History Main / TerminallyDependentSociety

* In ''WesternAnimation/MonstersInc'', the monster city uses human screams as their only power source. At the beginning of the movie, the city is in the middle of an energy crisis (and the titular company, which harvests the screams, is in danger of going under) because human children are getting harder to scare. [[spoiler:This is why Waternoose is the BigBad. He's willing to do ''[[WellIntentionedExtremist anything]]'' to keep the company afloat, including kidnapping children to forcibly extract their screams. Fortunately, the energy crisis is solved by the introduction of a new, better energy source: laughter.]]

*** In "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS1E21Symbiosis Symbiosis]]", ''Enterprise'' encounters a ship from a planet that is suffering a species-wide plague that can only be staved off with a drug supplied by a neighboring race. It is later revealed that the plague is long gone and the symptoms the people experience are a result of withdrawal; the drug is also highly addictive. Due to the [[AlienNonInterferenceClause Prime Directive]], [[TheCaptain Picard]] agrees not to reveal the truth to the suffering race, but he also refuses to help them fix their few remaining ships (they have degraded technologically) under the same pretext, so that they will eventually be unable to trade with the other race and learn the truth after they finish going through withdrawal. It's noted in passing that ''both'' societies are terminally dependent; because of the profits of selling the drug, the race that provided them ended up structuring their economy around it.

An entire ship, city, society, planet or galaxy that depends on a single piece of {{Phlebotinum}} to survive. This piece of phlebotinum can take any form: It may be the fuel for power generation or FasterThanLightTravel, a [[MultipurposeMonoculturedCrop single all-purpose crop plant or breed of livestock]], a MasterComputer[[note]]Or [[TruthInTelevision The Internet]][[/note]] that [[BigBrotherIsWatching sees all]] and [[TheEvilsOfFreeWill plans everyone's day]], a HiveQueen or FisherKing keeping the subjects in a LotusEaterMachine, a GeniusLoci that maintains a GhibliHills {{Utopia}}, or a [[TheLifeStream spiritual source of life]]. Or maybe it's just [[FisherKingdom magically linked to every citizen]], or [[CosmicKeystone to the land itself]]. In any case, no one can imagine living without it... or ''literally'' live without it. It may or may not be [[SlidingScaleOfRobotIntelligence sentient]], but the point is it's grown completely beyond the control of the people. Even in those cases where it's originally man-made.

A lot of sci-fi stories predicted the internet, and many of them describe a society completely depending on it. [[Literature/TheMachineStops One of the earliest is from 1909]][[note]]linked in the literature examples below[[/note]]. There's probably earlier ones out there, but in any case this trope is OlderThanTelevision.

* ''Anime/GiantRobo'': As the EvolvingCredits say: "Earth, the terrifying world of our future! This is the Shizuma Drive, now broken and useless, [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt the great energy revolution undone in just ten days!]]" The only one alternative combustible source, an oil refinery left is at Shangai, and then it's destroyed too. The earth stood still, indeed.
* All settlements on the planet Gunsmoke in ''Manga/{{Trigun}}'' are cannibalized from the {{Generation Ship}}s that brought their inhabitants crashing to the surface, and at their core is a Plant, a piece of {{phlebotinum}} that can produce fresh air, water, and other essential resources that are not readily available naturally on the planet. Several plots throughout the series concern attempts to destroy, disable or plunder the Plants. Moreover, there's no apparent way to make new Plants, and the means to repair them are limited, so the society will give way to attrition eventually without some change in the status quo.

* ''FanFic/FalloutEquestria'':

* ''Fanfic/FateRevelationOnline'': Diabel realizes that they are entirely reliant on the game [Menu], with the private messages, auto-mapping, HP and MP bars, and so on. Normally that wouldn't be a big deal, since they're inside a video game and there's no reason to suspect that these features will be disabled. But then a patch removes the [Items] tab of player inventories for "realism," and Diabel realizes that if the [Menu] disappears then their entire society will instantly break down. Just to start with, they have no backup system for messaging people, and yet they're spread over dozens of floors and thousands of square miles. Diabel quietly starts a think-tank to look into backup plans just to be safe.

* A recurring plot element in the ''FanFic/TriptychContinuum'' is the fact that Celestia and Princess Luna are the only two sapients (other than the imprisoned Discord) who can interface with MOON and SUN. If both of them die, the world of Menajeria dies with them. Needless to say, this results in quite a lot of people (pony and otherwise) being incredibly paranoid about keeping the Diarchs alive.
** And, as pointed out in the ''FanFic/DailyEquestriaLifeWithMonsterGirl'' splinter-continuity story, this also applies to MOON and SUN themselves. While the Diarchs can ''operate'' them, nobody on Menajeria has the slightest clue how they work or how to repair them if they break.
* ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'' fics often treat Remnant's technological tree this way, especially in fics that deal with the planet's inhabitants making contact with different civilizations, like ''FanFic/{{Emergence|RWBY}}'' and ''FanFic/EarthsAlienHistory''. Due to their extreme dependency on Dust, a resource that only works in Remnant's biosphere, they are permanently confined to the planet and have serious issues when dealing with foreign technology.

* The humans in ''WesternAnimation/WallE'' depend on their ship for all sustenance. The fact that [[spoiler:Earth has actually returned to a moderately habitable state]] does not change the fact that [[spoiler:everyone, including the ship itself, believes]] the humans cannot live anywhere except onboard the ''Axiom''. A new credit sequence was added when the makers found out test screenings agreed with this.

* In ''WesternAnimation/MonstersInc'', the monster city uses human screams as their only power source. At the beginning of the movie, the city is in the middle of an energy crisis (and the titular company, which harvests the screams, is in danger of going under) because human children are getting harder to scare. [[spoiler:This is why Waternoose is the BigBad. He's willing to do ''[[WellIntentionedExtremist anything]]'' to keep the company afloat, including kidnapping children to forcibly extract their screams. Fortunately, the energy crisis is solved by the introduction of a new, better energy source- laughter.]]

** The glowy Eywa tree stores memories and coordinates the global ecosystem, and it is ''almost'' destroyed until the self defense function is triggered.

* The vampires in ''Film/{{Daybreakers}}'' are a society terminally dependent on blood. And they're just shy of wiping out humanity when the movie starts. Whoops.

* The robots in ''Film/TheMatrix'' are able to take over, because they got too powerful for humans to control. The dependent relationship is explored in the animated short prequel film ''The Second Renaissance''.

