Man, considering the next 100 years is exciting, but considering the next trillion years is depressing. The solution to the Fermi paradox is probably that solar systems where life survives the death of its planet and particularly the death of its sun is the inevitable evolution away from intelligence. I honestly don't know how geologists and astronomers can make this shit their day job. It's a bleak view of things, looking at geological or astronomical timescales. If we send some extremophiles to the moons of Jupiter life will thrive for a trillion years, but sentient life really requires an energetic universe to work -- partially because sentience requires energy, but partially because sentience only makes sense in a complicated world. You don't need a big brain to float around in an ocean collecting energy from osmotic gradients or next to rocks picking up stray hydrogen molecules. So for now I'll focus on the next 100 years where human thriving and partial extinction will coexist -- because I can't do anything about a trillion years from now, but I can definitely help with the next 100 years by focusing on the next 18.