The Martians

We view martians as being like this...

or this...

But from reading the book Stranger in a Strange Land, the martians that are depicted are an extremely peaceful race that is only violent and destructive when their way of life is truly threatened. The martians do not live like we do. They are nothing like us. in fact, their are not even multiple sexes. The martians have three states of life. Being an egg or a nymph, a martian adult, and a spiritual Old One. The nymphs are all female and are not too bright. This stage of martian life is to weed out the weak.Michael explains to Jubal that on Mars their upbringing is backwards, the martians are weeded out at birth where 9 out of 10 nymphs end up dying in their first day. Where as on earth, humans are weeded out as adults and are helped as much as possible as babies. . The nymph or egg stage serves as a right of passage for all martians. A sort of Darwinist "survival of the fittest", to create only strong Martian Adults. Martian Adults are all male. They stand very tall and very passive. They are communistic for lack of a better "martian" word. They do not believe in possessions and are very material poverty stricken. The adult Martians build magnificent cities but they are not described in detail. These adult Martians are beyond intelligent, they have taught Michael all of their ways. The adults are very serious about their relationships with other martians. They value their relationships with their water brothers as being the most important thing. These relationships are eternal and are what make the martians so happy. I think this happiness is a symbol from the author. Those without the most money but that have the best of relationships are always the happiest. Anyway, the adult martians are extremely smart and have taught Michael all that they can, but Michael also learned other more important ideals from the Old Ones. The Old Ones are the supreme spirits of the Adult Martians that have discorporated They are extremely intelligent, beyond what is comprehensible. These Old Ones, may be smart bu they are not omniscient, they must grok their decisions before they act. With their intelligence they grok at lightning speed, making decisions in as little as a few centuries. These Old Ones are in no hurry to make decisions and will take an extra century or two just to be correct in making a decision. The destruction of the 5th rock from the sun, now an asteroid field, took over four millennium.The Old Ones are very powerful, intelligent and curious. They use Michael to help them Grok humanity.