I was being conservative (hence the “at least” :-), and agree that we’d want to disassemble stars. But maybe reachable technology can’t become so advanced to allow that kind of stellar engineering3%, so we’re stuck with living in space habitats orbiting suns. I think the median scenario for an advanced civilization extends far longer than the stelliferous era.
(My point is more that there will probably be no natural “end of stelliferous era” at all, because the last stars that are not part of some nature reserve will be disassembled much earlier than that, and the nature reserve stars could well be maintained for much longer.)
I was being conservative (hence the “at least” :-), and agree that we’d want to disassemble stars. But maybe reachable technology can’t become so advanced to allow that kind of stellar engineering3%, so we’re stuck with living in space habitats orbiting suns. I think the median scenario for an advanced civilization extends far longer than the stelliferous era.
(My point is more that there will probably be no natural “end of stelliferous era” at all, because the last stars that are not part of some nature reserve will be disassembled much earlier than that, and the nature reserve stars could well be maintained for much longer.)