I've found the series to be incredibly uplifting as in it makes me feel positive. Sort of like ST:TNG, though with less holes (ST never really explains why so much stuff is so limited, beyond hand-wavy "energy" concerns).
It's a lovely picture of the future, assuming we have a really friendly AI explosion.
Minds can build robots to go mine asteroids light years away and come back through (duh) hyperspace. I meant the original comment quite literally.
Also, it is a really freaking good series if you like Sci-fi that tries to answer philosophy questions, which this series does a wonderful job of.