Any time I see this discussed, I feel compelled to post the transcension hypothesis: <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;accelerating.org&#x2F;articles&#x2F;Smart-2011-TranscensionHypothesis-ActaAstronautica(Author%27sReformat).pdf" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;accelerating.org&#x2F;articles&#x2F;Smart-2011-TranscensionHypo...</a><p>In short: Life is common in the universe, black holes are better than Dyson spheres, and eventually everyone uploads their brains to computers.<p>Far fetched or not, really interesting reading!