The invention of a super-strong material named Bulerite is partially responsible for this, which enables Earth to, at last, initiate a burgeoning space industry.

[1] Zebrowski, in the novel, regards Macrolife as an open-ended, expansive union of organic, cybernetic and machine intelligences (human and alien) with spacefaring as its means of dissemination.

The Bulero family/corporation, inventors and marketers of Bulerite which is used to build the huge cities which house the Earth's (and colonies) teeming millions, are at the pinnacle of their influence and wealth.

The devastation precipitates a war with Earth's colonies on the outer planets, with whom a struggle for control of the solar system existed.

After overcoming attempts to stop them, Asterome finally manages to leave the solar system, heading for Alpha Centauri, the nearest star.

(III) The Dream of Time ... A hundred billion years have passed, and Macrolife is now the dominant culture throughout the universe, which is, at this stage, beginning to contract into its final death throes.