Colony spamming would basically be Von Neumann on a large scale really and we look to be entering a econ golden age once comstar bites it so best to spam them now. Get at least starter colonies on those worlds and let them grow and as they do their industry adds up making our already near post scarcity even stronger.
I worry though. From a meta perspective spamming colonies and/or settlements might leave their inhabitants unprepared for whatever crisis we're heading for, compared to them living in the heavily industrialised and defended systems.
Furthermore spamming colonies is unlike us, in a way, since the common belief is that the Onouch'l automatons are
the hereditary threat and enemy we need to be able to defend against. They're also the reason why our society is so heavily militarised (hundreds of defense installations in the original Three Systems) and such a focus is placed on the bleeding edge of technological development, because we know we
have to catch up to the 3,000 years of headstart the Onouch'l or their makers have on us.
At least one approach to deal with that is to keep our footprint as small as possible, by being isolationist for instance, and spamming colonies is kind of the opposite of that. By necessity our society will become louder, so to speak, if only because there'll be many more drive plumes visible from light years away and radio chatter and backscatter will fill the ether as we expand.
I don't see us avoiding this trap unless we somehow manage to outpace the light cone of our expansion. Add to that the Onouch'l may very well sit between systems instead of in one and the may already know of us and prepare.
The counterargument to that is of course that whatever transported the Three Systems into the IS setting may have also transported the Onouch'l. From an intelligence standpoint at least the first couple decades that would be the base assumption. I know you can never prove a negative, since you can never be sure to have checked every location, but not checking to the best of their knowledge would be criminally negligent. Heck, that might be the ordinarily primary mission of survey squadron, checking if there are any Onouch'l around, and the whole surveying surrounding space is subordinated to that. Practice looks different, of course, but still.
I really can't wait to see survey spun off intelligence. It being passive I'd still like to have the option to have its focus directed, though, like…
Where should the Survey Office focus their attentions for the time being?
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[] Coreward (along and into Lupus Cloud)
[] Spinward (towards Inner Sphere and Periphery states)
[] Rimward (toward Periphery states and out)
[] Antispinward (away from Inner Sphere, totally uncharted)
[] All equally (gradual survey in all directions equally)