History Main / TheWorldIsNotReady

** The same reasoning as Einmug is applied by professor Spike Marlin for his TimeMachine. He and the archaeologist Zachary Zapotec only use it to send Mickey and Goofy to solve historical mysteries, but are extremely aware someone could try and change the past... So they keep around a [[LaserGuidedAmnesia forgetfulness potion]], and the only time they broke their vow was when they ''knew'' there was a time loop and ''not'' allowing Mickey to go in the past to deal with Pete there would have broken the timeline.

*** This trope, combined with preserving the timeline as much as possible, is part of why the TimePolice sabotages Seamus Hogg's cold fusion experiment to not make it work. As before his intervention to change the timeline the experiment would have ''nuked Duckburg'', Paperinik concedes the point-and is in fact happy when the events of the story get Hogg fired from his job.

* [[CorruptCorporateExecutive Ms. Yutani]] and her henchmen at the end of Film/AliensVsPredatorRequiem, on the Predator gun they salvaged; "The world isn't ready for this technology. But it isn't ''for'' this world, is it, Ms. Yutani?"

* [[CorruptCorporateExecutive Ms. Yutani]] and her henchmen at the end of [[VideoGame/AliensVsPredator Requiem]], on the Predator gun they salvaged; "The world isn't ready for this technology. But it isn't ''for'' this world, is it, Ms. Yutani?"

*** At one point Marlin tried to branch out by adapting the time machine technology into a [[TeleportersAndTransporters teleportation device]], reasoning that his time machine already moves people in space and by setting the temporal shift to zero it would be simple teleportation (how time travelers in ''Paperinik New Adventures'' achieve teleportation). After his first experiment goes awry in a way he can't even understand, he agrees to suspend the experiments because not only the world but ''he himself'' isn't ready.

* ''Series/{{Ultraviolet}}''. The main protagonist Mike is a policeman who discovers that vampires exist and is therefore recruited into a covert government agency to fight them.

*** At one point Marlin tried to branch out by adapting the time machine technology into a [[TeleporterAndTransporters teleportation device]], reasoning that his time machine already moves people in space and by setting the temporal shift to zero it would be simple teleportation (how time travelers in ''Paperinik New Adventures'' achieve teleportation). After his first experiment goes awry in a way he can't even understand, he agrees to suspend the experiments because not only the world but ''he himself'' isn't ready.

* Played straight as the reasoning behind the BenevolentConspiracy's {{Masquerade}} [[spoiler:being upheld by a clique of senior teachers from each academy]] in ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}''. It's leader[[spoiler:, Ozpin,]] belives that revealing the truth about Remnant's history would cause mass hysteria and the ensuing flood of negative emotions would catalyse [[TheHeartless Grimm]] attacks, potentially destroying civilisation. Instead they prefer to keep things as low key as possible, using their most trusted agents to quietly deal with anything that might violate the masquerade and using the academies as a means of projecting an image of safety, recruiting new members and as a front for the consipracy.

-->'''Magister Labrid''': ''(To Kevin)'' ''That's'' why Level 5 technology [[EnforcedTechnologyLevels isn't allowed on Earth]]. Humans aren't ready for it.

* ''{{Literature/Discworld}}'': Leonardo of Quirm (the Leonardo da Vinci {{expy}}) is kept in a locked room in the Patrician's palace, regularly brought food, ink and drawing paper. He's not locked to keep him imprisoned but to keep people away (he designed the locks himself) and to prevent them from applying his inventions for evil purposes (Leonard just can't help himself from designing things like explosives that could remove mountains or submarines that can cut through hulls alongside flying machines and a more efficient tea stirrer).

* In ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist'' Berthold Hawkeye perfect flame alchemy but was too afraid of it being misused to teach it to any of his students, such as Roy Mustang. He even refused to keep notes, instead tatooing all the knowledge on his daughter's back instead. Riza would eventually reveal the secret to Roy, but after the Ishvalan Civil War both came to agree with Berthold and burned the knowledge from her back to ensure it could not be passed on.

* This is the main reason for TheMasquerade in ''Manga/MahouSenseiNegima''. Chao decided to get proactive and force the mages out into the open. Negi never really does come up with a reason that proves it would be a bad thing, but still fights her because he reasons that if she really had a good justification, she would need not hide anything. Towards the end of the manga, Negi decides to work towards introducing the world to magic. And if ''Manga/UQHolder'' is anything to go by, he succeeded.

** Played straight by almost any hero with proprietary technology. Comicbook/IronMan in particular is perpetually concerned about his technology falling into the wrong hands. In fact, this has happened several times.. This has led to multiple "Armor Wars" and other miscellanous incidents in the canon and alternate universes, such as suicide bombers detonating themselves with Arc Reactors. The amount of times Tony's fears of his tech being abused is confirmed a startingly number of times.
* Subverted in the comic book ''Comicbook/DoctorStrange: The Oath''. Doctor Strange has brought back Otkid's Elixir, a magic potion that can cure any disease, from another dimension. The main antagonist, Nicodemus West, tells him that humanity isn't ready to include magic as part of modern medicine. Strange points out all the inventions, like artificial hearts and CAT scans, [[ClarkesThirdLaw that seemed like magic when they first appeared]], [[SufficientlyAnalyzedMagic and claims this would be no different]].

