I have to guess that is their secondary and already underway goal. I forget the exact quote but one of the early scientists mentioned sending such a signal would require a satellite dish the size of Africa and (I think) a bunch of power.

We’ve already seen them starting to conserve power.

Something I’m curious to see as the series advances is how they’ll handle reproduction. The current population of the Earth is something like 8 billion people. Is it adventagous to increase that number to 10 billion? Or is it better to conserve resources and lower that to 6 billion?

If it’s an increase in population, do they try and build certain types of “bees”, some for work, some for science?

If it’s a decrease in population, do they let it happen naturally? How much work can be put into saving someone? In order to accomplish their goals are they allowed to send parts of the hive on “suicide missions”?