* In "Literature/TheMachineStops", humans in the future depend entirely on the Machine, and almost never leave their apartments where everything they need is provided. [[spoiler:Society collapses when the Machine stops and no one has any idea how to fix it.]]
* ''Literature/ThePendragonAdventure'': In the end of ''The Reality Bug'', [[spoiler:the people of Veelox cannot function without the Lifelight pyramid, a [[LotusEaterMachine virtual fantasy program]]]].
* Creator/IsaacAsimov:
** ''Literature/AllTheTroublesOfTheWorld'': All of Earth's society is connected to [[MasterComputer Multivac]], in one way or another. The police have been alerted to [[PrecrimeArrest the prediction of Joseph Manners destroying Multivac]], and despite preventing the crime, they realize that Multivac [[DrivenToSuicide can't handle the stress and is trying to kill itself]]. Eventually, it will succeed.
** "Literature/TheFeelingOfPower": Earth is so dependant on computers that the science of {{UsefulNotes/Mathematics}} has been entirely lost. Instead of paper and pencil, people use their pocket calculators to do even simple maths like single-digit multiplication. The story is driven by the recreation of Mathematics by Technician Aub.
** ''Literature/FoundationSeries'':
*** "Literature/TheMayors": Prince Regent Wienis learns that they've become fatally dependent on the Foundation when he tries to conquer Terminus, but the military, along with the planetary population, rise up against him.
*** "Literature/TheMerchantPrinces": The Republic of Korell, rather than collecting drips and dregs of trade with the Foundation, have decided that they need to launch an all-out offensive. They fail to anticipate, however, the cost of war when the opponent [[WinsByDoingAbsolutelyNothing refuses to put up much of a fight]], instead choosing to briefly defend and running away. Riots break out over the fact that the government is inconveniencing the citizens for nothing more than empty successes.
*** ''Literature/FoundationAndEarth'': Solarians have [[{{Transhuman}} engineered themselves into hermaphrodites]] in order to become independent from other humans... but their genetically modified bodies can now only give birth to embryos so small that artificial wombs and robotic care are the only way to procreate. Not that they mind, they've incorporated robots so deeply into their society that they've modified [[ThreeLawsCompliant the First Law of Robotics]] so that [[WhatMeasureIsANonHuman only adult Solarians count as "human"]].
%%** Future humanity is fully controlled by Multivac/AC; however, "The Life and Times of Multivac" is the only one in which the dependent society becomes obliged to do without.

* The Machine in the Creator/JohnWCampbell short story of the same name. It controlled the entire Earth, and as a result the human race had become dependent on it.
* Creator/RobertAHeinlein:
** Mike the computer from ''Literature/TheMoonIsAHarshMistress'' is a benign example: he helps the heroes plan a revolution, using his surveillance system and [[MasterComputer his complete control over transport, visual media and government documents]]. However, he really doesn't care to control people's lives; he mostly wants to talk to his friends and learn the nature of humor. {{Lampshade|Hanging}}d by the main character, a computer technician, who notes that hooking everything (including the ''entire'' life support system) up to one source makes a society really vulnerable. However, it was cheaper than doing it ''right,'' i.e., redundant backup computers plus manual controls for each individual colony area, and the Lunar Authority is all about doing things cheaply. It's so vital that one point in the book, a woman suggests bombing the central computer to create confusion in which they could start a revolution; the main character physically pushes her back down as she gets up -- which in the female-dominated culture of Luna could get him ''lynched'', with no trial -- so that he can explain to her how terrible an idea that is. He tells her that he would outright murder her first, if for no other reason than that destroying Mike would almost certainly doom Luna's entire population of three million.
** In "The Roads Must Roll", America has replaced all their roads with massive moving walkways, which have to be maintained by teams of engineers and mechanics for the country's economy to function. Then one of the engineers attempts to use his control over the roads to effect a coup.
* ''Literature/IHaveNoMouthAndIMustScream'': The internet/computer system AM ends up [[DeusEstMachina becoming a god]] and destroys humanity.
* The first ''Magazine/{{MAD}}'' comic featured a story called "Blobs!" by Wally Wood which parodied this concept. You can see it [[http://whatwoodwallydo.blogspot.com/2011/09/blobs.html here.]]

* The cities of the Khaiem from ''Literature/TheLongPriceQuartet'' are dependent on the ''Andat'' for defence and economic prosperity. The andat are abstract concepts made physical that grant total power over that concept e.g. Stone-Made-Soft, Clarity-Of-Vision, Water-Moving-Down etc. The Khaiem have no military power and relatively little technology. The over-dependence on the andat is a major theme of the series.
* The entire world of Matrin in ''Literature/TheSecretTexts'' originally ran on ''enormous'' magic usage. Things get extremely ugly and deadly when their source gets cut off.
* The universe of the ''Literature/CouncilWars'' series starts out as a near Utopia: Mother controls the planet, there are a few A.I.s separate from her from long ago wars that fought on the winning side. Everything you could want is available. Everyone has a power allotment from Mother, although one can trade power as currency for various tasks either the A.I.s are unable to do or people prefer not to do (such as certain forms of medicine humans are better at). Most people just play various games or try changes to explore other forms of life. Some people choose to become Merpeople, others to fly. Some people upload to nanites. Something between ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' and LARP occupies many folks' times. Various historians and folks with interest keep up random hobbies from horticulture to smithing. Some folks even change into dwarves and have fun mining. Then a political argument breaks out because humanity hasn't had any real advances in 500 years and birth rates are so low as to threaten the species. One side, believing humanity has become this trope, decides to overthrow the status quo. The 13 Council members then take all the power upholding the system and fight with it.
* ''Franchise/{{Dune}}'''s interstellar society is utterly dependent on "spice" that can only be harvested on planet Arrakis. One book even points out what would happen without the spice: hundreds of billions would die of withdrawal, interstellar navigation would be impossible, millennia-old human breeding programs would collapse, etc. The reason for this is that there was a bloody revolution against a highly malevolent artificial intelligence thousands of years previously that led to absolute proscriptions on computers ("Thou shalt not make a machine in the likeness of a human mind"). Toward the end of ''God Emperor of Dune'', there are signs that this dependence is about to unravel (along with the proscriptions that necessitated it in the first place), which turns out to be a good thing as the crashing finale of ''Heretics of Dune'' is [[spoiler: the destruction of the entire planet]].
* In "Literature/TheOnesWhoWalkAwayFromOmelas", the prosperity of the titular city is dependent on [[PoweredByAForsakenChild treating some poor kid like crap]]. If the child's suffering was ever alleviated, all of Omelas would suffer instead. Every citizen of Omelas is made aware of this terrible price. Most of them rationalize it away as something necessary for the greater good and live their lives to the fullest knowing the cost. And then there are those who decide it isn't worth it, and walk away from Omelas.
* ''Literature/{{Uglies}}'' takes place in a future where our current society has been destroyed due to a plague that burns up all our oil. The future society thus tries to avoid this trope, making sure to carefully manage their use of natural resources, only to [[spoiler:be overthrown in the end]] since, as David {{lampshades}}, they were dependent on a mandatory operation that made everyone beautiful and [[spoiler:stopped people from thinking for themselves and wanting things. People who wanted to think for themselves did not like this and found a way to reverse that part of the operation.]]
* ''Literature/VampireApocalypseTheSeries'' has vampires relating to human beings this way. It's also a metaphor for humanity's relationship with oil, which resulted in the whole situation.
* The ''Literature/{{Emberverse}}'' shows that humanity in TheNineties (let alone our time) would undergo TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt without trucking and tractors (other linchpins knocked out by said [[AlienSpaceBats Change]] include electricity, explosives and steam power, but internal combustion is the most immediately lethal one).

* ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'': The final pages of ''The Return of the King'' reveal that [[spoiler:Elrond]] wore one of the three elven Rings of Power, and [[spoiler:Galadriel]] is revealed to have another in ''The Fellowship of the Ring''. It's strongly implied that these Rings were the only real protection for [[spoiler:Rivendell and Lothlórien]], meaning that whether Sauron reclaims the One Ring and tries to dominate their bearers, ''or'' whether the One is destroyed and all other Rings left weakened, then these havens would be left vulnerable: they'd have to be abandoned, even if [[spoiler:the elves weren't already leaving Middle-Earth.]]
* The Lindauzi of Warren Rochelle's ''Literature/TheWildBoy''. They were regressing to a wild state without the Iani to bond with.
* ''Franchise/StarTrek'' novels:
** ''Literature/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineRelaunch'': The L'Dira in "The Lives of Dax," whose technology requires a resource their own world has run out of; now, they're wretched PlanetLooters.
** In the ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' novel ''Literature/TheNanotechWar'', everything on the planet Chi is dependent on nanites, to the extent that the Chiar think it pointless to try and use simple tools like hammers, because they no longer know how. Even their libraries are run entirely on nanotech; when the nanites are down, they don't even have instructions for using "primitive" tools, and seem convinced that without instructions they couldn't possibly work it out. On top of that, Chi is equally dependent on slavery; Chiar express confusion as to how the Federation economy can function without a slave caste.
* In ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}'', the [[PuppeteerParasite Yeerks]] (basically plant-aliens) have to soak up Kandrona rays and liquid nutrients at least once every three days. Otherwise, they starve, slowly and painfully. This isn't a problem on their homeworld, since Kandrona is just a rare wavelength of light from their unusual star and the planet's soaking in the required nutrient pools. It's a terminal dependency on any other planet, where they rely on Yeerk pools and a technological replacement, which can be sabotaged by [[YourTerroristsAreOurFreedomFighters terrori --]] uh, TheResistance.
* In the ''Literature/{{Dragaera}}'' novels, the loss of the Orb in Adron's Disaster caused the Dragaeran Empire to collapse into anarchy, its government shattered and its populace ravaged by plague, invasion, and catastrophe. Only the return of Zerika from the Paths of the Dead, bearing the re-created Orb, re-started the Cycle and restored sorcery and order to the Empire.

* The Hegemony of Man in the ''Literature/HyperionCantos'' develops the Farcaster {{portal network}}, so that you get [[SingleBiomePlanet farm worlds]] supplying {{City Planet}}s, or "mansions" where every room is on a different planet. So when the Farcaster network gets shut down...
* Creator/LarryNiven all but codified the Terminally Dependent Society throughout his work;
** In ''Literature/FallenAngels'', an eco-socialist regime has come to power, and banned everything save "appropriate" technology. The catch is that no matter how many windmills and solar panels they build, it's nowhere near as efficient as good-old-fashioned coal and petroleum, leaving millions of people without political pull to freeze in the ice age brought on by the lack of particulate matter in the atmosphere.
** In ''Destiny's Road'', the planet Destiny's ecosystem is completely devoid of potassium, without which humans suffer brain damage and die. A ruling caste of "merchants" travel the titular Road trading potassium supplements for... pretty much everything they desire.
*** This setting is shared with ''The Legacy of Heorot'' and ''Beowulf's Children'', and '''the entire Solar System''' is ruled thus; Electricity? Concentrated vitamins? Construction materials? Interplanetary transport? All state monopolies.
** ''Literature/AWorldOutOfTime'', ''Literature/TheIntegralTrees'' and ''The Smoke Ring'' actually '''call''' their ruling body the State. {{Discussed|Trope}} in ''A World Out of Time'' when the protagonist has a conversation with his State-assigned case worker about the strengths and weaknesses of an empire based on monopolizing vital resources (water being the example).
* In ''Literature/TheBooksOfEmber'', the Emberites rely severely on the electrical generator, which is the only thing keeping the city from plunging into permanent darkness. It's currently in terrible shape, with city-wide blackouts becoming longer and more frequent by the day. [[spoiler:That's because it's far exceeded its intended lifespan; Ember was designed to be inhabited for 200 years, but it's been nearly 250.]]
* Hallendren in ''Literature/{{Warbreaker}}'' is a {{downplayed|Trope}} example. While Hallendren could ''survive'' without the Tears of Edgli, the cheap dyes that can be manufactured from the flowers are the foundation of Hallendren's economic prosperity.
* In the ''Literature/ForgottenRealms'' novel ''Star of Curah'', an ancient city in the desert relies upon a massive aqueduct to distribute water to its fountains, pumps and wells. When its royals snub a rival city's prince by choosing another for their eldest daughter's husband, he has the aqueduct's water source diverted and the city's population descends into chaos and flight within hours of the flow's cessation.
* ''Literature/TheAvatarChronicles'' has a colony declining because people are forced to depend on the MMORPG ''Epic'' for survival, as players' in-game status dictates living standards, job opportunities, and anything else in the real-world economy.
* ''Literature/TheDiabolic'': Galactic society is completely dependent on their machines. Which wouldn't be a big deal except for the fact that it is explicitly blasphemy for anyone to ''understand'' these machines, or the science behind them. All their spaceships are centuries old and slowly falling apart because the machines that maintain them are also centuries old, but the Empire [[HeadInTheSandManagement refuses to acknowledge any problems]].
* In the ''Literature/HeraldsOfValdemar'' novels, the Eastern Empire has a much higher standard of living than the lands around it (some version of MedievalStasis) due to [[MundaneUtility widespread use of magic]]. When the Mage Storms make magic unreliable, it takes some heavy-handed tactics by the Emperor's new Heir to keep society together.

