Or maybe it's just too impractical. Communication alone is a pretty compelling argument against "galactic civilisations". If the speed of light is indeed the ul

Or maybe it's just too impractical. Communication alone is a pretty compelling argument against "galactic civilisations". If the speed of light is indeed the ultimate limit for information exchange, then it would be completely pointless to have a "colony" more than a handful of light years away. It'd be practically impossible to even just have a meaningful information exchange between worlds that are hundreds or even thousands of light years apart. Trading goods would be useless - it'd take thousands of years for a one way trip. Messages would be obsolete the moment they're sent, because the receiver would only be able to detect them after hundreds or thousands of years. All those fantasies rely on FTL or basically unchanging civilisations that stagnate for aeons.