History Main / SufficientlyAdvancedBambooTechnology

* In ''VideoGame/PokemonGoldAndSilver'', it's established that the Johto region historically used hollowed-out fruits known as Apricorns to make Poké Balls, which are for all intents and purposes {{Perpetual Motion Machine}}s.

** Orks also have a variant of this trope, where much of their ramshackle technology from guns, to vehicles and buildings, up to their ''spaceships'', is rickety and obviously made from scavenged parts welded or bolted together, or looted from other factions and have become poorly maintained and made to look more "orky". Much Ork technical aesthetic looks like it could be from a DieselPunk ScavengerWorld, but they still work perfectly well (in most cases). Because their [[ScienceRelatedMemeticDisorder Mekboys and Dokboys]] have technical knowledge hardwired into their DNA, as well as trial-and-error, experimentation, and their [[ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve gestalt psychic field which makes their technology work as well as it does]], their technology at its peak is noted for being more advanced than Imperial tech. Fortunately for everybody else, Orks rarely tend to get there, since most of their faculties and facilities are devoted to making lower tech, and much of their high technology doesn't get passed between them too much.

** When Leela needed to refresh herself by going swimming and it was revealed the Tardis has an Olympic-sized swimming pool on board, the Doctor has to find her by descending quite a lot of flights of stairs. Inferentially, there are no lifts on the Tardis; but more interestingly, the walls and the stairwells Tom Baker descends are made of that most futuristic and space-age of building materials: bricks. There are so many descending staircases that you could roughly estimate that the Tardis carries at least four thousand tons of bricks as part of its payload.

* In the original (70's) ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica|1978}}'' the people of Kobol, the ancestral planet of humanity, were super-advanced, as evidenced by their ultra-tech pyramids and medallions.

* A lot of Chozo tech in the ''Franchise/{{Metroid}}'' series looks like this. Chozo made a point of building their technology in harmony with nature, rather than against it. A lot of it appears to be stone or simple metalwork... and then the statues come to life and begin shooting high-powered laser blasts and you realize just how advanced the Chozo were.

* In ''WebOriginal/OrionsArm'':

* ''ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes''' treasured cardboard box could be used (depending on its orientation) to transmogrify any creature into any other, [[CloningBlues duplicate]] a living thing, or even travel in time. Of course, these advances ''may'' have been all in Calvin's imagination...

* In ''VideoGame/ChronoTrigger'', the technology of 65,000,000 is in many cases more advanced than that of [[TheFuture 2300]]. Elixir (called "Sweet Water" in this time) can be had for the asking, they can make powerful robot arms out of stone and awe-inspiring guns and armor from rubies, and Dreamstone is common enough to win in a drinking contest. And none of this is magical, since magic doesn't exist yet. The net result is a sort of Garden of Eden, where Stone Age crafts have the power of futuristic technology and {{Magitek}}.

** From the same series, the Triluminaries, which although used by Minbari are not originally Minbari tech (they were given them by Valen, a [[ProphecyTwist "Minbari not born of Minbari,"]] [[spoiler:actually Jeffrey Sinclair]], [[StableTimeLoop arrived back in time from the future]], [[spoiler:with technology created by the same people who created the Great Machine on Epsilon 3]]). Despite their origin and abilities, they had a rather primitive look, not unlike Enik's Altrusian technology from the original ''Series/LandOfTheLost'' (see below).

* ''Series/LandOfTheLost1974''

* ''Series/LandOfTheLost''

** The organic technology that a scientist brought aboard in a first season episode at first resembled some kind of ancient artifact [[spoiler:before it began assimilating the scientist's assistant into a LivingWeapon.]]

-->-- ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'', "Masks"

* Most weapons themed around a specific time period in ''VideoGame/{{Warframe}}'' look like obsolete weapons when compared to the other choices on offer, but actually [[SchizoTech employ cutting edge materials and technology]] to be just as deadly as any other weapon, especially in the hands of a Tenno. Prime examples are the [[KatanasAreJustBetter Nikanas]]; the [[AutomaticCrossbows Zhuge, Attica and Nagantaka]] and the [[FightingWithChucks Ninkondi and Shaku]], which can easily keep up with assault rifles, plasma casters, and handheld laser cannons.

* ''Some'' of the [[{{Precursors}} Ancients]]' technology in VideoGame/MightAndMagic looked like this, the main example being a pyramid that was the part of a GenerationShip that had been preserved after landfall. Among other things, it has radiation-curing pools of water and vital command codes recorded on seemingly ordinary paper that has lasted for over a millennia.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Touhou}}'', most Lunarian technology seems to fall into this to at least some degree, since it [[SufficientlyAnalyzedMagic predates the human distinction between "technology" and "magic" and is apparently more complete than either]]. Their society outwardly resembles ancient China, and any device which resembles human technology is far more advanced than it looks, often relying on QuantumMechanicsCanDoAnything. Their primary weapons appear to be 19th-century rifles... which fire sprays of energy bullets controlled by the user's thoughts. Likewise Toyohime possesses a DisintegratorRay in the form of a ''paper fan''.

* Crops up in ''VideoGame/{{Starbound}}'', primarily with the Avians and the Florans. The Avians are culturally on the level of Aztecs (complete with a prominent religion that incorporates sacrifice), yet have access to space flight, energy weapons, computers, and more, all of which make use of strange red crystals whose workings are a closely guarded secret of the priesthood (and who were given the technology by precursors). Florans, meanwhile, are very primitive and cannot really understand higher technology, but some of them can control plants and combine it with scavenged technology so they can use it properly, giving them spaceships, weapons, and more. Their ability to work with plants also lets them make organic lights and living vine doors, among other things. The result is that Avian spaceships, for instance, resemble huge flying pyramids, while Floran ships are cobbled together from vines and stolen ship parts. The Glitch also deserve mention, being [[MedievalStasis trapped in the Medieval era of technogical and societal development]], but having starships nonetheless-which look like {}Ominous Floating Castle}}s.

* A lot of Eldar and Necron technology in ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'' is of this nature. Eldar technology tends to resemble exquisitely carved bone, rendered in flowing organic shapes and studded with gemstones. High-ranking Eldar seers carry decorative spears, wear ribbed bone breastplates and cast bone runes from leather pouches. The "bone" in question is actually a highly advanced psycho-plastic substance called Wraithbone and is shaped by the Eldar's formidable mental powers. The Dark Eldar use a similarly organic aesthetic, but with even weirder and much nastier devices at their disposal. Many of their most exotic weapons look like objects out of a fairy-tale, such as mirrors that shatter the individual reflected in them when they break, or caskets of malicious flesh-eating sprites.

* Crops up in ''VideoGame/{{Starbound}}'', primarily with the Avians and the Florans. The Avians are culturally on the level of Aztecs (complete with a prominent religion that incorporates sacrifice), yet have access to space flight, energy weapons, computers, and more, all of which make use of strange red crystals whose workings are a closely guarded secret of the priesthood (and who were given the technology by precursors). Florans, meanwhile, are very primitive and cannot really understand higher technology, but some of them can control plants and combine it with scavenged technology so they can use it properly, giving them spaceships, weapons, and more. Their ability to work with plants also lets them make organic lights and living vine doors, among other things. The result is that Avian spaceships, for instance, resemble huge flying pyramids, while Floran ships are cobbled together from vines and stolen ship parts.

* ''Stone Trek'': a fan mashup of ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' and ''WesternAnimation/TheFlintstones''. They have faster than light travel in a starship made of wood and stone, lashed together with leather straps, powered by a tame volcano.