As Stephen Jay Gould wrote, when the leopard catches the antelope leopard DNA wins. When the antelope gets away, antelope DNA wins. Either way, DNA wins.

DNA has had a long, long time to work on plants. There is more and more data showing plants have a form of intelligence, just not a form of intelligence we are able to see well. But DNA has been working.

DNA is able to survive and replicate in whatever niche it can find energy, i.e. food. It does that well, and over and over and over. Check the cracks is sidewalks.

Any enlightened civilization wanting to colonize the Universe would find a way to protect DNA from radiation and disseminate it into the voids and let it do it’s thing in whatever niche if found. An earlier version of intelligent life, Man, would think that he, his species, is what’s important and try to modify the niche to support his needs. He forgets DNA has modified him to survive on those particular resources he has found on Earth.

DNA is important, not Man’s particular DNA. The next generation of Homo More Sapien will understand that, not this one.

Hmmm… We know that supermassive black holes are often found in galactic nuclei, and there are reports of stellar black holes in the centers of GCs too. Maybe these black holes are not a natural by-product of the formation of these objects. Perhaps they are artifacts of very old and very powerful civilizations.

Real Olaf Stapledon stuff.