MuFSEL: A Frame-Theoretic Model for SETI Based on Intelligence Frame Theory

MuFSEL (Multiframe Filtered Search for Extraterrestrial Life) proposes a frame-based model for SETI rooted in Intelligence Frame Theory (IFT). Traditional SETI approaches have privileged anthropocentric assumptions—radio leakage, planetary colonization, or artifact construction—yet such signatures are likely transient. IFT conceptualizes intelligence as recursive interactions of three Universal Intelligence Operators (UIOs)—Information Transfer, Competition & Collaboration, and Finding Limits—guided by a Selector (Eureka). These operators manifest differently across substrates, producing successive frames: Cosmic, Biological, Cognitive, and Generative. MuFSEL applies this framework to hypothesize when and how intelligences become observable, why their visibility windows are vanishingly brief, and how multi-factor selectors determine survival or silence. This reorients SETI toward detecting selector imprints and frame artifacts rather than expecting dialogical communication.