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179 biologies of widely separated worlds may be so different that the life extension techniques of particular immortal species would not be useful o others who were mortal. It is far more likely that the immortals would seek to avoid the attention of spacefaring civilizations. Immortality has been underrepresented as a factor in science specula- ion and science fiction. We are expected to believe that “Star Trek” and “Star Wars” characters living centuries in the future age and die just as we do. Yet, life extension has become a major area of medical research, with he clear hope that it someday will lead to eternal life for individual humans. One researcher declared that aging is an optional feature of life; it can be slowed or postponed.™* Perhaps science fiction authors avoid writing about immortality because hey see it as static and boring. They may be right. Immortality could have a profound effect on the way civilizations behave. Silence may spread across the Galaxy as intelligent beings achieve eternal ife. It may be that only mortals like ourselves take the risk of broadcasting heir presence or of sending out explorers. Many authors have offered lists of possible solutions to the paradox, includ- ing those described earlier. Those compilers include Carl Sagan, Isaac Asimov, Gerard O’Neill, Thomas Kuiper and Mark Morris, Seth Shostak, C.E. Singer, John Ball, Gregg Easterbrook, Frank White, Albert Harrison, Donald Goldsmith, Andrew and David Clark, Ian Crawford, Michael Kurland, Jack Cohen and Ian Stewart, Terence Dickinson, Peter Ulmschneider, T.L. Wilson, and William McLaughlin. Stephen Webb pulled together 50 suggested solutions in his 2002 book Where Is Everybody? He divided these explanations (some of them whim- sical) into three broad categories: They Are Here, They Exist But Have Not Yet Communicated, and They Do Not Exist. He noted that the They Are Here category is by far the most popular with the general public, although he rejected it. Webb emphasized arguments for the rareness of advanced life and intel- ligence, in effect inserting his preferred numbers into the Drake equation. He suspected that there is a combination of factors—a product of various solutions listed in his book—resulting in the uniqueness of Humankind. Webb concluded that the Fermi paradox tells us mankind is the only sapient, sentient species in the Galaxy. Yet, he admitted that there are potential challenges to that conclusion. Solutions supporting the argument that intelligent extraterrestrials do not exist depend on making one or more of the terms in the Drake equation very small.* Catalogs of Solutions Catalogs of Solutions