About: Chance Activation   Sponge Permalink

An Entity of Type : owl:Thing, within Data Space : 134.155.108.49:8890 associated with source dataset(s)

A group has found an item (an artifact, some piece of supposedly incomprehensible technology, etc.). The group, most likely including the smart guy, starts discussing how it will take quite a bit of time and research to discover the item's purpose and/or how to use it. Meanwhile, another person in the group (often The Hero, but not necessarily) is fiddling around with the item, and unlocks/activates/arms/whatevers the device, interrupting and possibly upsetting the others in the group. Note that sometimes the activation isn't necessarily a good thing. Examples of Chance Activation include:

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  • Chance Activation
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  • A group has found an item (an artifact, some piece of supposedly incomprehensible technology, etc.). The group, most likely including the smart guy, starts discussing how it will take quite a bit of time and research to discover the item's purpose and/or how to use it. Meanwhile, another person in the group (often The Hero, but not necessarily) is fiddling around with the item, and unlocks/activates/arms/whatevers the device, interrupting and possibly upsetting the others in the group. Note that sometimes the activation isn't necessarily a good thing. Examples of Chance Activation include:
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dbkwik:all-the-tro...iPageUsesTemplate
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abstract
  • A group has found an item (an artifact, some piece of supposedly incomprehensible technology, etc.). The group, most likely including the smart guy, starts discussing how it will take quite a bit of time and research to discover the item's purpose and/or how to use it. Meanwhile, another person in the group (often The Hero, but not necessarily) is fiddling around with the item, and unlocks/activates/arms/whatevers the device, interrupting and possibly upsetting the others in the group. In cases where the method of using the item in question is discovered by someone of lesser intelligence, this trope becomes a specific example of Too Dumb to Fool. Note that sometimes the activation isn't necessarily a good thing. Related to Cut the Juice and Cutting the Knot, with the exception that the characters here are not necessarily trying to solve an immediate problem. Compare Shaggy Search Technique, where the person or group is actively trying to solve whatever puzzle is present, inadvertently finding a solution through dumb luck. The main difference between these tropes is a matter of intent; Shaggy searches begin intentionally, while a chance activation is just someone fiddling with a Plot Device and it "working". Examples of Chance Activation include:
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