The Implications and Potential of Holographic Society

While the Federation up to the end of the shows generally treats holograms as slaves/entertainment, but it is clear they can be more.

I don't care about the Federation's view. I wanna talk about an already existing society of holograms.

I had forgot about the episode "Shadow Play" in which Dax and Odo investigate dissapearances in a small village on a remote planet in the Gamme Quadrant (S2E16). I love this episode since Odo makes some real connections with random humanoids who don't inherently distrust him. Lo and behold the Dominion is responsible for conquering the real peoples the holograms are based off of. Odo must have pre-judged the unkown Dominion a lot at this time.

Dax and Odo fix the holographic projector, which works with an omicron field, and now everyone knows they are holograms. Here is where it gets interesting. They can now reconstruct that holoprojector at proper points to extend the field.

Eventually, the whole planet could be populated by holograms, assuming there are the resources for the emitters. As towns and cities grow, they might attach an emitter to spacecraft. It is well established holodecks can make physical things you interact with. Honestly, the emitter made in this episode sounds much more advanced than anything the Federation can concoct.

These holograms, from humble beginnings, now have the capability to spread out to moons, stars, maybe even other systems if resources allow. Could their omicron field emitter just project whatever material they need? Getting invaded? Just replicate a ton of weapons and fight around the emitters. Anyone killed will just be reprogrammed alive and same for destroyed cities.

Tl;DR: Holograms win. Every. Time.