History Main / InsignificantLittleBluePlanet

* This trope was a favorite of CarlSagan. He [[PlayingWithATrope played with]] it in his books, in speeches, and in {{Cosmos}}. He famously popularized the Pale Blue Dot photograph, which is now often shown with his famous quote:

* Despite a good number of its cast being from Earth, to the Space/Time Administration of ''MagicalGirlLyricalNanoha'' it's just "Non-Administrated World #97." Nobody looks down at us, though, and hey, given how the TSAB monitors the whole freaking Space-Time Continuum, being in the top 100 ain't bad. The first two seasons did have [[strike: [[TokyoIsTheCenterOfTheUniverse Tokyo]]]] Uminari Is The Center Of The Universe, though, with both the Jewel Seeds and the Book of Darkness appearing in that city.
** The serial numbers are apparently granted based on classification and order of acceptance (Mid-Childia is also referred to as "Administrated World #1").

* All series of the WesternAnimation/{{Ben 10}} franchise make it quite clear that in the eyes of almost every alien species in the Universe, Earth is nothing but a backwater planet with lowly advanced beings as the dominant species. This sometimes reach some ridiculous proportions, such as the [[SpacePolice Plumbers]] [[PoliceAreUseless being reluctant to "waste" their resources on it if there is no apparent threat]], aliens repeatedly threatening to destroy it for silly reason at least once in each series (''WesternAnimation/Ben10Omniverse had an alien threatening to destroy Earth ''[[DisproportionateRetribution because one of its inhabitants wouldn't marry his daughter]]''), and the list goes on. This is partially why the planet suddenly being a major strategic point to conquer the Universe in ''Frogs of War'' came up as an AssPull in the eyes of some fans.

* All series of the WesternAnimation/{{Ben 10}} franchise make it quite clear that in the eyes of almost every alien species in the Universe, Earth is nothing but a backwater planet with lowly advanced beings as the dominant species. This sometimes reach some ridiculous proportions, such as the [[SpacePolice Plumbers]] [[PoliceAreUseless being reluctant to "waste" their ressources on it if there is no apparent treath]], aliens repeatedly threatening to destroy it for silly reason at least once in each series (Ben10Omniverse had an alien threatening to destroy Earth ''[[DisproportionateRetribution because one of its inhabitants wouldn't marry his daughter]]''), and the list goes on. This is partially why the planet suddenly being a major strategic point to conquer the Universe in ''Frogs of War'' came up as an AssPull in the eyes of some fans.

* ''UniverseAtWar'', Earth would had been on the next to be struck by the Hierarchy's Purfier (aka a PlanetBuster meant to collect materials for the war machine) if it wasn't a {{plan}} to destroy the Novus.

* This trope was a favorite of CarlSagan. He [[PlayingWithATrope played with]] it in his books, in speeches, and in {{Cosmos}}. He famously popularized the Pale Blue Dot photograph, which is now often shown with his quote above.

* All series of the WesternAnimation/{{Ben 10}} franchise make it quite clear that in the eyes of almost every alien species in the Universe, Earth is nothing but a backwater planet with lowly advanced beings as the dominant species. This sometimes reach some ridiculous proportions, such as the [[SpacePolice Plumbers]] [[PoliceAreUseless being reluctant to "waste" their ressources on it if there is no apparent treath]], aliens repeatedly threatening to destroy it for silly reason at least once in each series (Ben10Omniverse had an alien threatening to destroy Earth ''[[DisproportionateRetribution because one of its inhabitants wouldn't marry his daughter]]''), and the list goes on. Seems to have get ''slightly'' better in Omniverse, where Earth has become an open system and aliens go around freely, but still far from perfect.

The opposite of EarthIsTheCenterOfTheUniverse.[[note]]As in, this trope is the opposite of that trope, and also the center of the universe is the opposite of Earth.[[/note]] Seems if not the above, then the main action is set on another civilized planet, and Earth is either radioactive, lost, forgotten, generally meaningless, or outright nonexistent in the work's setting. It's not on any cosmic EvilOverlord's [[TakeOverTheWorld Take Over]] list, nor is it covered in any Milky Way Geography classes.

--> '''Cochrane:''' Is that it? It's...so small...
--> '''Riker:''' [[TheFederation It's about to get a whole lot bigger]].