* In ''Comicbook/{{Concrete}}'', the title character is abducted by mysterious aliens who transplant his brain into a 1200-pound stone-like body. When Concrete insists on living outside the confines of a government laboratory, The CIA concocts a story that he is the sole survivor of a failed [[SuperSoldier super-soldier]] program, rather than admit to the existense of extra-terrestrials. Concrete agrees to play along, in exchange for his freedom.

[[folder:FanFiction]]
* The whole reason the Strategic Prevention, Extraction, and Ablation Regiment (with their Weaponized Extraction Teams) exists in the ''VideoGame/HeroesOfTheStorm'' fanfic ''FanFic/HeroesOfTheDesk''. There are [[BeenThereShapedHistory allusions to the supernatural in the past]] that were successfully covered up (feudalism, whaling, the Salem Witch Trials, something involving the Catholic Church), and then the CrypticBackgroundReference of the Roman Empire--which is why all those covers were necessary. It hasn't been explained [[NoodleIncident exactly what happened]] however.
* Appears towards the end of [[http://www.fimfiction.net/story/85411/reflections Reflections.]] Celestia and Luna are discussing the future of ponykind. They could theoretically make everyone immortal star goddess like themselves, but they cannot because they are being punished for past crimes, as well for the simple fact that the ponies are very very very far from being ready to join them in eternity.
* ''FanFic/RacerAndTheGeek'' inverts the trope. The world was not yet ready for firearms, or any of the other instruments of modern war. [[http://www.fimfiction.net/story/81159/racer-and-the-geek The results are not pretty.]]
* Episode 75 ''FanFic/SonicXDarkChaos'' reveals that this is the primary motivation for Maledict trying to rule the entire universe. He believes that sentient mortal beings are not ready for freedom to make their own decisions, and must be controlled (freely or by enslavement) for their own good.

* In recent ''Comicstrip/DickTracy'' comics, Diet Smith tells Tracy that he has become more and more reticent over the years to share his biggest scientific discoveries, because [[GenreSavvy criminals have stolen his inventions and used them for evil purposes so many times over course of the comic.]] In particular, this is Diet's (in-universe) excuse for mothballing all the [[ImportedAlienPhlebotinum Moon technology.]] In RealLife, the reason these elements were removed from the strip was that Chester Gould's successor as writer, Max Allen Collins, considered the strip's Moon Period a massive DorkAge and preferred to ignore it. The current writer, Mike Curtis, is a fan of the Moon Period and has brought some of the Moon stuff back, but also gave Diet the above-mentioned explanation for his previous behavior.

* This is the justification the Brotherhood of Steel gives for their hoarding of pre-War tech in ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 1}}'' and ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'' as well. Since mankind had already nuked the planet halfway to oblivion ''once'' already, the Brotherhood fears something similar happening down the road.

* [[BlackAndNerdy Steve Urkel]] creates amazing inventions ranging from a cloning machine to a teleportation pad to a transformation chamber to a time machine. He avoids releasing them to the public because he's concerned about what could happen if they got into the wrong hands. It's {{Justified}} when he's targeted by criminals who want to use his inventions for their own gain.

However, the trope is not ''automatically'' unreasonable. It is possible to conceive of specific situations where the genie, in whatever form, could be put back into the bottle, and under the current circumstances such would be wise.

FridgeLogic suggests that by just sitting on their knowledge even well-intentioned secret keepers ultimately work to prevent the world from ever ''becoming'' ready. This idea will usually either [[GenreBlindness never occur to anybody]] or else be brought up once, {{handwave}}d away, and then never mentioned again.

For practical reasons, it may be required to [[ReedRichardsIsUseless avoid changing society into a level which is hard to imagine for an audience]], or to reduce the required amount of special effects. Also, there's little drama from story perspective if everyone can defend themselves from an alien menace. If you can instead put the safety of the entire world in the hands of one secret, tiny and underfunded hero team, the stakes get much higher.

For practical reasons, it may be required to avoid [[ReedRichardsIsUseless changing society]] into a level which is hard to imagine for an audience, or to reduce the required amount of special effects. Also, there's little drama from story perspective if everyone can defend themselves from an alien menace. If you can instead put the safety of the entire world in the hands of one secret, tiny and underfunded hero team, the stakes get much higher.

** Interestingly, this is [[DeconstructedTrope deconstructed]] in ''New Vegas'': [[TechnologyMarchesOn technology has been marching along quite nicely]] since the end of the first ''Fallout'', and the NCR has access to all sorts of useful tech and is still developing more. However, the West-Coast Brotherhood of Steel ''still'' refuses to share theirs, still thinking that the people (read: anyone who's not them) are not ready to handle any sort of technology. Their dogma in this has gotten so bad that they even waged war on the NCR several times to take back or hold technology they want, like at the Battle of Helios. Unfortunately for the Brotherhood, while they do have [[PowerArmor power armor]] and [[FrickinLaserBeam nifty laser weapons]], they don't have the [[ZergRush numbers that the NCR army has]], leading to many losses on their side.

* The main reason why ''Theatre/TheRiteOfSpring'' caused such a riot was because it was meant for the ears of 1940 rather than those of 1913. Interestingly, it also appeared [[Disney/{{Fantasia}} somewhere else]] in 1940...

* The reason for the secrecy of the Blackwood Project in ''[[Series.WarOfTheWorlds War of the Worlds]]''.

* Sometimes the reason that the ''PowerRangers'' must keep their identities a secret, even though the villains always know who they are.