Boundaries between this world and others began to fade. It wasn’t life elsewhere that held the magic, anymore. It was that life existed anywhere, at all. We were just as improbable, and as important, as whatever we hoped might exist on worlds beyond.

“I think that really misses the point, mainly because, if you think about it, the most important thing we’re doing in this century is inventing our successors.” He thinks that most of the intelligence in the universe, abundant as it may be, is likely synthetic.