History Main / TechnologicalPacifist

* ''ComicBook/{{Batman}}'': {{Retcon}}ned via one of the many ''[[ComicBook/BatmanYearOne Year One]]'' adventures that Bruce decides his company will no longer do weapons, after he fights many technological threats.

* One of the {{running gag}}s in the ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' series is Leonard De Quirm's tunnel vision regarding his scientific creations: he's usually baffled (and occasionally horrified) when people suggest that his devices have (rather obvious) combat applications other than their designed purpose. For example, in ''Literature/{{Jingo}}'', he's dismayed at Nobby's suggestion that the drill that allows his mini-sub to latch on to passing ships could be used to sink them instead with very little extra effort. Later, he finds that when he's sketching an enlarged submarine, his hand seems to, of its own accord, add weapons... He's also designed (though never built) actual weapons (of mass destruction, no less), but only as a hobby. He maintains that if they were ever built, no one would dare use them, which is why Lord Vetinari, having a much more accurate view of human nature, has Leonard more-or-less permanently imprisoned (not that he notices) -- a good idea, considering that once the poor man designed what seemed to be a ''nuclear bomb'' in a Renaissance setting for the purpose of leveling mountains ("for mining purposes").[[note]]This is probably a reference to the invention of dynamite for mining purposes (because it was much safer than nitroglycerin), when it was used for military purposes the inventor (Alfred Nobel, of Nobel Prize fame) was horrified in the same way.[[/note]]

* ''Manga/MobileSuitGundamSEEDAstray'' has main character Lowe Guele, a mechanic who insist that [[HumongousMecha mobile suits]] are not by nature evil, but get used that way by evil people[[note]]Or, alternately, [[{{Pun}} "Gundams don't kill people, villains kill people".]][[/note]]. During the final showdown with original BigBad Rondo Ghina Sahaku, Lowe even says that he can hear Rondo's MS crying about being used as an instrument of destruction.
* Subverted in ''Anime/YuGiOh''. When Kaiba took over his father's company, he changed it from a military manufacturer to a gaming company. However, the games he makes have been at times sadistic. And, of course, ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney.

* Retconned via one of the many ''ComicBook/BatmanYearOne'' adventures that Bruce decides his company will no longer do weapons, after he fights many technological threats.
* When ComicBook/IronMan was first created, at the height of the UsefulNotes/ColdWar, his company was a proud part of the Military-Industrial Complex. Over the years, writers changed that situation.
** They still have work for the military and SHIELD pointing out that's where they get the funds for the non-military projects, and humanitarian work
** After ''Stark Disassembled'', it seems Tony went full on with this Trope.
* Wallace Luthor, ComicBook/LexLuthor's grandfather, was a Technological Pacifist during World War I. He was persuaded to contribute to the war effort, and became convinced that the collapse of his company in the Wall Street Crash was his punishment.
* Subverted in Creator/AlanMoore's ''ComicBook/{{Watchmen}}''. Ozymandias suggests after analyzing media outlets that war is approaching and that his giant corporation invest accordingly. His assistants protest that the company has never invested in armaments or weapons dealing. He responds that he was not speaking of weapons, but rather diapers, formula, and contraceptives, because people have more sex and children around war time. [[spoiler: Not that he's any kind of pacifist in any case....]]

* Enforced in ''Fanfic/PokemonResetBloodlines''. Professor Belmondo comes with the intent to recruit Clemont for a think tank in Lumiose University, but Meyer refuses since he doesn't want his son to develop weapons to be used for war. [[ScrewTheMoneyIHaveRules Not even when Belmondo tries to bribe him with a blank check.]]

