I imagine this is how some sci-fi technology works. Certainly looks like a more low-tech version of some of it: Star Trek has both isolinear chips [0] in Federation technology and isolinear rods [1] in Cardassian technology that can be rearranged to change ship systems and Stargate has control crystals of various designs used similarly [2][3][4].

[0] https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/The_Naked_Now_(episode)...

[1] https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Isolinear_rod?file=Isol...

[2] https://stargate.fandom.com/wiki/Control_crystal?file=Contro...

[3] https://stargate.fandom.com/wiki/Control_crystal?file=Door_c...

[4] https://stargate.fandom.com/wiki/Control_crystal?file=Contro...