Maybe highly rational entities decide large-scale interstellar travel is suboptimal.
I think this is an under considered explaination. Once you get more than 10 light years away ( and maybe much sooner than that) coordination is hard. You can’t send messages back and forth quickly, you can’t synchronize views and conclusions quickly etc.
Maybe the Agi or civilization or whatnot thinks of starting a colony, realizes that after it does so there will be 2 civilizations or 2 AIs and decides that the increase in the odds of conflict after going from 1 to 2 don’t justify the benefits.
I think this is an under considered explaination. Once you get more than 10 light years away ( and maybe much sooner than that) coordination is hard. You can’t send messages back and forth quickly, you can’t synchronize views and conclusions quickly etc.
Maybe the Agi or civilization or whatnot thinks of starting a colony, realizes that after it does so there will be 2 civilizations or 2 AIs and decides that the increase in the odds of conflict after going from 1 to 2 don’t justify the benefits.