In my advanced biology classes, students were taught to follow a strict hierarchy of predetermined, abstract criteria for labeling life. Something had to grow, organize cellularly, implement homeostasis etc. etc. (I honestly cannot remember all of the rules) in order to be considered alive. However, I do not believe that the first thought a human being has about existence is whether or not the cells in his/her body are properly functional. So therefore, why must we confer the burden of our cryptic and cumbersome biological algorithms onto other beings? Life must be defined by something understandable to both a person, the most basic bacteria, even an extraterrestrial alien. Life is defined by its ability to end, and any alien who can recognize and understand that it will die is truly alive.

Perhaps the last sentence may have seemed morbid, but rest assured: death is the latent impetus for all of the accomplishments that living things have made in this world. How can monarch butterflies travel 2,500 miles from the northern Rocky Mountains to Mexico annually, a journey spanning four generations, without loosing their way? Because all butterflies instinctively know that they will not survive cold American weather and that it is best, even if they die along the way, to start a journey lasting their whole lives so that progeny can live longer and better than they did. How can a salmon travel thousands of miles from the ocean to the exact point in the river (often against the current) where it was born without dying of exhaustion? Because it is ingrained in the primordial mind of the fish that it will die anyway and it is best to reproduce first in a familiar place so that it can immortalize its genes. Before decisively defeating Napoleon’s navy at Trafalgar and preserving Britain’s independence, Admiral Horatio Nelson, considering the thought of defeat, said “England expects that every man will do his duty.” Nelson knew that he could die in the upcoming battle (he actually did), but he was also sure that this would be his one and only chance to save his country from foreign dominion so he bravely decided to fight. While the average human obviously doesn’t have the kind of opportunities Horatio Nelson did, our instinctive desire to seize opportunities while they are available is what makes us alive.

When we consider aliens, we can draw our mental images from the myriad aliens already in our pop culture, from Pennywise the Clown to Chewbacca.  If Pennywise (God forbid!) actually existed, would it be considered alive? No, because it is eternal. Stephen King’s monster either hibernates or perpetually stalks a small town for the sake of eating and avoiding being forced back into hibernation. Anything he could possibly do in one year could be perfectly replicated a century later by himself. Nothing he ever does is truly unique. Pennywise is more of a symbol of a lurking horror representing a fear of the unknown than he is a living being. On the other (more positive) hand, Chewbacca can very well be considered alive. He was able to change dramatically from galactic bounty hunter to a hero of the Rebel Alliance, because he saw a chance to do more than just make money, he saw an opportunity to do good by helping to end the tyrannical Galactic Empire and make lasting change in the galaxy.

In order for an entity from outside of Earth to be considered alive, he/she/(whatever gender an alien can have) must go beyond the mystique of not being from Earth and being conscious. That isn’t enough to qualify as life. They must act not because they have supernatural abilities, like Pennywise and Cthulhu, but because they know that if they don’t act then they may never get the chance in the future. This alien does not have to be sentient, just aware that it possesses a finite lifespan and aware of the need to make the most of it. The great human poet Horace once coined the term carpe diem or “seize the day.” An alien must not only be able to do this but also carpe vitae or “seize the life,” just like every other thing that has the honor of being considered alive.