Intelligent systems are essentially immortal, so once created they can populate whole galaxies.

Interstellar Expansion WITHOUT Faster Than Light Travel at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWlpNm1C5gw

Intelligent systems are essentially immortal. The Milky Way is only about 106,000 light years. At 1 milliLightYear per year, that means a machine and human based expansion could cover it in 106 Million years. Most galaxies that reach the point they can store memories and learning ability in machines could sustain single or few purposes for billions of years. Once the machines and systems are more or less self sustaining, the humans (or naturally evolved species) can live and die but the system would last forever. One evolved species making self-sustaining systems, the systems could populate a galaxy. And I think we will find that life and self-sustained systems are more common then we expect.

Filed as (AIs are essentially immortal, so once created they can populate whole galaxies)

Richard Collins, The Internet Foundation