Shipping physical objects between the stars is expensive and generally limited to luxury goods and items that cannot be duplicated on the destination worlds. Nevertheless, there are always freighters that go from system to system, engaging in enough trade to thrive.

There are three levels of computational intelligence:

Artificial Stupids are limited intelligences designed for boring and repetitive tasks that would drive anyone else mad. These are everywhere and cheap, from mining robots, to "smart" doors, appliances, and toys.

Artificial Intelligence is common, where smarter machines are needed for complex tasks. Thus, AI can be found in robotic space probes, intelligent money, cyberneural assistants, and other demanding roles. There is some resistance to AI on many worlds, and an outright ban in a few backwards-looking civilizations.

Sentient AIs are far less common. These people are also not universally accepted as equals. There are significant parts of the Galaxy where sentient AIs are discriminated against or outlawed. Fortunately, more and more civilizations are insisting on their equality and inclusion.

The Fleet carries the best medical technology known in the Galaxy. Between biotech and nanotech, most of the wetware people in the Fleet should expect to live at least a thousand years, and many far longer. There are some who reach ten thousand years as a biological being.

Cloning technology is well understood, but its use to produce a genetically exact duplicate of a living individual is frowned upon by most races. Similarly, it is possible to recreate nearly any intelligent machine. Nevertheless, it is not possible to copy a sentient mind from one body and move it into another, whether wetware, software, or hardware, for any extended period of time. (Copying for a day works. Copying for a year fails.)

Sentient minds can be moved into virtual existence, but it is a one-way trip, with some subtle differences in the copy.

Most races refrain from dramatic alterations in their genomes, software, or wetware. There are life-like prostheses for biological components that cannot be regrown naturally or in a laboratory. There are organic, semi-organic, mechanical, or cybernetic augmentations readily available in emergencies. Most races shy away from machine/being borganisms.

Genetic diseases are easily repaired. Medicines for treatment of other diseases are easily fabricated via nanotechnology. Examples of diseases that jump across species and genomes are rare, and are almost always the result of criminal genetic manipulation and enhancement. Many "smart" viruses aren't very smart in the end.

When understood and controlled, nanotech can make anything, from atomic-level constructs and bioneural devices, to food and computational devices, all the way up to growing an entire starship. This is how the Fleet operates.

When misunderstood and misused, nanotech can reduce a world to "gray goo," destroying everything that once existed there.

Most races fall into the latter group. This is why nanotech is illegal and frightening in much of the Universe.

Most cultures start with some form of religion. Almost all of these dogmas do not survive contact with alien cultures and a larger Universe. There is a rich set of philosophies and philosophers that debate ethics and morals across the Galaxies, but very few of these philosophies contain an element of faith.

There is no means of teleportation above the quantum scale, except in fiction. All travel requires moving objects from one location to another the old fashioned way.

VR is ubiquitous and impossible to differentiate from the "real" world. While it is often used as an entertainment medium, its most common use is as a means of life-extension. Even with the best anti-agathics and cyborganic technology, biological beings eventually wear out. Before this happens, most biologicals have their sensorum scanned, so they can be uploaded as a fully-functional software-equivalent to their previous biological existence.