* ''Film/BatmanBegins'':
** William Earle takes over Wayne Enterprises after Thomas Wayne's death. The second sign that Earle is an unscrupulous jerk is when it's mentioned that he's expanded Wayne Enterprises into heavy arms manufacturing. (The first sign is when we hear that he's taking the company public.)
** Not just any weapons, but [[CruelAndUnusualDeath a device designed to vaporize people's water supply in the desert, causing them die of thirst]]. Although it is implied that the microwave weapon was commissioned by League of Shadows operatives that infiltrated Wayne Enterprises, you have to wonder what sort of company would even greenlight the construction of such a thing, knowing that it's a war crime waiting to happen.
* In ''Film/DangerDeathRay'', the inventor of the titular Death Ray insists that it be used only for ''peaceful'' purposes. (A peaceful death ray. You heard right.)
* Dr. Serizawa from ''Film/Godzilla1954'' refuses to release any information on his [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Oxygen Destroyer]] until he's found a way to prevent it from being used as a weapon of mass destruction. Ultimately, [[spoiler:he commits suicide to ensure that killing Godzilla is the ''only'' time it can be used.]]
* ''Film/IronMan1'':
** When the film starts, Tony Stark is the devil-may-care CEO of Stark Industries, a major military contractor, and proud of the weapons he makes. After being held in captivity, however, and seeing his weapons in the hands of terrorists, he has a moral crisis and announces that Stark's weapons manufacturing division will be shut down until he can develop full accountability for who's using them. What he doesn't know is that it's his second in command who's been double-dealing, and this develops into the movie's principal conflict. Tony also has no qualms in deploying the heavily armed Iron Man suit against said terrorists. However, remember that he doesn't seem to mind America using his weapons, he just doesn't want the terrorists using them.
** He's gone full out with this by the second film, when he does everything in his power to keep the Iron Man suit out of the US government's hands...except for Rhodey, who he trusts enough to use one.
* Sort-of example: the mad scientist in ''Film/MysteryMen'' makes weapons, yes, but everything is completely [[NonLethalWarfare nonlethal]]. [[AbnormalAmmo Surreally]] [[DepletedPhlebotinumShells so]].
-->"See now, this is why mad scientists are generally less desirable than your common or garden variety scientist."

* In ''Film/TheRocketeer'', the US military asks Howard Hughes to build a jetpack for them. However, he gets second thoughts after the prototype is stolen by gangsters (later revealed to be working for [[spoiler:a Nazi spy]]), and it's seemingly destroyed. [[NoManShouldHaveThisPower Seeing how potentially dangerous the creation would be, he opts out of rebuilding it]]. However, he is impressed when he finds out the pack not only survived, but was improved upon by the mechanic who found it.
* Similarly, the main character's father in ''Film/SmallSoldiers'' (who owns a toy store) doesn't sell violent toys. When the dad's away though, the son decides to sell a couple, little realizing that these violent toys [[AIIsACrapshoot have artificial intelligence]] ...
* The toy-making company in the film ''Film/{{Toys}}'' doesn't make "war toys" (toy weapons), until the owner dies and his brother, who is a former military officer, inherits it. (He has an evil plan to make toys into weapons to be controlled by [[IKnowMortalKombat kids playing a video game.]])

* One of the running gags in the ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' series is Leonard De Quirm's tunnel vision regarding his scientific creations: he's usually baffled (and occasionally horrified) when people suggest that his devices have (rather obvious) combat applications other than than their designed purpose. For example, in ''Jingo'', he's dismayed at Nobby's suggestion that the drill that allows his mini-sub to latch on to passing ships could be used to sink them instead with very little extra effort. Later, he finds that when he's sketching an enlarged submarine, his hand seems to, of its own accord, add weapons...
** He's also designed (though never built) actual weapons (of mass destruction no less), but only as a hobby. He maintains that if they were ever built, no one would dare use them.
*** Which is why Lord Vetinari, having a much more accurate view of human nature, has Leonard more-or-less permanently imprisoned. Not that he notices.
*** A good idea, considering that once the poor man designed what seemed to be a ''nuclear bomb'' in a Renaissance setting for the purpose of leveling mountains ("for mining purposes")
*** This is probably a reference to the invention of dynamite for mining purposes (because it was much safer than nitroglycerin), when it was used for military purposes the inventor (Alfred Nobel, of Nobel Prize fame) was horrified in the same way.

* In ''Series/AgentCarter'', Howard Stark refuses to create inventions for the military, and tells Carter why. He once produced a serum called the Midnight Oil for military application. It didn't go against his principles, because it wasn't deadly in and of itself; it was supposed to allow troops to stay awake for long periods of time. However, it failed and instead turned test subjects psychotic. When Stark found out that General [=McGinnis=] stole the serum and used it on Soviet troops, he took a swing at [=McGinnis=] and cut ties with the military.

