As a minimum answer to that question in the world where it turns out we have nothing more valuable to do with all the energy and matter, consider if step one were “Store all excess emitted energy indefinitely,” and if step two were “Engage in some form of stellar engineering to extend the sun’s lifetime and slow the rate of emission to a stream of usable scale.” Step three (also plausibly started in parallel) would be having autonomous systems do the same for the rest of the reachable stars and galaxies in the universe, and then just wait until we need or want it. No need for descendants unless you want them—feel free to extend your own life arbitrarily far into the future, biologically or digitally or otherwise.
And yes, it might turn out that many or most of those stars and galaxies are already controlled by other civilizations, and therefore not available for our use. If so, then so be it. I hope we’re sane enough to leave them alone or become friendly in that case, otherwise there’s lots of opportunities to waste resources fighting them and/or one another
As a minimum answer to that question in the world where it turns out we have nothing more valuable to do with all the energy and matter, consider if step one were “Store all excess emitted energy indefinitely,” and if step two were “Engage in some form of stellar engineering to extend the sun’s lifetime and slow the rate of emission to a stream of usable scale.” Step three (also plausibly started in parallel) would be having autonomous systems do the same for the rest of the reachable stars and galaxies in the universe, and then just wait until we need or want it. No need for descendants unless you want them—feel free to extend your own life arbitrarily far into the future, biologically or digitally or otherwise.
And yes, it might turn out that many or most of those stars and galaxies are already controlled by other civilizations, and therefore not available for our use. If so, then so be it. I hope we’re sane enough to leave them alone or become friendly in that case, otherwise there’s lots of opportunities to waste resources fighting them and/or one another