The problem is that access to the entire store of matter and energy runs through the single thread of successfully scaling space travel. So the logic appears to run similar to Dissolving the Fermi Paradox; the question largely reduces to whether one or more of the critical choke points fail.
The problem is that access to the entire store of matter and energy runs through the single thread of successfully scaling space travel. So the logic appears to run similar to Dissolving the Fermi Paradox; the question largely reduces to whether one or more of the critical choke points fail.
Space travel successful → almost certain growth
Space travel fails → almost certain doom