Technological handicapping is the process of intentionally keeping a planet from advancing technologically. There are things that are very effective at this, but one of them relies on random chance more than the other.

Intentional resource shortage:
- Cause a lot population growth and deplete resources.
- Allow the planet to run out of resources.
- Keep the aliens alive through this.
- Profit

Apocalypse:
- Get apocalypse event
- Choose the middle option. Kill a lot of the life on the planet but not all.
- Profit

Why would you want to do this?

To stall the game so you get more alien species into the galaxy. When five planets reach singularity, the game ends. Each alien species on the planet gives points. Every populated planet also gives score. Therefore you want more than five species to reach that stage of the game.

What about unbalanced species. How do they come into the picture?

They're the easiest to technologically handicap:
- They're worse at technology.
- They have more population growth.
- They run out of resources faster.

They also suck, if given the chance to progress technologically:
- They run out of resources faster.
- They're dystopian.
- They're warlike.

Unbalanced species are a prime candidate for stalling the game while letting other species grow.

For an interaction between two parties to be successful you need two conditions to be met (as a general rule):
- One of the sides is at least 50% utopian.
- The other side is not dystopian.
- You have a lot of synthesis to spare.

That's it. These lead to highly fruitful interactions. Both sides become more utopian, and technology tends to be shared. Resources are also often given to the space ship that has landed.

The requirements are affected by previous interactions, from radio signals, most of all. Positive interactions make the meetings easier, while negative interactions make them harder.

Science

Only as good as the species it's given to. Actively avoid giving it to dystopian species.

Population growth

Mostly situational. Generally growth over 10% runs the risk of a resource shortage, while negative growth can spiral out of control if you have bad luck.

Very important to watch carefully.

Military power

Mostly bad. The more military power you have, the more you should have population. Try to have more people than you have potential casualties, and ideally over three times that, because big wars triple the damage.

It also has a negative effect on some interactions where utopian values are measured. Most of all the ending.

Generally not that big of a deal however. The ethics meter is more important.

Resources

Always good, but sometimes unnecessary. If you already have plenty, you probably don't need more.

Take population growth into account. High population growth means the demand for resources also rises rapidly.

Ethics

The most important metric in the game. Getting a good ending is mostly dependent on this metric. Either invest into this heavily, or give up entirely and use the aforementioned technological handicapping technique to keep a dystopian species in check.