About automation replacing us:

If you think of machines as the next step in evolution, as our children, then it's awesome that they don't have the same limitations of biological bodies like we have, so they could go on exploring our galaxy in a completely different way than we could with our short life spans. The human will die out anyway, like all the other biological species, but at least we could have a heritage in form of the machines which could survive and strive to connect to others in the universe whom we will never be able to reach ourselves.