knb comments on Should humanity give birth to a galactic civilization? - Less Wrong
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A different (more likely?) scenario is that the god-like entities will not gradually decline their resource usage--they'll store up energy reserves, then burn through them as efficiently as possible, then shut down. It will be really sad each time a god-like entity dies, but not necessarily painful.
Actually, if evolutionary pressures continue (i.e. no singleton) it seems fairly likely that usable resources will collapse suddenly, and resource starvation is relatively brief. Right now, we have an energy diet from the sun--it only releases so much energy at once. But future entities may try to break up stars to use their energy more efficiently (solar fusion is highly inefficient compared to possible levels).