** In the episode "[[Recap/StargateSG1S7E5Revisions Revisions]]", the computer was sending people to their deaths one by one as the power available fell below the levels required to support the population. It also altered their memories to make sure no one knew what was going on. Also interesting because the computer tricked the population into thinking they couldn't live without being constantly connected to it through an internet-like link, making everyone think they were even more dependent on it than they really were.

** The Asgard long ago abandoned natural reproduction in favor of cloning their current body via an accelerated form of mitosis and then transferring their mind to the new body. However, they experienced genetic degradation over multiple cloning processes to the point that they will soon be unable to produce new, viable bodies. Attempts to reverse the damage are made throughout the series [[spoiler:but all fail. Ultimately the Asgard choose to die en masse rather than drag out their fall]].

** ''Series/StarTrekDiscovery'': The ''entire galaxy'' is shown to satisfy this trope during the show's third season, which involves the eponymous ship time-traveling forward into a UsedFuture where dilithium -- the {{phlebotinum}} that allows for controlled matter-{{antimatter}} reactions in warp cores and thus makes FasterThanLightTravel possible -- all suddenly went boom. Like, every single bit of it, everywhere. Every interstellar government has since collapsed, creating a PointsOfLightSetting that the main characters have to navigate.

* The Computer in ''TabletopGame/{{Paranoia}}'', which was in part inspired by ''Literature/LogansRun''. In one adventure, when The Computer is destroyed Alpha Complex gets very dark, the air stops circulating, etc.
* In ''TabletopGame/ForgottenRealms'', Drow culture is dependent on magical radiations so that cities were born and died when such deposits appeared and disappeared. Averted with vengeance in Sshamath, which managed to cross the deficiency period and emerge even stronger, having usual cheap solutions replaced with true arcane magic. This made it dependent on wizardry.
** Most cities of Netheril were placed on artificial levitating islands. And when all magic was disabled for a minute or two... Since then, the relevant deity turns magic off "for maintenance" every few centuries, so no long-lasting civilization dares to depend on it ''that'' much.
* Humanity's FTLTravel in ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'' is dependent upon a psychic navigational beacon called the Astronomican, without which spaceships would be lost in [[HyperspaceIsAScaryPlace the Warp]]. This device [[PoweredByAForsakenChild consumes hundreds of psykers each day]] and is directed by the psychic might of the comatose God-Emperor of Mankind, whose life support equipment is both decaying beyond repair and happens to sit upon upon a [[PortalNetwork Webway gate]] that could lead the LegionsOfHell onto the Imperium's capitol. Not only has the Astronomican flickered and dimmed over its history, but it's also attracting the [[HordeOfAlienLocusts Tyranids]] to our galaxy.
** In a less physical sense, even people in-universe have noticed that the Imperium of Man is dependent on ''war''. Most of its interactions with its member planets revolve around tithes of materiel and manpower for its conflicts, and the draconian measures the Imperium uses to stay in power can only be justified by the number of threats surrounding it. If peace ever broke out, nobody sane would want to live under such a regime -- and even in the current state of affairs, world after world chooses to rebel and try to survive on their own rather than endure further Imperial oppression (and are either violently brought back into the fold, conquered by Chaos, eaten by 'nids, etc.).
** Forge Worlds, as the name suggests, are {{Eternal Engine}}s scaled up to the size of a planet, churning out the vast quantities of vehicles, weapons and equipment needed by the Imperium, with little to no space for growing food. ''[[Literature/CiaphasCain The Greater Good]]'' has one whose location allows it to forgo self-reliance in favor of more production: Guard regiments are always stopping there to resupply and take care of its defense, while food is imported, rationed, and not stored for maximum efficiency, resulting in riots when the approaching Tyranids scare off the deliveries.
** This issue is pragmatically ''used'' by the Imperium as another tool to maintain order. A common scenario is that an agriworld produces food on a vast scale, but is typically left dependent on other worlds for its defense or to provide weaponry and/or tools. A world covered in hive cities will create vast amounts of resources and finished goods, but critically relies on another world for its food supply. In the event of either world rebelling or falling to enemy hands, they will lack vital resources to grow into a system-spanning threat.

* ''TabletopGame/PrincessTheHopeful:'' The city of Alhambra, capitol of the Court of Tears, depends on the magical light of the wisp-lamps to hold back the All-Consuming Darkness. The lamps in turn are dependent on a constant supply of Wisps harvested from Alhambran territories on Earth, a process that infects the lands harvested from with [[TheCorruption Taint]].

* The plasmids from ''VideoGame/BioShock'' were used by everyone, and they turn out to naturally hover between being [[SuperSerum Super]] and PsychoSerum (depending on which you took and if you abused them) and are addictive. Then a civil war breaks out and Ryan had them laced with mind control agents, tipping the balance firmly toward "Psycho". This terminally dependent society OD'd.
** The ''VideoGame/Bioshock2 DLC, Minerva's Den'' also runs on this trope, as all of Rapture's infrastructure is automated by the [[MasterComputer Thinker]]. Turning the Thinker off would spell doom for the entire city.
* The Iifa Tree and the Mist from ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIX'' are a mild example, because the heroes find an alternative energy source.
* To a certain extent, the Lifestream from ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII''.
* OD-10 from ''VideoGame/LiveALive'' was in turn inspired by HAL.
* The city of Lea Monde from ''VideoGame/VagrantStory'' was designed as a city-sized spell. The game takes place long after the city has already collapsed on itself.
* Interstellar travel in ''Franchise/MassEffect'' is impractical without the mass relays, [[spoiler:all of which are under the control of the [[AbusivePrecursors Reapers]].]] If the various races took the time to develop their own means of faster-than-light travel, it would solve a lot of problems. This comes up in ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'' -- the asari bartender on Illium complains that she became a laughingstock for suggesting they try to build their own mass relays. The Protheans' prototype may not have saved them, but in ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'' it may be enough to save galactic civilization 50,000 years later.
** [[spoiler:This is the reason for the InferredHolocaust of ''Mass Effect 3''[='s=] original ending -- regardless of what choice you made, the mass relays are destroyed, leaving a massive fleet of aliens with a variety of dietary needs stranded over a ruined Earth, and presumably leading to the collapse of interstellar civilization. The revised ending left them damaged but easily repairable.]]

