I love the dissipative structure framing. It's the only logical explanation for all of this.

Datacenters in space are visionary -- they are maximally energy rate dense and they expand the area of energy absorption. Might be 100 years too early but that is where we are headed, after we turn all of the available biosphere of earth into computronium, that is.

The only superior technology left would be von Neumann probes.