ''knows'' anyone who knows anything about computers, can make one just as powerful for ''maybe'' a third of the cost. Those aliens [[IfYouKnowWhatIMean must really get around]].

* [[SuspiciouslySpecificDenial Tvtropes is not a case of this. Move along!]]

* In ''[=~Assassin's Creed~=]'', the [[TheKnightsTemplar Templars]] (and by extension, society) are implied to have gotten all of our advances from reverse engineering alien artifacts (with a couple of failures, see Philadelphia Experiment (done by US government, not Templars)). Later on in the series, [[spoiler:it turns out it's not aliens exactly, but rather the [[{{Precursors}} first civilization]] of humans on this planet, who created the ''Homo sapiens'' to serve them but were overthrown and wiped out.]]

* Inverted and played straight in 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.]]

** Hell, take anyone who says this and force feed them the life and accomplishments of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_von_Neumann John von Neumann.]] You might want to add a few servings of NikolaTesla as well(all of both at once would [[PsychicNosebleed melt their little bitty brains]]). HumansAreSpecial. "[[AncientAstronauts Aliens]]" just carve [[TrueArtIsIncomprehensible Incomprehensible Landscapes]].

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