Marty The Martian :) ?

Question

Marty the Martian was sent to earth to find life. He captured a car and brought it back home. He thought the car was a good example of life... Gov. Doesnt think its a good enough example... so marty goes on trial... This is what marty said at the trial... (giving off think clouds of waste, great deal of energy, moved fast, gave red light from back... can honk.... Ok.

give 5 examples of how its alive... (Defense Attorny) and 5 Examples of how its nonliving.... (Prosecutor)

Answer 1

OK, Silly question, but I'll go ahead and answer it because I'm in a silly mood. The currently accepted definition of living organisms is they undergo metabolism, possess a capacity to grow, respond to stimuli, reproduce and, through natural selection, adapt to their environment in successive generations.

Defense:

(1) The car seems to have a metabolism; it takes in gasoline and excretes water and carbon dioxide and other substances.

(2) Marty saw a large number of cars scurrying about and they were of differing sizes. A capacity to grow could be inferred.

(3) The car definitely responds to stimuli - gas pedal, brake pedal, etc.

(4) Marty saw a large number of cars; a capacity to reproduce could be inferred.

(5) Marty saw many differing makes and models of cars; a capacity to adapt could be inferred.

Prosecutor:

(1) The car may have a simple sort of metabolism, but it has no mechanism to feed itself. At best, it might be some sort of parasite.

(2) Marty's inference of growth might be a mistaken perception, and all of the cars might actually remain the same size and not grow.

(3) The car does respond to stimuli, but in a very simple way. At best, it might be a very primitive organism.

(4) Marty's inference of apparent growth may be wrong; we have a lot of rocks of differing sizes, yet they are not alive.

(5) Marty's inference might be wrong. Once again reference the rocks.

Since Marty only took one sample, they have very little to try to base their argument on either way. Do cars come in male and female? There's no way to say without more samples and further study. I suspect the end result would be a hung jury, and the Martian philosophers would argue the topic for centuries. On the other hand, they just might send Marty back to collect a few more samples.