Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think we'll have full-blown AGI before fusion and before world-changing levels of quantum computing. Which is to say, we won't be around to see fusion and world-changing quantum :( But there's still time for robo-taxis!
Or, more optimistically, AGI will accelerate scientific progress and we will have fusion, quantum computers, and self driving cars shortly after. If AIs had the tendency to recursively devour worlds you would expect at least one alien AI to have conquered our galaxy by now. But the sky is quiet, so either we are the very first species to get this far, or there’s a natural ceiling to the pace of technological progress…
There is no evidence that an actually existing thing like a Von Neumann probe can survive interstellar travel. I think that the answer to all of these paradoxes is that special relativity just makes it basically impossible. That’s anathema to us nerds, I know.
That’s a very thin argument to hang a Pandora’s Box opening on. It only needs to devour one planet, though we appear to be doing that ourselves too.