* Well, let's talk about a certain page of Pirandello's [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Late_Mattia_Pascal "The Late Mattia Pascal".]] I'm translating from Italian right now, but it goes something like this:

** If someone can provide a professional translation, that would be better, but that's the sense of it.

* IainMBanks has TheCulture roaming the galaxy in the 12th Century, and they're not the only ones. They don't know about Earth until one of their ships visits in 1977, and even then they decide [[YouAreNotReady not to contact us]]. Though ''Consider Phlebas'' has an appendix which calls itself part of a "Contact-approved Earth Extro-Information Pack" made in 2110, so presumably they came back by then. Dammit.
* LoisMcMasterBujold's ''[[Literature/VorkosiganSaga Barrayar]]'' books have a [[CityOfAdventure Planet of Adventure]] (the namesake Barrayar), though the characters often venture forth across the galaxy. Only one book out of nearly 20 takes place on Earth. However, the first chapter of that book, ''Brothers in Arms'', states, "Earth was still the largest, richest, most varied and populous planet in scattered humanity's entire worm-hole nexus of explored space. Its dearth of good exit points in solar local space and governmental disunity left it militarily and strategically minor... But Earth still reigned, if it did not rule, culturally supreme."
* In ArthurCClarke's ''RendezvousWithRama'', the namesake spaceship, en route from Point A to B, zips through the solar system and slingshots around the sun. Earth isn't even an afterthought.

* In MarkTwain's ''Captain Stormfield's Visit to Heaven'', the protagonist finds out when dealing with the CelestialBureaucracy that there are apparently many planets with intelligent species called "world", all of them saved by Jesus, and that our one is known as "Wart".

* In Frank Herbert's ''{{Dune}}'' series, humanity rules an Empire of a million worlds that stretches across the galaxy. Thing is, not one of those is Earth.

-->MATTIA: Oh, dear God, and should I care? We are but on an invisible top, that a sun thread makes spin, on a crazed sand crumb which spins and spins and spins, without knowing why, withouth ever reaching its destiny, as if it liked to roll, just to make us feel now just a bit hotter, now just a bit colder, and to make us die, often regretting a string of trivial nonsense -after fifty or sixty spinnings, aren't we?

* In Walter William's ''DreadEmpiresFall'' planets are important based on the number of wormhole connections in their system. Earth's unimportant enough that a character gets assigned there for ''punishment''. The race who for a time managed to defend themselves against the Empire's expansion is the bird-like Lai-Own, humans got steamrolled over like nearly everybody else. It is mentioned that humanity's only contribution to galactic culture is pottery and [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equal_temperament the equally tempered tonescale]].

* The TropeNamer, ''Franchise/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'': Earth's entire entry in the Guide is "Harmless". After 10 years of research, Ford Prefect has a revised entry to submit to the guide: "''Mostly'' harmless." Ford initially submitted a much longer, painstakingly detailed entry -- part of which later appears in ''Literature/SoLongAndThanksForAllTheFish'', to his considerable surprise -- but nobody considered Earth to be important enough to warrant better than two words. Not that it matters, as [[EarthShatteringKaboom Earth is dust]]. Of course, it turns out the Earth actually ''was'' the most important planet in the universe, but nobody [[spoiler:except the psychiatrists who hired the Vogons to destroy Earth to protect their careers]] knew that until it was too late.

* In Creator/AlastairReynolds Revelation Space series, Earth is only mentioned a handful of times and none of the characters ever go there. Much of the plot takes place around the planet Yellowstone.

* In Dante's ''Paradisio'', he makes this observation in Canto 22 after entering the Eighth Sphere of Heaven:

-->-- '''Mark Twain''', ''The Bible According to Mark Twain''

[[caption-width-right:180:[[CarlSagan Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us.]]]]

* In the earlier parts of LarryNiven's ''KnownSpace'' chronology, the Earth needs the resources of the (asteroid) Belt more than the Belters need anything from Earth, and both know it.
** In the later stories and novels, humans native to the various Terran colony worlds see "flatlanders" (that is, people from Earth) as arrogant, overly-restricted xenophobes who think the universe revolves around their little blue mudball. The flatlanders in question see the colonists as quaint rubes who don't know enough to realize that the universe revolves around Earth.
* In Harry Harrison's ''TheStainlessSteelRat'' novels, humans are all over the galaxy and their origin has mostly been forgotten. When the Rat has to go back in time, they're not even sure of the name: "Dirt, or Earth, or something" and dubious of its claim to be the ancestral home of mankind.

* In ''AlastairReynolds'' Revelation Space series, Earth is only mentioned a handful of times and none of the characters ever go there. Much of the plot takes place around the planet Yellowstone.

--->'''Flash:''' ''"Ahh, check this out, people's exhibit B! OldYeller."'' tosses the video cassette to Kilowog\\

* ''Beneath the PlanetOfTheApes'' ends with the [[spoiler: Earth being destroyed by the Doomsday Bomb.]] The [[PaulFrees somber voiceover man]] says, [[spoiler: "In one of the countless billions of galaxies in the universe, lies a medium-sized star, and one of its satellites, a green and insignificant planet, is now dead."]]