-->"Noooooo! The Mind-Controlling Death Ants were created to ''help'' mankind, not destroy it!"

* ''VideoGame/MarvelUltimateAlliance'': at the beginning, Nick Fury is pissed at Tony Stark for withdrawing Stark International from making weapons and the like.
* The Sirta Foundation in ''Franchise/MassEffect'' doesn't produce any weapons out of ethical concerns. They will however produce Biotic Amps that can give a user the ability to ''kill people with their mind'' as well as omni-tools that can be used to ''shut down people's brains''. Well, they aren't technically ''weapons'', now are they? They also produce the medi-gel that you will mostly use to allow your teammates to continue blasting the hell out of everything in their path.
* In VideoGame/{{Portal}}, the founder of Aperture Technologies got his start creating ''shower curtains'' for the military. When he came upon the idea for the portals he apparently thought their primary purpose would be as shower curtains. Or so [[UnreliableExpositor the only known sources say]].

* In ''VideoGame/{{Daggerfall}}'', Zurin Arctus, the Underking, was one of these (at least in the version of his MultipleChoicePast that is implied to be most accurate); he created the Numidium, an enormous golem, to serve as a WeaponOfPeace and was horrified when Tiber Septim started using it as an offensive weapon to forge an empire instead. Later games retconned this in various ways.

* In the first run of ''[[Webcomic/TheCyantianChronicles Campus Safari]]'' while dissing the idea of a [[AlienNonInterferenceClause "Prime Directive"]] Darius stated that they wouldn't be sharing any technology with earth that could be used as weapons.

-->"You want the access codes to the satellite? You're not planning to use it for peaceful purposes, are you? I made it for vengeful and evil purposes, after all."

[[folder:Web Original]]
* The mutant Jericho, at Whateley Academy in the Literature/WhateleyUniverse. He's working on power armor. But his power armor is for medics and [=EMTs=] to wear so they can help people in the middle of wars or superhero fights.
** Jericho himself, however, is a CombatMedic and has a {{BFG}} which he seems to have little compunction about using, as long as he's not shooting innocents.
[[/folder]]

* ''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyond'': Derek Powers secretly uses Wayne Corp to develop weapons, conventional and biological, and then sells them to [[{{Ruritania}} Kaznia]]. Bruce is disgusted when he finds out, and him taking back control of his company becomes a minor plot thread for the series.
* The episode "Blind as a Bat" of ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'' marked Bruce Wayne's first, last, and only time developing anything for the military. After the troubles that stemmed from that, Bruce declared that Wayne Corp would never develop weapons again. This came up in several later episodes, but most notably in the ''Batman/Superman'' {{crossover}} event "World's Finest", when Lex Luthor and Bruce work together on a tech project developing robotic spider drones. Lex tries to sell Bruce on military applications, but Bruce forcefully and authoritatively shuts him down.
* In ''WesternAnimation/IronManArmoredAdventures'', Stark International under Howard Stark is an example of this. When he dies and CorruptCorporateExecutive Obadiah Stane takes over, this policy naturally goes out the window; Tony's fury at the "corruption" of his father's company--and not a little of his own engineering work--is a recurring theme throughout the season, as his distaste towards working with S.H.I.E.L.D.
* ''[[WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2003 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Fast Forward]]'': O'Neil Tech is a large corporate empire that has weapons manufacturing prohibited by its charter. And an EvilUncle that secretly uses the company to build them anyways behind everyones back.
* ''Series/{{Thunderbirds}}'' has as its overall premise that International Rescue is kept secret because Brains and Jeff Tracy don't want their super-advanced vehicles used by the military. The only real recurring BigBad, The Hood, tries multiple times to acquire photos and designs for the rescue vehicles, and he causes some of the disasters himself to get the chance. The odd thing is that most of the main rescue vehicles are ''heavily armed'', and ExpandedUniverse materials confirm that Jeff and the boys are ex-US military personnel[[note]]All US Air Force except for Gordon, who went into the Navy. Yes, fanon ''does'' have it that he's TheUnfavourite, [[InterServiceRivalry why do you ask?]][[/note]]; they're not pacifists as such, but apparently they'd rather not start some sort of LensmanArmsRace.

