Recursive Stability Filtering and the Fermi Paradox: A PTPC Framework for Cosmic Silence

The Fermi Paradox describes the apparent contradiction between the high probabilistic expectation of extraterrestrial civilisations and the absence of observable evidence for their existence. Traditional explanations often invoke rarity of abiogenesis, self-destruction, or the existence of a singular ``Great Filter.'' This paper proposes an alternative framework: that cosmic silence may arise from recursive stability filtering operating continuously across biological, technological, and interstellar stages of development. Under the Parry Tensional Phase Collapse (PTPC) framework, systems accumulate tension through complexity, energy extraction, internal conflict, and environmental instability. When critical thresholds are exceeded, systems undergo collapse, pruning, or reversion until stable attractor states are reached. Applied cosmologically, PTPC implies that life may be common, intelligence less common, and persistent detectable civilisations exceedingly rare---not because of a singular barrier, but because of repeated instability-driven filtering. This framework suggests a universe rich in life, recurrent in intelligence, yet sparse in persistent detectable civilisations, remaining observationally quiet through recurrent collapse, low-signature stabilisation, or dormant ``Shen-state'' equilibria.