> the next time you come back This is imagining that space exploration is done by human-like entities that have discrete physical bodies and slow reproduction

> the next time you come back This is imagining that space exploration is done by human-like entities that have discrete physical bodies and slow reproduction rates. They come to a place, check it out, and move on. AI-driven Von Neumann probes would operate very differently. They arrive, and they settle and replicate. Eventually they send out new probes. But they don't leave once they have arrived. There's never any reason to leave.