* ''Manga/MobileSuitGundamSEEDAstray'' has main character Lowe Guele, a mechanic who insist that [[HumongousMecha mobile suits]] are not by nature evil, but get used that way by evil people[[note]]Or, alternately, [[IncrediblyLamePun "Gundams don't kill people, villains kill people".]][[/note]]. During the final showdown with original BigBad Rondo Ghina Sahaku, Lowe even says that he can hear Rondo's MS crying about being used as an instrument of destruction.

* Rex, the protagonist of ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles2'', is a [[WorkingClassHero Salvager]], who delves into the Cloudsea to retrieve the lost technology within it for resale. Out of his idealism and his distaste for armed conflicts, he makes a point of skipping over any weaponisable technology, even though the growing tensions between the Ardanian Empire and the Kingdom of Uraya would have made this profitable for him. [[BoisterousBruiser Vandham]], leader of the Garfont Mercenaries, picks a hole in Rex's philosophy by advising him that militia don't only require weapons to function; they also need a range of other kinds of technologies for logistical, transportation and administrative reasons, as well. So, even if Rex wasn't supplying armies or mercenaries with weapons, he had no way of guaranteeing that he was indirectly supplying them in other ways.

-->-- '''Professor Sumdac''' of WesternAnimation/TransformersAnimated, ''The Headmaster''

* ''Manga/MobileSuitGundamSEEDAstray'' has main character Lowe Guele, a mechanic who insist that [[HumongousMecha mobile suits]] are not by nature evil, but get used that way by evil people[[note]]Or, alternately, [[IncrediblyLamePun "Gundams don't kill people, villains kill people".]][[/note]]. During the final showdown with original BigBad Rondo Ghina Sahaku, Lowe even says that he can hear Rondo's MS crying about being used as an instrument of destruction.

* Subverted in Creator/AlanMoore's ''ComicBook/{{Watchmen}}''. Ozymandias suggests after analyzing media outlets that war is approaching and that his giant corporation invest accordingly. His assistants protest that the company has never invested in armaments or weapons dealing. He responds that he was not speaking of weapons, but rather diapers, formula, and contraceptives, because people have more sex and children around war time. [[spoiler: Not that he's any kind of pacifist in any case....]]

* Retconned via one of the many ''Batman Year One'' adventures that Bruce decides his company will no longer do weapons, after he fights many technological threats.

* ''Film/IronMan1'':
** When the film starts, Tony Stark is the devil-may-care CEO of Stark Industries, a major military contractor, and proud of the weapons he makes. After being held in captivity, however, and seeing his weapons in the hands of terrorists, he has a moral crisis and announces that Stark's weapons manufacturing division will be shut down until he can develop full accountability for who's using them. What he doesn't know is that it's his second in command who's been double-dealing, and this develops into the movie's principal conflict. Tony also has no qualms in deploying the heavily armed Iron Man suit against said terrorists. However, remember that he doesn't seem to mind America using his weapons, he just doesn't want the terrorists using them.
** He's gone full out with this by the second film, when he does everything in his power to keep the Iron Man suit out of the US government's hands...except for Rhodey, who he trusts enough to use one.

* The toy-making company in the film ''[[Film.{{Toys}} Toys]]'' doesn't make "war toys" (toy weapons), until the owner dies and his brother, who is a former military officer, inherits it. (He has an evil plan to make toys into weapons to be controlled by [[IKnowMortalKombat kids playing a video game.]])
* Similarly, the main character's father in ''Film/SmallSoldiers'' (who owns a toy store) doesn't sell violent toys. When the dad's away though, the son decides to sell a couple, little realizing that these violent toys [[AIIsACrapshoot have artificial intelligence]] ...
* Sort-of example: the mad scientist in ''Film/MysteryMen'' makes weapons, yes, but everything is completely [[NonLethalWarfare nonlethal]]. [[AbnormalAmmo Surreally]] [[DepletedPhlebotinumShells so]].
-->"See now, this is why mad scientists are generally less desirable than your common or garden variety scientist."

