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All Theories Are True
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The Sci-Fi Counterpart of All Myths Are True, this is when long-obsolete, fringe, or disproven scientific theories are considered true for the purposes of either Rule of Cool or Art Major Technology. Examples should be distinguished from Science Marches On, as in this trope's case the use of dodgy science is quite deliberate. This is sometimes a supertrope of Ancient Astronauts, Lamarck Was Right, Genetic Memory, Our Cryptids Are More Mysterious, Psychic Dreams for Everyone and many other tropes found right here on this wiki, and arguably underpins most modern uses of alchemy in Speculative Fiction. It's also rampant in Steampunk, which is often set in universes where, for example, the theory of the aether is true. The trope comes in one of two flavors: Obsolete science may be used to evoke associations with the past in a manner resembling Zeerust Canon; alternately, fringe or obsolete science may be used to evoke the notion that all manner of far out ideas are really true in this particular fictional universe. More generally, it covers fringe or obsolete scientific concepts that are just part of a story's premise and aren't used to evoke anything. It does not include plain bad or mistaken notions of the You Fail Science Forever sort, though it can be hard to tell sometimes. The criterion for inclusion on this list is that the concept involved is a real fringe or obsolete theory meant to explain an already-observed phenomenon that the work treats as true for reasons of premise or style. In other words, the explanations are speculative or obsolete; the phenomena explained are, however exaggerated, real. Super-Trope for modern uses of Counter-Earth, Hollow World, Pineal Weirdness, and Lamarck Was Right; and for most uses of Ancient Astronauts. Real Life examples abound, of course, but should be avoided unless they have been the basis of fictional works or story premises. |
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Ditto the short-lived series Dark Skies, based on UFOlogy and other 1960s conspiracy theory lore. | |
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Fringe also uses this trope as its premise. | |
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The Justice League episode "Dark Heart" gives us a working example of a Von Neumann machine, an unproven concept in engineering. Unsurprisingly, the episode was written by Warren Ellis, mentioned above in the comic book examples section. | |
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The uses of the ether theory in the Cthulhu Mythos is an example of this trope rather than Science Marches On, as the theory had been disproven some decades before and the Mythos elsewhere uses elements of the relativistic theories that displaced the assumptions behind the ether. | |
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The SCP Foundation lives and breathes this trope. Not only are they true, but they're also terrifying. | |
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Discworld has a lot of fun with fringe science. Most notably the way the word "quantum" can be used to justify anything, and the morphogenic field. (The Discworld Roleplaying Game notes that all theories of morphic resonance are true on the Disc, including the ones that contradict each other.) Not to mention the whole "the world is flat" thing, y'know? | |
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In Atomic Robo, almost every weird, pulp scientific theory has some truth to it... with the caveat that the protagonist (himself an example of said fringe science) is a Flat-Earth Atheist who insists none of it is possible, often just before getting painfully proven wrong. There’s a memorable scene where he insists time travel is impossible while talking to his future selves. | |
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In the Marvel Universe, a number of fringe theories are quite true, including the Counter-Earth idea and the underlying explanation of nearly all non-magical superpowers deriving from Jack Kirby's use of Ancient Astronauts in the 1970s series The Eternals. Similarly, from the 1980s to The New '10s, Time Travel obeyed the rules of the many-worlds hypothesis as well. Oh, and thanks to the Fantastic Four villain Diablo successfully using it, alchemy is real, too. | |
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The X-Files uses the premises of innumerable fringe and obsolete theories as the premises of episodes and the show's sprawling Myth Arc. A partial list: "Space" - The Face on Mars "Eve" - Human clones and bioengineering. "Gender Bender" - Human sex pheromones. "Young At Heart" - Genetic engineering and animal gene-splicing. "Sleepless" - Lack of sleep makes you crazy - and psychic. "Firewalker" - Silicon-based life. "Dead Kalm" - Free radicals theory of aging. "Humbug" - Sentient fetus in fetu. "Soft Light" - A man's anti-matter and/or dark matter shadow kills people. "Jersey Devil," "Quagmire," "Detour," and many others - Cryptids "Wetwired" - Brainwashing via television signals. "Home" - Inbreeding. "Teliko" - Pineal Weirdness "El Mundo Gira" - Bizarre rains with an alien enzyme. "Unruhe" - Spirit photography. The show also used most of UFO lore, especially the Roswell and Grey aliens theories. |
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In Stargate SG-1, Dr. Daniel Jackson became the laughingstock of the archeological community with his theories that aliens built the pyramids. The premise of the series is that he was, of course, right. Same in the movie. | |
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In Rise of Legends, helicopters follow Leonardo Da Vinci's "aerial screw" drawings, long since proven aerodynamically impossible. | |
