Quine categorized paradoxes into veridical (apparently absurd, but actually true), falsidical (seemingly contradictory, because they actually do assume something false or use an invalid step somewhere), and antinomy (self-contradiction from true premises using only valid steps [arguably there are no such things]). I find these categories to be helpful for improving communication about such things.
If I have understood the arguments correctly, they are saying the Fermi Paradox is falsidical because the expectation of lots of ETIs was made using invalid steps.
Quine categorized paradoxes into veridical (apparently absurd, but actually true), falsidical (seemingly contradictory, because they actually do assume something false or use an invalid step somewhere), and antinomy (self-contradiction from true premises using only valid steps [arguably there are no such things]). I find these categories to be helpful for improving communication about such things.
If I have understood the arguments correctly, they are saying the Fermi Paradox is falsidical because the expectation of lots of ETIs was made using invalid steps.
Does that scan?