One great example of "technology" created for a trinket, and then applied to more important stuff - the pop-up toys, you push the base, and they collapse - you let go - the "pop-up" back to their original shape. The guy that developed the tether that NASA uses for spacewalks used these toys as the basis for the tether - which needed to be free-moving while the astronauts are walking, and stiff while hauling them in - so as to prevent nasty bangs
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One great example of "technology" created for a trinket, and then applied to more important stuff - the pop-up toys, you push the base, and they collapse - you let go - the "pop-up" back to their original shape. The guy that developed the tether that NASA uses for spacewalks used these toys as the basis for the tether - which needed to be free-moving while the astronauts are walking, and stiff while hauling them in - so as to prevent nasty bangs