Few doubt that machines will gradually surpass more and more of our distinctively human capabilities — or enhance them via cyborg technology. Disagreements are basically about the timescale — the rate of travel, not the direction of travel. The cautious amongst us envisage timescales of centuries rather than decades before humans are overtaken or transcended by electronic intelligence — far transcending the chemical and metabolic limits of ‘wet’ organic brains. These entities will then persist, continuing to evolve, for billions of years. Moreover, the timescales for technological advance are but an instant compared to the slow timescales of the Darwinian selection that led to humanity’s emergence — and (more relevantly) they are less than a millionth of the vast expanses of cosmic time lying ahead. But we humans shouldn’t feel too humbled. Even though we are surely not the terminal branch of an evolutionary tree, we could be of special cosmic significance for jump-starting the transition to inorganic (and potentially immortal) entities, spreading their influence far beyond the Earth, and far transcending our limitations. Moreover, a planetary environment may suit us ‘organics’ — but interplanetary and interstellar space may be the preferred arena where robotic fabricators will have the grandest scope for construction, and where non-biological ‘brains’ may develop powers than humans can’t even imagine. And they could spread through the cosmos — interstellar travel isn’t daunting to near- immortal beings. Is there life out there already? Or is the Galaxy waiting for our progeny? We know there’s nowhere in our solar system that harbours advanced life. However there may be freeze-dried bacteria on Mars. There may be creatures swimming under the Ice on Saturn’s moon Enceladus. But let’s widen our horizons to the realm of the stars. The prime subject-matter of the Carl Sagan Institute would have enthralled Carl. We've learnt that most stars in the sky are orbited