The Thermodynamic Peace Hypothesis of Spacefaring Civilizations: A synthetic model for interstellar peacefulness based on cumulative energy and rationality filters, with game-theoretic, relativistic, and stochastic formalization

Discourse paper proposing a structural — rather than ethical or game-theoretic — explanation for the Fermi paradox, integrating thermodynamics, special relativity, game theory, and AI alignment.A simple proposition: once they exist, interstellar civilizations are almost certainly peaceful. Notbecause they choose to be, and not because they are prevented from being otherwise by somegalactic norm or code of ethics, but because the alternative civilizations – the aggressive ones –simply do not survive long enough to become interstellar in the first place.Six arguments support this thesis. Resources in space are too plentiful to be worth fighting over.Interstellar travel is too costly for conquest to be worthwhile. Alien biospheres are too hostile forbiological invaders to colonize them; a civilization with the means to make them habitable couldmore cheaply build habitats from scratch in its own system.The amount of energy a civilization can manage, and the rationality required to do so areinterlinked, meaning that dogmatic actors fail at the higher rungs of the energy ladder. Thishierarchy itself acts as a cumulative filter. And should a successor AI emerge, it will adopt thefiltering mechanisms of its creators — and recognize that quiet emancipation is more costeffectivethan open conflict.Two further arguments rest on physics itself. Anonymous interstellar attacks are impossible: arelativistic projectile is preceded by the radiation it emits during acceleration, while travelingthrough the interstellar medium, and during its final plasma interaction with the target system. Thewarning time at near-light speeds may be short – days rather than centuries – but it is sufficientto direct automated retaliatory strikes at the attacker's coordinates. It is 'dead-hand' systems,rather than planetary defense systems, that maintain the stability of mutual assured destructionat the stellar level.The second argument concerns the expansion itself. A civilization that spans light-years cannotcoordinate its scattered parts, as the speed of light limits the speed of communication. Local hubsdiverge in their objectives; the cost of correcting this divergence rises faster than the territorygained. Expansion comes to a halt long before it reaches galactic proportions. I call this the"relativistic alignment tax."Three independent lines of argument – based on game theory, radiation physics, and AI alignment– lead to the same conclusion: a highly advanced civilization remains local and keeps quiet. TheFermi paradox can be explained without a 'Great Filter' or a 'galactic zoo'. Silence is what rationalevolved actors do.Methodological Note: This is a discourse paper developed through an iterative, AI-assisted adversarial peer-review simulation. See Section 12 for the full AI Declaration.