The backups could be their own autonomous (and autogamous) agents, in which
case the "backups" themselves would be the essential feature of an emergent
brain of enormous complexity. It's hard to imagine anything centralized
"conquering" a system like that, especially if general relativity prevents
the centralized entity from moving faster than c.
-WHEN YOUR ONLY TOOL IS A HAMMER-
-EVERY PROBLEM STARTS TO LOOK LIKE A NAIL-