Trope-a-Day: Plug'n'Play Technology

Plug’n’Play Technology: Played mostly straight, at least in the Empire.  They’ve had a lot longer to work on it – and for various technologies to stabilize – and the consumers are both savvier about this sort of thing (because tinkering, integrating, and even Home Invention is so common) and much crankier when they don’t get it.  Compatibility problems generally only show up, if at all, with tech new enough that the standards haven’t even begun to settle – and you usually get them partially working instantly thanks to Imperial Interweave Protocol, the Universal Data Bus and associated protocols, ‘weave mesh protocol, Living Object Protocol, MetaLanguage, and embedded drivers – which just about everything down to paperweights implements.

Averted, occasionally, when you go cross-polity, especially when dealing with new folk on the galactic scene, or for anyone with a serious ideological objection to using those people’s standards.