Tyree's Tuppence

by Tyree Campbell

Either - Or

On the eve of two weeks of conventions the high points of which will be the anointing of two men for us voters to choose from when we go to select our next president, it is sorely tempting to write of political matters even in this, a site dedicated to science fiction, fantasy, and horror.  It is in fact difficult to relate science fiction to politics, although one would have no trouble identifying horror with the Republicans and fantasy with the Democrats.  But science--and, by extension, science fiction--is Aristotelian, while politics is fundamentally Platonian.  Like oil and water, you might think.  Occasionally, however, one gets to create an emulsion.

Though politics be Platonian, one aspect of it [particularly in the U.S.] is Aristotelian, to wit:  that our choices are Republican or Democrat.  This "either-or" scenario is right out of Aristotle.  It is what it is, or it isn't.  How that works in our politics is this:  if the Republicans are wrong, then the Democrats must be right.  Although such a statement follows the format of a syllogism, it must be noted that of the over 250 different forms of syllogism, most are invalid.  It would be unfair to reduce syllogisms to the level of parlor games, and yet in the case of our political choices, it must be said that the Republicans being wrong does not necessarily validate the Democratic point of view.  Yet it is this very same invalid argument that both the Republicans and Democrats demand that we the people accept.

You can create an emulsion by shaking things up [think of a bottle containing both oil and water].  It's time we the people did that [by voting for a third party, hint hint].

But "either-or" is far more important to us as sf/f/h aficionados than politics.  Let's apply it to . . . oh, Mars, for example.

We've finally managed to place upon the surface of Mars a mobile mechanical device that not only performs the investigative and analytical functions for which it was designed, but also is able to tell us about its findings.  It's called Phoenix.  It should have been named Chatty Cathy, although I think that appellation had already been taken.

So far, Phoenix has found water ice, and determined that the "soil" of Mars is alkaline [not good for beets and carrots, but great for leeks], and identified magnesium, sodium, and potassium, plus chlorides and perchlorates.  No carbon yet, unfortunately.  There is carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, but it would take plant life to extract the carbon and make sugar and cellulose, plant life which Mars does not have at the moment.  Mars might have had it 10,000 years ago, or it might have it in another 10,000 years.  But, as far as we know at this point, not now.

That's why we're there:  to find out if life has been there, and/or if life is there now, and/or whether life is possible there.  We're taking baby steps, finding little pieces of the puzzle.  A little magnesium here, a bit of calcium there, and pretty soon we're talking about most of the periodic table of the elements.  What we'd really like to find, though, is evidence of microbes--of bacteria, mold . . . why, heck, we'd settle for almost any combination of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and, say, nitrogen. 

The existence of life itself, of course, is Aristotelian.  It's an either-or proposition.  A thing is alive, or it is not.  There is no in-between, no gray area, no shadow realm. 

It need not be a life form we recognize, either.  Stanley G. Weinbaum, one of the finest science fiction writers of the 1930s, postulated in his classic short story "A Martian Odyssey" the existence of silicon-based life.  Imagine if you would a wingless crystalline bird:  that would be Weinbaum's Tweel, a creature of inexplicable behavior and unfathomable motives, but living nonetheless.  Sadly, Tweel lived only in Weinbaum's imagination.  All extra-terrestrials inhabit only our imaginations . . . so far.

Right now, life on Earth is it.  No matter how much we want or dream or need it to be otherwise, what we have here is it.  Yes, there are gabillions of stars and perhaps even gatrillions of planets out there.  In our own galaxy there are over a hundred billion stars and perhaps three times that many planets.  The odds are that we are not alone.  But we are, as far as we know, alone.  It is safe to say, that as far as we know at this point, there is no life anywhere else in the Universe. 

It's also safe to say that most of life on this planet doesn't give a rodent's patootie whether there is life elsewhere.  Paramecia and planaria don't care.  Coyotes don't care, unless that life is edible.  Most people in Uruguay and Sudan and Bhutan and Armenia don't care.  In fact, most people everywhere don't care.  Most people would have us spend money to feed people living in abject poverty so that they can reproduce and make more people living in abject poverty.  Well, no one ever said we were a perfectly logical species.

Indeed, what does it matter whether there is life elsewhere?  Specifically, whether there is a bacterium on Mars?

If there is nothing else out there, then we are limited to this world.  We're like ants limited to one anthill, like Peter Rabbit limited to Mr. MacGregor's carrots.  We are confined.  Our hopes and dreams are confined.  This is all there is.  Nothing we do, ever, will endure.  What's the oldest artifact?  A pebble tool from the Acheulian?  1,500,000 years, perhaps?  What's that in comparison to the 5,000,000,000 years of Earth's existence?  It's a blink.  A teardrop in an ocean.  It's nothing.  We live and we die and that is it.  It's a good thing someone developed the notion of an after-life, or we'd all go nuts.

But if we find evidence of life elsewhere, even if that life is but a microbe on Mars, it opens to us an infinity of possibilities. 

Where there are microbes, there can be multicellular organisms.  Where there are organisms, there can be sea cucumbers and fish and birds and mammals and . . . and us.  No, not on Mars.  Yes, I hope there is life there, but I'm fairly certain there are no ostriches, no cheetahs, no baboons.  Doesn't matter.  If life exists on Earth, it means [until demonstrated otherwise] that life exists only on Earth.  If life, any life, also exists on Mars, then it can exist anywhere.

The fundamental Aristotelian proposition, then, is this:  Either life exists only on Earth, or it also exists elsewhere.  And there are hundreds of billions of "elsewheres" to consider, once we find life somewhere other than Earth.

Those of you who were paying attention during the "syllogism" part of this Tuppence will note that my fundamental Aristotelian proposition regarding the existence of life is also invalid.  You're right.  If we find life on Mars, then it exists only on two planets in the Universe.

Which is why, after Mars, we should keep looking.

Past Tuppence:
June 2008
March 2008
December 2007
September 2007
June 2007
March 2007
December 2006
September 2006
June 2006
March 2006
December 2005
September 2005
June 2005
March 2005
December 2004
September 2004
June 2004
March 2004
December 2003
September 2003
June 2003
March 2003
December 2002
October 2002
August 2002
June 2002
April 2002
February 2002
December 2001
October 2001
August 2001

Read more from Tyree Campbell in any of the following:

The Dog at the Foot of the Bed
by Tyree Campbell

Wondrouse Web Worlds Vol. 6

Wondrous Web Worlds Vol. 5

Wondrous Web Worlds Vol. 4

Wondrous Web Worlds Vol. 3

Sex and the Single Alien
An anthology

Nyx
A novel by Tyree Campbell

Wondrous Web Worlds Vol. 2