Vanamonde: I don't believe we have that much time [when the sun begins to exhaust its supply of hydrogen].

dcl: I couldn't agree with you more.

Vanamonde: O'Neil colonies are a very difficult engineering problem but require no new science. This is not space fiction but a NASA study. And if this species does survive the next 1000 years (let alone 10 or 100 millions), we may be able to engineer solar systems. Who knows?

dcl: Perhaps no new science, but a literally unimaginably massive amount of engineering, construction, and commandeering of already severely limited energy and material resources. I feel that it is almost literally infinitely beyond anything the human race could realistically ever hope to accomplish.

It's pleasant to be able to dream; but at some point, we need to face reality.