Cyclic Civilization

A civilization that has a repeated industrial rise and subsequent fall after overextending themselves in terms of resources or population. Foreshadowing for this motif usually includes many advanced or large artifacts that show evidence of being tens or hundreds of thousands of years old.

When connected to population, this can be (but is not always) a sign of Malthusianism, which became increasingly popular amongst eugenicists and alarmists. Malthusianism has now been thoroughly debunked and its presence in works written in the 21st century is a sign (though not a guarantee) that the work will contain racist or xenophobic themes, especially toward developing nations, or alien races meant to represent developing nations.

Examples

• 1974 The Mote in God's Eye

  The Motie Civilization is at least tens of thousands of years old, with many layers of debris from fallen cities everywhere, many layers of craters from atomic wars, and abandoned asteroid colonies abandoned for tens of thousands of years. The Moties breed quickly and periodically fall into major overpopulation wars.