Source: The High Frontier, Redux – Charlie’s Diary, by Charlie Stross
This is not to say that interstellar travel is impossible; quite the contrary. But to do so effectively you need either (a) outrageous amounts of cheap energy, or (b) highly efficient robot probes, or (c) a magic wand.
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What about our own solar system? … Colonize the Gobi desert, colonise the North Atlantic in winter — then get back to me about the rest of the solar system!