Greg Bear’s bold ideas about the red planet in “Why I Love Mars” for CNN include a daring theory that we’re really Martians —
Earth was still cooling down from its natal heat, still barraged by asteroids, and life, if it developed at all here, was probably getting the crap kicked out of it on a regular basis. Starting over again and again from scratch, or not starting at all.
Until — and this is just speculation, but it may have a foundation in fact — until something big hit Mars and sprayed the seeds of Martian life across the gulf of space to land on Earth. Backwash. Martian spitballs.
We’ve analyzed small meteorites knocked loose from Mars. They fell onto Antarctica, and some scientists have taken the very controversial view that there is evidence of life in them. Not proven, not certain, but …
My vacation on Mars could really be a homecoming. We may all be Martians. Wouldn’t that be utterly cool to know?
You and Marvin the Martian – twins separated at the birth of the solar system.
[Thanks to Steven H Silver for the link.]
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That idea is almost as old as Martians operating three-legged war machines. What I never liked the panspermia theory (particularly the Martian version) is that in attempting to explain the origin of life on Earth it doesn’t actually present an answer… just puts the problem off one step. Okay… so life on Earth came from Mars. So where did life on Mars come from, then? Jupiter? Andromeda? An old soft drink bottle found in the dumpster behind a convenience sore in Fresno?
But, I guess Bear (as a science fiction writer) is one of those people that reporters home in on whenever they need a statement for the papers, and he *has* to say something snappy or they’ll be disappointed. And what could be more quote-worthy than “Earthlings Come From Mars!!!”
Yeah, right… and “Women Come From Venus… “
It’s the basis of QUATERMASS AND THE PIT, that life on earth was seeded by Martins and humanity retains some of their worst qualities.
For all we know the DNA spirals could be Universal, and things come together pretty much the same all over. (I know gravity changes chemical reactions.)
Ever notice that the galaxies are all spirals?
Way back, a decade or two in the last century, I made the wild guess that DNA can be found floating freely in Giant Molecular Clouds in the galaxy. So far as I know, my prediction has’t been born out yet… but astronomers are fairly close. Amino acids have been found in interstellar space.
The reason for my prediction is that I wanted to justify a galaxy full of alien sentient races who were all humanoids with rubber foreheads and ears.
Or in Worf’s case: the snapping turtle shell.