So I am tinkering with a homebrew setting and am now messing with idea's to cover these two subjects. The setting itself uses a gatesystem in place of bracewell probes. The ETI long ago seeded the galaxy with a gate system, linking worlds together. The Goal of the ETI really is unknown, however the effect upon those cultures that reach the gate system is not. Once the gatesystem is activated , it plays out much as it did in eclips Phase. The gates plant self improving AGI based viruses within computer systems. They corrupt and seek out other AGI. This leads to much of what happened with the TITANS, often wide spread war as the Agents of the ETI attempt to upload as many minds as they can. Unlike Eclipse Phase , the EGI has a second prong of attack. Activation og the gate singles ETI agents dubbed "Harvesters" into action. It may take months or even years but once they arrive, these bio-mechanical machines set about assimilating as much technology and biological life as they can. They tend not to worry about ships and smaller objects that run, however they do not stop "Harvesting" until every world of the target Specie that are connected to a target gatesystem has been harvested. Now my thoughts are over the billions of years some of these have gone missing or malfunctioned and no longer cover every system. Some stars might even be younger then the gate system itself. Overall a I am thinking maybe 60% of the galaxy's stars have ETI gates. I am also leaning toward the ETI being a bit more passive, it simply waits until a gate is active. Over time this approach as lead to a few xeno gate systems being constructed. In time these new species run into an ETI gate or a gate system of an older species that have already fallen to the ETI's agents. So you are left with an ever expanding network of "trap" gates, once triggered it is only a matter of time before the ETI takes notice. Now as the Harvesters do not trouble themselves with tracking down low numbers of escaping ships or those systems not on the gate system, this does allow for survivors. A small number to be sure and the ones left are often pitiful remnants, but they can always rebuild. I am thinking much like the Factors, these races would have a set of rules. Along the lines of " Do not make self improving machines, Do not connect with a gate system you did not build" and the like. Thoughts on this?