Hi John, and thanks for posting a link to Matt Williams' piece. I hadn't seen it so far.

That "75% of Americans already live in just 3% of the land in our country (urban space)" is not, I think, a positive trend or a permanent one.

Crowding in cities was economically inevitable until a few years ago, but now more and more people can live and work wherever they want.

Why should one want to live in a crowded and polluted city instead of living closer to nature? Give me wide open spaces and clear skyes anytime. I expect that more and more people will take advantage of this opportunity.

Same for black holes vs. the rest of the universe. Why should a civilization want to be locked in a black hole instead of exploring the rest of the universe? Perhaps there are places or modes of being (uploading to bare quantum fields?) that are even more interesting and useful.