The inhabitants of the Mote have developed a subspecies entirely devoted to communication and the resolution of conflict through communications. Communication on Gethen is a stilted, blocked process hampered by constant considerations of shifgrethor, but they are still able to avoid conflict. Shifgrethor works as the Gethenian’s form of symbolic combat, determining winners and losers in particular conversations as well as social rankings, even though communication between the two may not have been successful. Communication is largely irrelevant on Gethen, because it is the level of shifgrethor of the participants that determines the outcome of an exchange. For the Moties, communication is key to their fragmented society.

Moties use Mediators to prevent the conflicts that would inevitably crop up in their society. No Master is subject to the will of another. Because there is no hierarchy among Masters, so Mediators must are required to settle disputes that would otherwise have caused violence. "Our talent is communication," Renner’s Motie explains, "but our major task is stopping fights…Noncommunication can assume dangerous proportions sometimes—usually just before a war…" (The Mote in God’s Eye, p. 264) The existence of the Mediators also contributes, however, to the cyclic rise and fall of Motie civilization. While war is generally considered a terrible tragedy, the avoidance of war created other problems for the Motie society.

The inhabitants of the Mote have used selective breeding to develop special castes adapted particularly to each major task in society. Their society is extremely efficient, because there is no question about a particular Motie’s place in society, no need to prepare a Motie for more than one career path, or waste time or resources teaching them skills they may or may not use in the future. The Moties also seem to have an instinctive, genetic talent for their jobs, so that it is easier to educate them than it is to educate a human. The Moties are therefore able to progress very rapidly. No time or effort is wasted. Their efficiency lets their civilization grow very quickly.

The skill of the Mediators prevents war and conflict that would otherwise help keep the population reduced and limited. Mediators settle all disputes. Human conflicts arise over territory, crops and other resources, labor, and power. The Mediators are able to negotiate all these problems. Without violent conflict, the population pressure is never relieved. There is nothing to control the Motie population, until civilization has reached a point where the resources of the world can no longer support it. The Mediators are unable to find a solution, and conflict erupts, along with the growth of "Crazy Eddie" ideas. Most Moties accept that there is no end to the Cycles. Mediators who cannot accept that the problem has no solution attempt to find ways to avoid the unavoidable conflict, as their genetic programming insists that they do. The Cycles have proven in Motie history to be thus far unavoidable, and Crazy Eddie ideas have only served to either put off collapse, speed it up, or in the case of the Crazy Eddie probe and presumably the asteroid civilizations, expand it to new places.

The Gethenians have the opposite difficulty with communication. The Mediators communicate so well that all conflict is avoided. Shifgrethor complicates relations on Gethen because it becomes impossible to be direct about anything, making communication very difficult. When Gethenians exchange information, shifgrethor is always in the way. Communication is a battle for prestige, and both sides are focused more on the battle than on the information exchange. Genly Ai is unable to understand the information that Estraven conveys to him after their dinner together in Karhide, because Estravan speaks as someone who is playing shifgrethor, while Mr. Ai is expecting direct information. As a result Genly Ai is confused: "I had no idea what he was driving at, but was sure that he did not mean what he seemed to mean" (The Left Hand of Darkness, p. 19). Mr. Ai has to puzzle the meaning out of Estraven’s words. Each Gethenian must determine what his conversational partner is really saying, because it is never what has been said. Only when shifgrethor is waived can information be directly conveyed, as occurred between Obsle and Estraven in Orgoreyn (The Left Hand of Darkness, p. 84). However, because shifgrethor and the manipulation of shifgrethor dictate the actions of Gethenians, the exchange of information is less necessary. Genly Ai does not need Argaven to understand the benefits of joining the Ekumen to convince him to do so. He is able to use shifgrethor to convince the king to agree. Communication does not necessarily have to take place in order for events to take place. Shifgrethor in this way also allows a person to achieve a solution without taking direct action.

Ignorance and inaction are central principals to the Handarra religion. Genly Ai learns about these principles when he goes to the Foretellers, and accidentally boasts to Goss that he is exceedingly ignorant (The Left Hand of Darkness, p.56). However, his boast is accurate. Genly Ai is possibly the most ignorant being on the planet, because he is a stranger, and even the efforts of the Investigators that preceded Mr. Ai, and his own efforts to learn about shifgrethor, he can’t understand the Gethenian ways. Estraven says of Mr. Ai, "His obtuseness is ignorance. His arrogance is ignorance. He is ignorant of us: we of him" (The Left Hand of Darkness, p. 151) Mr. Ai is ignorant of the social and political pressures that must be brought to bear to get Gethen to join the Ekumen. He is left without the possibility of useful action. Though Mr. Ai tries to affect the forces around him, he is completely unsuccessful until he is forced to stop trying.

Mr. Ai’s initial attempts at influencing the king in Karhide fail before he even wins an audience with the king. Genly Ai’s efforts produce nothing but failure and misunderstanding: "In trying to flatter and interest him I had cornered him in a prestige-trap. It was all going very wrong" (The Left Hand of Darkness, p. 38). In his ignorance Genly Ai cannot act effectively, because he doesn’t understand what the appropriate actions are. His attempts to affect the politics at work in Orgoreyn resulted in his imprisonment in a labor camp.

Finally, Genly Ai is in a position where he can do nothing. He is forced into non-action, and the events which will result in the accomplishment of his mission are set in motion without any effort by Mr. Ai. He is passive as Estraven rescues him from the labor camp, and allows Estraven to advise him. During their trip over the ice, Genly Ai and Estraven are concerned above all with survival, and though Mr. Ai is not explicitly attempting to find out more about the Gethenians, he is able to connect with and begin to understand Estraven as he could not do before. Mr. Ai succeeds through doing nothing. Major progress is always made while he is passive. He is standing and watching at Estraven’s death, and he sleeps while Karhide and Orgoreyn deal with the consequences. Ignorant, passive, and ultimately successful, Genly Ai becomes a prime example for the Handarra.

Shifgrethor takes the place of communication for the Gethenians, and in some cases it takes the place of action. A Gethenian can influence events without communication or direct action, through his shifgrethor. The Moties, by contrast, place a great deal of importance on communication, as the basis for holding together their eternally doomed societies. Both societies avoid conflict for the most part, but the methods they employ are different. The Moties resolve everything through discussion, while the Gethenians resolve everything through shifgrethor. Communication may not be possible between two Gethenians who are playing shifgrethor, but it is also not entirely necessary. The actions or nonactions that the parties will take will be determined by the person with the most shifgrethor, not by the person with the most accurate or persuasive information, as Genly Ai discovered. Communication is permanently broken down on Gethen, whereas on the Mote, a breakdown in communication results in the destruction of society.