All the most lavish virtual environments- replicas of cities, of rotating habitats, of worlds in and of themselves- can live in the brain of a typical grain of dust. Those grains of dust ply the stars, fast and resilient despite taking snowballs for shields- they are as close as one can get to an interstellar society, moving as close to light as can be dared and acting in redundant swarms. The real vast expenditures, the real shows of wealth, come in hauling. A kilometre-long spindle, tugging a frozen body to be loaded into at the destination, is a frivolous, expensive masterpiece.
