I didn’t say something about the progress of space travel. I made an observation about how technological progress and centralization are correlated. And I don’t think societies in the age of space travel (with the technology that that entails) will be less centralized than what we have now.
But I don’t think technological process and centralization are necessarily correlated. It’s more like they go in cycles.
The progression from trains to cars is a good example. At first you had highly centralized, expensive transport. Then cars developed and became decentralized.
On a longer timeline, consider technologies like writing, or paper. Initially highly centralized, now so ubiquitous that we don’t even recognize them as technologies.
I’m basically just saying that on a long enough timeline, the chances that space transportation is controlled by a central authority seems nearly impossible.
Space is quite literally limitless from a human perspective; to assume that somehow human beings will make zero progress on space travel 500 or 1,000 years from now seems naive to me.