 How is Earth perceived in this story?
For eighty years now, they’d been sending out the little ships that vanished at greater than the speed of light, equipped with every conceivable device to make them return automatically after taking pictures of wherever they arrived. Earth was becoming a backwater world; no real progress had been made in two centuries; the young men were sent out as soon as their first fifty years of education were finished, and the older men were too conservative for really new thinking. Pre-setting a course may take centuries, if we can ever master it. After all, there was nothing to worry about; Earth’s doctors could cure anything. Some were older than Giles could remember—knee reflex, blood pressure, pulse and fluoroscope.
 it is a weaker planet now because few discoveries are taking place there
 it's run by an intelligent, motivated Council  it is a weaker planet now because few discoveries are taking place there  it's in the center of all of the other planets, so it's visited often  people want to live there, as it's the richest planet