RE: Some fun questions about the future of the human race
So many questions, so little time. Real life, in the form of my cats, is insisting that I pay attention to it, but I want to address some of the ideas you have raised.
First, unless physicists are very wrong about the speed of light being a limitation, we won't be able to effectively operate machines at great distances. Response time lags of several years will make that impossible. We will not be able to explore the universe from the comfort of home.
A more likely solution to the frailty of human bodies would be human-machine hybrids. At their most extreme, such hybrids would consist of a brain controlling a mechanical body designed to sustain the brain and to protect it from the thousand natural shocks (and ionizing radiation) that flesh is heir to.
A new field in communication is arising in the form of quantum communication. I don't know much about it but at this point the focus seems to be on cryptography. However if we can use quantum entanglement in communication it seems to me that eventually we will be able to send communication or transmissions over any distance instantaneously. This would make the speed of light limit irrelevant.
So if this is the case, and we advance VR technology to the point where we can experience an environment remotely via a robotic explorer with instantaneous transmission, what would be the purpose of humans actually leaving? What would be the financial incentive? Over population issues seem as if they could become moot as well, as we would all be residing within a digital network... perhaps one that eventually would span the galaxy? (crazy laugh)
https://www.picoquant.com/applications/category/quantum-optics/quantum-communication
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_entanglement
apparently I am confusing two kinds of technology at this point there is no way to manipulate entangled particles without destroying the entanglement