* In ''Film/RealGenius'', the kids at [[FictionalCounterpart Pacific Tech]] are happy to work on professor Jerry Hathaway's laser research project ForScience, until they learn that it's going to be deployed in a CIA-funded KillSat. They then band together to sabotage the laser prototype's first test.
* In ''Film/TheRocketeer'', the US military asks Howard Hughes to build a jetpack for them. However, he gets second thoughts after the prototype is stolen by gangsters (later revealed to be working for [[spoiler:a Nazi spy]]), and it's seemingly destroyed. [[NoManShouldHaveThisPower Seeing how potentially dangerous the creation would be, he opts out of rebuilding it]]. However, he is impressed when he finds out the pack not only survived, but was improved upon by the mechanic who found it.

* ''Literature/TheWheelOfTime'': The Aes Sedai MagicalSociety has a magically binding oath "to make no weapon with which one man may kill another". However, it's of little importance by the era of the books because the art of magical ItemCrafting is long forgotten, a single strong Aes Sedai can be a OneManArmy with the [[FunctionalMagic One Power]] alone, and the Aes Sedai have a legendary reputation for LoopholeAbuse anyway.

* Harry Gant from ''Sewer, Gas and Electric'' refuses to let his company's robots be used for militaristic purposes, even going so far as not to sell them to the army as menial support personnel. Subverted in that this is only partially due to his pacifism: he also doesn't think military hardware is a "neat" enough idea to hold his attention (which is roughly that of an eight-year-old).

* ''VideoGame/MarvelUltimateAlliance'': at the beginning, Nick Fury is pissed at Tony Stark for withdrawing Stark International from making weapons and the like.

* Riff from ''Webcomic/SluggyFreelance'' is a weird example. He likes nothing better than building HumongousMecha, [[MoreDakka absurdly powerful guns]], and generally fiddling with devices that could wipe out a good chunk of the human race. However, [[http://sluggy.com/daily.php?date=081210 if Kusari's assessment is correct]], he's not gonna take the idea of the military using any of his inventions too kindly. The whole [[http://www.sluggy.com/daily.php?date=020526 Hereti-Corp situation]] probably soured him on the idea.
* In the first run of ''[[Webcomic/TheCyantianChronicles Campus Safari]]'' while dissing the idea of a [[AlienNonInterferenceClause "Prime Directive"]] Darius stated that they wouldn't be sharing any technology with earth that could be used as weapons.

* [[SdrawkcabName Sumdac Systems]] from ''WesternAnimation/TransformersAnimated'', as the quote from the top of the page shows. However, they do produce a police robot that appears to wield quite dangerous weaponry, and Sumdac himself built the Dinobots (though to be fair, Megatron was pulling the strings on that one; he never meant for them to ''[[DinosaursAreDragons breathe fire]]''). To drive the point home, when the company is taken over by a CorruptCorporateExecutive, one of the first things he does is hire a villain from a previous episode (who tried to blow up the city, no less) so that he can make military robots for him.

* ''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyond'': Derek Powers secretly uses Wayne Corp to develop weapons, conventional and biological, and then sells them to [[{{Ruritania}} Kaznia]]. Bruce is disgusted when he finds out, and him taking back control of his company becomes a minor plot thread for the series.
* In ''WesternAnimation/IronManArmoredAdventures'', Stark International under Howard Stark is an example of this. When he dies and CorruptCorporateExecutive Obadiah Stane takes over, this policy naturally goes out the window; Tony's fury at the "corruption" of his father's company--and not a little of his own engineering work--is a recurring theme throughout the season, as his distaste towards working with S.H.I.E.L.D.

* In ''WesternAnimation/IronManArmoredAdventures'', Stark International under Howard Stark is an example of this. When he dies and CorruptCorporateExecutive Obadiah Stane takes over, this policy naturally goes out the window; Tony's fury at the "corruption" of his father's company--and not a little of his own engineering work--is a recurring theme throughout the season.