Editing Hainish Cycle (section)

===Post-technological worlds===

The ideas of [[Apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction|post-technological societies]] and social and [[ecological collapse]] are in several of the stories. These are portrayed as the end result of the wrong kind of civilizations, i.e., [[Competition (economics)|competitive]], [[Capitalism|capitalist]], [[Patriarchy|patriarchal]], "dynamic, aggressive, ecology-breaking cultures," while successful societies are close to the land, peaceful, non-authoritarian, non-competitive, static, [[Communitarianism|communitarian]], with the [[Holism|holistic]] outlook of [[Eastern religions]].  The Earth, called "Terra" in the Cycle, is mentioned as one of the failed civilizations.

* In ''City of Illusions'', Earth has suffered some sort of collapse in a distant future, losing contact with the stars.
* In ''The Dispossessed'', the ecological disaster of Earth is described; it has become "a planet spoiled by the human species" through wars and runaway industrial development.  Pollution has turned it into a desert and ruined the [[carrying capacity]] of the land. The population has fallen from nine billion to half a billion, who only survive by rationing, labor conscription, euthanasia, forced birth control, and the charity of the Hainish. 
* In "Another Story" in ''A Fisherman of the Inland Sea'', it is mentioned that Earth still suffers badly from pollution.
* Eleven-Soro had a high level of technology and then a massive crash, as is told in the short story "Solitude" in ''[[The Birthday of the World]]''.
* Hain itself has gone back to a simpler life, with high technology used only where it can be justified, as is told in the first part of "A Man of the People" in ''Four Ways to Forgiveness.''  This also seems to apply to the planet Ve.
* Orint and Kheakh are mentioned in passing as worlds that have totally destroyed themselves.
* In ''The Left Hand Of Darkness'', the planet Gde is described as extremely hot rock and desert, the result of a technological society that "wrecked its ecological balance" some millennia previous, and "burned up its forests for kindling."