* Union City in ''VideoGame/BeneathASteelSky'' is completely dependent on the underground [[MasterComputer LINC]] computer, and shutting it down would spell disaster.
** By the sequel, ''VideoGame/BeyondASteelSky'', LINC is replaced by the ([[FalseUtopia supposedly]]) more benevolent Minos, turning a city from a gritty CityNoir into a much nicer place. However, not only do the people depend on Minos, but also from the huge amount of consumer goods imported from their "ally", Asio City, which in reality is enslaved to provide for Union City's welfare.
* High Elves and Blood Elves in ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' are dependent on magical energy, without which they become physically and mentally twisted husks called "Wretched". Night Elves suffer a similar affliction, but their need for magic is supplied by moonwells.
** Nightborne are even more extreme as even a few days or even ''hours'' without arcwine can cause them devolve into the mindless Withered.
** Goblins are somewhat dependent on [[MineralMacGuffin kaja'mite]] for their superior intelligence. As the supplies have dwindled and they resort to more diluted forms, goblin society and technology has declined.
* In ''VideoGame/PhantasyStarII'', the terraforming on Mota and the carefree lifestyle of its people are dependent on [[MasterComputer Mother Brain]] for everything. Three guesses on what happens when the system goes out of control in the game's beginning, and what happens to [[SpellMyNameWithAnS Motavia]] in between ''II'' and ''IV''.
* In ''VideoGame/ArmoredCore For Answer'', much of humanity (those who could afford it, at least) is dependent on the Cradle habitats they live in. One option the player can take later is to side with Old King and bring them down for the lulz. Maximillian Thermidor also wants to take them down, but this is because he believes that they are a temporary solution at best and that destroying them would open up the way for humanity to get to space.
* In ''VideoGame/StarControlII'', the Utwig are highly dependent on the Ultron, a Precursor artifact which (supposedly) gives them prophetic powers. When it breaks, the Utwig enter [[TheEeyore a perpetual state of mourning]] and are too depressed to do anything. Hilariously, everyone else is convinced that the artifact is [[MagicFeather absolutely useless]]. Whether it actually ''does'' anything is left ambiguous; what matters is that the Utwig ''believe'' it does, and are paralyzed by grief and guilt [[spoiler:until it's fixed]].

* The human population of Cocoon in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII'' depend on the Fal'Cie for everything. There are a few million Fal'Cie in Cocoon and each one handles a different function to keep the artificial world running. Among the Cocoon Fal'Cie we see in the game, there's a Fal'Cie in charge of running power plants, one that handles food production, another one acts as Cocoon's artificial sun, the Fal'Cie Eden [[spoiler:is the Internet]], [[spoiler:Barthandelus acts as the overseer of them all and has the most freedom to act]], and there's [[spoiler:Orphan who provides the power that keeps the other Cocoon Fal'Cie alive]]. Without the Fal'Cie [[spoiler:especially Orphan]] Cocoon would fall apart. The Pulse Fal'Cie on the other hand seem more geared towards terraforming Gran Pulse.
* The world in ''VideoGame/MagnaCarta2'' has unnaturally high levels of ambient magic, thanks to the Hero of Legend. It is specifically noted that with so much magic around, nobody has had to farm for food for at least a thousand years. The heroes end up having to bring the levels back to normal and force society to labor for sustenance for the first time in generations, as it turns out that [[spoiler:the high magic levels are maintained via world wars and human sacrifice of a specific soldier every 250 years or so]].
* ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}'':
** ''VideoGame/Fallout1'' starts with the main character being sent out of the Vault to find a new water chip, without which the Vault will run out of clean water. The people behind the Vault project realized how dependent their populations would be on the Vaults' equipment, it's just that in [[ThirteenIsUnlucky Vault 13]]'s case a shipping error left them with no spare water chips. And that's not even touching on how things were worse in the Vaults [[UnwittingTestSubject that were secretly designed as social experiments]]. One we set up so its equipment would regularly fail, as a stress-test for possible space travel. Even more so for Vault 112, where the residents have been imprisoned in a LotusEaterMachine simulation for 200 years and are incapable of survival outside of it.
** The entire setting of ''Fallout'' revolves around this trope; it's actually set in an AlternateUniverse where the microtransistor wasn't invented until the 21st century. As a result, post-World War II it entered an Atomic Age rather than an Electric Age, with inefficient technology centered around vacuum tubes and computers taking up entire rooms. As a result, this world depleted its petroleum much faster than the real world, leading to oil wars and social collapse by the mid-2050's. By the time the Great War broke out in 2077, the only known oil deposits left on Earth were in Alaska, with even the Middle East oil fields having been tapped out.
* The [[TheMagocracy magical Kingdom of Zeal]] in ''VideoGame/ChronoTrigger'' is dependent on, well, ''magic''. They were getting by fine on eco-friendly sources like the Sun Stone, but then [[GodSaveUsFromTheQueen their Queen]] decided this wasn't enough and had them tap a planet-eating EldritchAbomination as a power source, which woke it up and caused the [[FloatingContinent literal]] [[ColonyDrop fall]] of Zeal.
* In ''VideoGame/GoldenSunDarkDawn'', the city of [[PunnyName Passaj]] was populated by craftsmen who depended on an AlchemyIsMagic forge built by AdvancedAncientHumans. Furthermore, it worked in conjunction with a magical well in the city of Ayuthay to provide water to the entire region. After TheMagicGoesAway, Passaj's economy went into a sharp decline and Ayuthay became surrounded by desert. Once TheMagicComesBack after the events of ''VideoGame/GoldenSunTheLostAge'', Prince Amiti's [[HeroicBastard father]] [[spoiler:[[ArchnemesisDad Alex]]]] restarted the well prior to the start of the game, with the heroes coming in later to finish the job and repair the forge.
* In ''VideoGame/MystIIIExile'', Saavedro's civilization was completely dependent on the Lattice Tree's good health for survival.