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As part of its satirical use of conspiracy theory elements, Foucault's Pendulum employs a number of fringe theories, including the telluric currents idea. However, the novel is as much a Deconstruction of this trope (and the Conspiracy Theory and All Myths Are True tropes) as anything, so it's ambiguous whether the theories are true or whether some of the characters are simply perceiving reality from an unusual angle. | |
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Command & Conquer: Red Alert Series previously used Tesla Coils as death rays. Though it used to be thought this was possible, it isn't. The Red Alert series plays with a lot of (mostly Cold War-based) myths and failed experiments. The Chronosphere is based on the premise of the Philadelphia Experiment and the psychic units of Red Alert 2 are based on failed Soviet experiments with ESP (and Yuri on the legend of Rasputin). While it isn't outright stated, it's heavily implied that the Allies (and later the Soviet's) messing with the timeline has damaged the constancy of space-time, with the laws of physics becoming looser to accommodate the damaged continuity. This has allowed all of the stranger weapons we see in the first and later games, and why things get so much crazier in the third game. |
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Animorphs used this trope sometimes. In the case of Area 51... I mean, Zone 91... it was heavily Lampshaded. It was more moderately lampshaded when an Atlantis-type lost civilization turned out to be real. And there are also the Skrit Na, whose main purpose for being in the books was to be an alien race fitting the description of The Greys. Subverted, though, when Erek is telling the story of how his Chee race arrived at the right time to be Ancient Astronauts. When asked about the concept that they might have been the ones to design the pyramids, Erek clarifies that the Chee didn't interfere with human society in ways like that, just as they don't do things like that in the present day (though he personally did in fact help build the pyramids... as a laborer). Also, the series' treatment of psychic phenomena, and of the question of dolphin and whale intelligence, seems to be based on this trope. | |
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In one of the Secret Histories novels, Eddie, Molly, and the Armourer visit an arms-dealers' bazaar where weird weaponry is displayed. One of the items on offer is a phlogiston-spewing flamethrower, which apparently used to work just fine, right up until the concept of phlogiston was disproven. | |
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In Sliders, the existence of the Kromaggs (humanoid creatures that evolved instead of Homo sapiens in various parallel universes) is ascribed to "Killer Ape Theory," a controversial theory in the 1950s about early human evolution. Notably the real world, Killer Ape Theory tries to explain the divergence between humans and the other apes, while in the show the theory was appropriated to explain the divergence between Homo sapiens and Kromaggs from a common stock. And guess where the name "Kromagg" comes from? | |
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For its part, The DCU has long relied on the parallel-worlds theory, an inheritance from its prominence in The Golden Age Of Science Fiction. Writer Gardner Fox and editor Julius Schwartz were heavily involved in that industry before and while they worked in comics, explaining its use as the spine of the comics' cosmology. | |
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Thanks to being based on early and pulp science fiction, Volue II of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen depicts Mars as an inhabited desert world (presumably with canals), as it was once believed to be. | |
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Area 51: The prevalent occult/conspiracy theories about ancient aliens being on Earth, Atlantis, Area 51 the Pyramids etc. were all or mostly true according to the books. In fact, the author claims 95% of the content is true. | |
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Team Fortress 2 will occasionally slip on this, mostly since it relies on Rule of Funny and could never, ever be considered serious. Specifically, the theory of phlogiston seems to hold some degree of truth in their universe. | |
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Occurs every so often in Doctor Who and its spin-offs. The most obvious example being the use of morphic fields in several novels, and in Torchwood series 4. | |
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Oversaturated World: In the wake of the Saturation, magic will now happily behave according to any system people put forward. From the Equestrian Elements of Harmony and the Four Classical Elements to the five colors of Hocus-Pocus: The Get-Together and the classpects of Habittrapped, if it is a defined system of magic and people want it to work, it will work. | |
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The Spelljammer setting for second edition Dungeons & Dragons, while fantasy, used such ideas as worlds being surrounded by crystal spheres and floating in phlogiston. | |
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This is the basis of the GURPS supplement "Fantasy Tech". Everything from the the popular belief that ancient armor was ridiculously heavy to the scientific fact that the sun exerts a strong natural attraction on dew, so if you fill bottles with dew during the night you will rise upward during the day. | |
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