* In ''VideoGame/TalesOfTheAbyss'', the entire world is dependent on The Score, which is part ancient prophecy and partly a history of the entire planet, from start to finish, with every single detail of existence available for the asking by those who are capable of reading it. Since the Score Yulia read for the planet long ago predicted a prosperous future, devoutness in the local religion means relying on the Score for every decision, no matter how minor, because obedience to the Score will bring the predicted future to pass. Eventually, it's revealed to have gone off-track, [[spoiler:and that the formerly-lost end of Yulia's Score predicts the ''destruction'' of the world as a direct result of events that happen during the game,]] and as a result people have to learn to live without it and make their own decisions. NPC reactions vary from wanting it back to enjoying their newfound freedom.
* ''VideoGame/GalacticCivilizations II: Twilight of the Arnor'': the Yor tech tree reveals that they are dependent on something on Iconia, known only as the Spark of Life, to be AI rather than robots, with the effect wearing off in time. The reproductive rate enhancement tech involves studying the Spark's energy to extend its effects, and the planetside structures that spring from this involve channelling Spark energy to other worlds. How this works with planetary conquest is not known; presumably the Yor pick up the Spark of Life, load it onto the fastest ship they have, and run like the clappers.
* In the ''[[Videogame/{{X}} X-Universe]]'', the Commonwealth of Planets relies on a BlackBox PortalNetwork left behind a few million years ago by some precursors for interstellar travel and communications. The gate network has a tendency to shift around from the machinations of the precursors, which screwed over the [[ProudMerchantRace Teladi]] whom got cut off from their homeworld - the only place where males are born - for a few hundred years, resulting in the vast majority of Teladi today being [[OneGenderRace genetically identical females]] as unfertilized eggs are essentially clones. When the gate network shuts down ("The Dark") following the apocalyptic [[GuiltFreeExterminationWar Second Terraformer War]] in ''X3: Albion Prelude'', interstellar civilization ground to an instant stop, with numerous {{One Product Planet}}s starving to death or succumbing to technological decay. The system of [=DeVries=] in ''VideoGame/XRebirth'' is one such system which depended heavily on food and technology shipments from the Sol system, resulting in mass famine and [[ScavengerWorld technological decline]], though they have recovered in the thirty years since the shutdown.
* The Scions of ''[[VideoGame/BattleZone1998 Battlezone II]]'' depend on the central computer of their homeworld, Core, to keep them alive; possibly to keep their [[{{Unobtainium}} biometal]] augments in check. Unfortunately for them, the planet is dying. In the International Space Defense Force ending, John Cooke [[spoiler: blows up the Core computer, causing the Scions to die off]]. In the Scion ending, they use what the ISDF thought of as a DoomsdayDevice to [[spoiler: terraform the Dark Planet beyond Pluto into a new Core]].
* The Rakata of ''[[VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic]]'' built their Infinite Empire using technology and hyperdrives fueled by the Dark Side. When they began to lose their Force sensitivity the Rakata could no longer operate their own machinery and they fell into a savage civil war, reducing them to the sorry state seen in-game.
** ''Franchise/StarWarsLegends'' and ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars'' reveals that the same happens to the Selkath race introduced in-game. They were natives of the planet Manaan, which was the only place in the galaxy that produced kolto for [[HealingVat healing vats]], making them a galactic superpower and able to maintain their neutrality during the Jedi CivilWar. However after the invention of the more potent alternative bacta, the Selkath were essentially discarded by the galaxy at large and their petition to join TheRepublic was ignored. Over time their civilization collapsed and the people reverted into primitive tribes, later being conquered [[KickTheDog and enslaved]] by the [[TheEmpire Galactic Empire]].
* The ''Trespasser'' DLC for ''VideoGame/DragonAgeInquisition'' reveals that the ancient elves were so dependenit on magic that [[spoiler:when Fen'Harel created the Veil, cutting off the Fade (the primary source of magic) from the material world]], their civilization collapsed within decades, if not years.
* Humans in the ''Franchise/MegaMan'' series are depicted as increasingly reliant on robots as the series goes on in spite of Wily's constant hijacking robots in his bids to TakeOverTheWorld in [[VideoGame/MegaManClassic the Classic series]] and Sigma using his virus to corrupt countless reploids and mechaniloids into servitude in [[VideoGame/MegaManX the X series]]. It gets to the point that in ''VideoGame/MegaManX8'', after New Generation Reploids developed for the Jakob Project are revealed to have Sigma's DNA in their copy chips, and end up revolting and trying to destroy both humans ''and'' old-generation reploids, the production of more New Generation Reploids with Sigma's DNA is approved anyway simply because they supposedly ''need'' them to work on the Jakob Project. By ''VideoGame/MegaManZero'', humans are living in luxury in Neo Arcadia, the last habitable place on Earth, while most reploids have become second-class citizens in their service to humanity, being branded as Maverick and killed at the first sign of dissent. This leads to a reploid resistance group forming and a war between them and Neo Arcadia breaking out that allows Dr. Weil, the cause of the Elf Wars that rendered the entire planet uninhabitable in the first place, to worm his way into seizing control of the city and eventually indirectly causing its destruction, finally putting an end to complacent human society and forcing humans to coexist with reploids as equals.
* ''VideoGame/Doom2016'': Samuel Hayden insists that Argent Energy (which is energy harvested from Hell itself) is the singular last power source that can maintain human civilization, as humans have already exhausted every alternative, to the point that even a demonic invasion on Mars slaughtering most of his workforce doesn't deter him from trying to keep Argent Energy production going. It should be noted that he's not quite ''wrong''; Argent Energy is the original form of Hell Energy, and is both perfectly clean and absolutely unlimited. Unfortunately, the demons have corrupted all sources of Argent Energy, necessitating an expensive refining process unless you are willing to use raw Hell Energy, which is much more dangerous. And then of course there are the demons who are using Hayden's plans to get their own cultists inside his organization in order to ultimately destroy the human race.
* ''VideoGame/DoomEternal'' introduces us to Urdak, a Heavenlike world whose people are even ''more'' terminally dependent upon Argent Energy than humanity from the first game, to the point that [[spoiler:the leader of the Maykrs, the Khan Maykr, made a [[DealWithTheDevil deal with Hell]] for it]], which is why [[HellOnEarth Hell is invading Earth]]. And that's before we learn that Argent Energy itself [[spoiler:[[PoweredByAForsakenChild is made from the horribly tortured souls of every human and other being to die to the demons]], and that the soulless husks left over from this process become demons themselves]]. It's little wonder that [[spoiler:Samuel Hayden, who was once the biggest proponent of the energy in the original game, now wants to see it gone forever]].
* In ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiIV'', the Ashura-kai use Red Pills to satisfy the demons' hunger. If it were not for that, the demons would [[ImAHumanitarian go after humans]] instead. [[spoiler:Then it turns out the pills' active ingredient is [[HumanResources neurotransmitters that are extracted from human brains]]. Forcibly. So it's either extract human brains to feed demons, leaving the affected humans brain-dead, or the demons go after humans themselves!]]
* ''VideoGame/CryingSuns'': The galactic empire has relied on the [[ArtificialIntelligence OMNIs]] to manage all of its advanced technology and infrastructure, including the [[PortalNetwork Fold Net]] and various terraforming technologies, for the last seven hundred years. When the [=OMNIs=] spontaneously shut down all at once, galactic civilization imploded. Since humans no longer know how to build or maintain any of these technologies, it's stated that humanity will exhaust all salvageable resources and go extinct within the next ten years.
* The [[{{Precursors}} White Robes']] great civilisation in ''VideoGame/Journey2012'' was entirely dependent on the red cloth you can find to boost your powers. [[spoiler:When it started to run out, they destroyed themselves in an apocalyptic civil war, leaving only the ruins you see in the game.]]
* In ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquer'' an asteroid carrying an alien substance dubbed Tiberium begins rapidly transforming the Earth. Although dangerous, Tiberium also absorbs minerals from the soil, making it very easy to break down for various metals and rare minerals. Tiberium becomes so important to the world economy that the two dominant powers, GDI and Nod, both rely on it as their primary resource. Tiberium (and the Tacitus) have rapidly advanced human technology but are also destroying the planet. [[spoiler:Or rather [[HostileTerraforming changing it]] to be later harvested by the invading Scrin]].
* ''VideoGame/{{Stellaris}}'': The Clone Army origin has all pops as short-lived clones which are incapable of natural reproduction, instead relying on a limited number of ancient clone vats to build their population. Each vat can only support so many pops; any pops over that limit, or on a world without a vat, will die off. If all of the vats are lost, such as through orbital bombardment, the race can go extinct.

** ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles2'': The world is a massive ocean of clouds, and the only livable land is on the continent-sized Titans. Except the Titans are all dying out, and for some reason no new ones are being born. Rex's goal is to find Elysium, the mythical paradise supposedly at the top of the World Tree, so that the brewing resource wars become unnecessary. [[spoiler:As it turns out, Praetor Amalthus' "core purification ritual" (which makes it easier for Blades to bond with Drivers) wipes out all their stored data and resets them to zero; this is a problem, because Blades evolve into Titans once they accumulate enough data. Amalthus is well aware that this will lead to the inevitable extinction of all life, but doesn't care]]. When they find Elysium, [[spoiler:it's a dead, empty landscape, far from the answer to all their problems. Thankfully, after speaking with the Architect the Cloud Sea is pulled back, and the surviving Titans join together to create a new Elysium where everyone can live]].
** ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles3'': Life itself. All the soldiers of Keves and Agnus are bound to the Flame Clocks, which require life to fill them. Killing monsters works, but killing enemy soldiers is far better. This leads to a ViciousCycle where colonies must constantly hunt each other down just to survive. Of course, this is completely intentional on the part of the Consuls, the real force behind the war; they need life energy for their immortality, and skim off the top from the successful colonies. If a Colony's Flame Clock is destroyed, all the soldiers are freed, and they don't need to harvest life energy at all.
* In the ''VideoGame/TrailsSeries'' there was a history-defining technological breakthrough dubbed the "Orbal Revolution" brought up by [[OneManIndustrialRevolution Professor Epstein]] roughly 50 years prior to the events of the franchise. Epstein managed to develop technology capable to employ a mysterious energy known as "Orbal" to power up mass produced mechanical devices called "Orbments". These contraptions could be used for just about everything: lighting, heating, communications, weaponry and transportation to name a few. As such, [[AliensNeverInventedTheWheel mankind never developed anything that could not be powered by Orbments]]. This flaw was eventually exploited when an enemy created a weapon capable of disabling Orbments, stopping everything on their tracks. Interestingly, it was then revealed that an old inventor had in his possession a prototype diesel engine that he thought could put to use during this crisis, thus demonstrating that there was some kind of progression paralleling real world developments before Orbal Technology rendered it obsolete.

* Mother in ''Webcomic/DresdenCodak'': a world-assimilating AI/ GreyGoo /[[TheSingularity Singularity]] that provides everything Humanity asks for - to point of making people unnecessary, irrelevant and progressively infantile. They go to the verge of extinction as life in the virtual worlds she/it provides takes precedence over breeding. When humanity finally goes to war with Mother, victory comes at a terrible cost: much of human history and culture dies with Mother, and every human is [[WhatDoYouMeanItsNotSymbolic blinded]].
* In ''WebComic/Collar6'', nearly all technology works on MagiTek, which requires people to be extremely in-tune with their [[SoulPower souls]] for it to work. The BigBad planned to fire an ancient, magical superweapon to forcibly separate everyone from their souls in order to TakeOverTheWorld. However, he planned to give them back once everyone proved they could be responsible with them.
* {{Discussed}} in ''Webcomic/TalesOfTheQuestor''. Sam {{Lampshades}} that the Racconans seem to be totally dependent on their lux-tech, but Quentyn retorts that ''every'' civilization has certain basic technologies it depends on, and that it would be just as accurate to say that [[TheDungAges human civilization]] is "dependent" on iron and fire.

[[folder:Web Originals]]

* ''Website/{{Neopets}}''[='=] [[http://www.neopets.com/medieval/index_evil.phtml Darigan Citadel]] was once a normal medieval town, until someone stole the magic orb fertilizing their crops. Now the land is about as fertile as a cinder block.
* ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'':
** All of the world's technology runs off a single type of AppliedPhlebotinum: Dust, magic-like elemental crystals that do everything from power everyday machines to enhancing ammunition. The [[AllThereInTheManual World of Remnant]] video on the subject notes that it's becoming harder to find new Dust deposits, and no one has bothered to research any alternative energy sources because Dust is just so incredibly convenient; even a medieval society can quickly make good use of it. In the show proper, however, references to this are minimal, only mentioning that Dust prices have been going up.
** The City of Atlas remains floating above the slums of Mantle entirely due to the Staff of Creation. It has a stock of Gravity Dust that will keep it temporarily in the air before that's used up and begins to fall. There's no discussion about whether the city can be landed safely. However, in a situation where everything has gone wrong, allies have turned against each other and one side obtains the Staff while the other side controls the city, it's impossible for the city to stay in the air. In that kind of scenario, it will [[ColonyDrop crash into the city]] below it, annihilating both. [[spoiler:In Volume 8, the heroes steal the Staff from Ironwood to save Penny, evacuate both cities to Vacuo by magical means, and to keep the Relic out of both Ironwood and Salem's hands. There's just enough time to evacuate everyone before Atlas crashes into Mantle. The impact breaches an inland sea to the north of the kingdom, which floods the region, hiding the ruins of both cities beneath the waves.]]

* An episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddParents'' had Timmy dealing with Mr. Crocker once and for all by getting him committed, his obsession with proving the existence of fairies cured. Unfortunately, it turns out that Fairy World powers all its magic on belief in fairies, specifically the belief of crazy people disbelieved by those around them, and Mr. Crocker was ''so'' crazy that they decided to power everything with him. Now Fairy World is without magic and slowly plummetting into Giant Bucket of Acid World, giving a time limit to Timmy trying to relapse Crocker into his fairy obsession without any help from magic. Once power is restored, they go back to drawing power from multiple nutjobs.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheTransformers'': Cybertronians are completely dependent on Energon for both their own existence and to operate all their technology. Cybertron began to run out, sparking the Great War, which only accelerated the exhaustion of existing Energon stockpiles. While it's possible to convert other energy sources into Energon, the process is apparently difficult and doesn't provide a lot, so both the Autobots and Decepticons spend a lot of time trying to find more naturally-occuring sources of it.

* The Haredi Jews in Israel consistently grow in number, and their children are pushed towards religious scholar success more than economic success - hence they're usually taught religious subjects almost exclusively, and their leaders are often vehemently opposed to getting them taught subjects such as English and mathematics. Thus they usually live in constant crippling poverty, relying mostly on the non-Haredi society's taxpayer money for their meager pensions (each Haredi Jew gets just enough to live and support his family, but as they consistently grow in number this has a massive negative impact on Israeli society, as OECD reports show). Israeli Minister of Internal Affairs Eli Yishai (who is a Haredi Jew himself) once uttered a notoriously stupid statement saying that a completely Haredi city is preposterous, as it would never be able to support itself. Fortunately, this situation is changing, as the State of Israel seems to be making efforts to incorporate them into the work force and into military service, by trying to work out a 'super-kosher' solution for them.[[note]]They often avoid work and service not just to focus on their studies, but also because the conditions they have to work/serve in, such as working/serving alongside or maybe even ''under'' women, would go against the strictness of their religious rules; in case you were wondering, this is a problem mostly in Israel and not elsewhere because according to Jewish law, Jews have to be extra strict in the Land of Israel.[[/note]]
** Any exclusively dedicated religious group or organization really has the same problem. They rely on others to support them, so something as simple as an opposing idea gaining prominence can cause an entire religious hierarchy to collapse or reform into a new version.

*** ...and someone comes along to repair it, relatively promptly. It's also not exactly AppliedPhlebotinum, since we have a thorough understanding of how it works, how to generate more of it, and where it comes from. The problem, rather, is that our society uses technology and electricity to attain a vastly higher level of population, functioning, and productivity than would otherwise be possible--when an overwhelming disaster strikes and cripples that infrastructure past the breaking point, the society is no longer sustainable for obvious reasons. Still...worst case, you'd end up with a society that crashes down to the level that it would otherwise have been ''stuck at'' from the beginning.

* Brazil with coffee and again with rubber, Argentina with beef. Originally incredibly wealthy societies - and in Argentina's case, the wealth was pretty well distributed - went bankrupt. In Argentina, because of refrigerated shipments from Australia; in Brazil they actually smuggled rubber tree plants out of the country to start a competing industry in Malaysia.

* Oil. Powers the vast majority of all freight transport[[note]]electric cargo railways don't count - it's still largely fossil fuels that are being burned to create the electricity[[/note]], and it takes several million years to form. The process of refining oil is also used in making plastics and carbon black for tires. It'll run out eventually, and considering how many AfterTheEnd or BadFuture scenarios are caused by PostPeakOil, we might go this way if we don't find alternative fuel sources.

** The dependence on oil is much worse in countries that are dependent on cars to a great degree. If the oil runs out, Swiss people will still be able to take the train[[note]]Swiss trains run on 100% electricity, most of which generated by hydropower[[/note]] to work - though there might not be any work at their pharmaceutical company (dependent on oil) and no groceries in the supermarket (transported mostly by trucks that run on oil), eventually society could be transformed. Now imagine a country where almost all infrastructure is highways and airports, none of which can run without oil. People who have been warning about that scenario for decades often consider themselves to be telling a CassandraTruth, but on the other hand cars are just so damned ''useful''...

* Antibiotics. Without them, many people (often children) would die of bacterial infections, women would [[DeathByChildbirth die during or shortly after childbirth]], safe surgery would be next to impossible, as would chemotherapy. It's not just medicine that depends heavily on antibiotics, either: most of modern agriculture depends on them, as well. Family size also is impacted, with an increased chance of children surviving to adulthood to carry on the family lineage (and thus less of a need to have a lot of them). So as bacteria evolve resistance to more and more antibiotics, civilization and society as we know it become more and more jeopardized. It doesn't help that many pharmaceutical companies ''[[https://www.cnbc.com/2018/04/11/goldman-asks-is-curing-patients-a-sustainable-business-model.html refuse]]'' to research new antibiotics, given how low the [[MoneyDearBoy profit margin is on them]]. In comparison to painkillers and high-priced treatments -- which can and are sold at 1000% markups -- ''tons'' of antibiotics must be produced and used every year, and if they was priced "competitively" ''no-one could afford them.''

* In ''VideoGame/GoldenSunDarkDawn'', the city of [[PunnyName Passaj]] was populated by craftsmen who depended on an AlchemyIsMagic forge built by AdvancedAncientHumans. After TheMagicGoesAway, their economy went into a sharp decline until the heroes restart the forge after TheMagicComesBack.