re: Well, Nick?..You're Mars theory has received it's most vital support evidence to date.
It certainly isn't geologically dead, however. If the polar ice cap is that young, that may mean that all of those linear features of boulders, rocks and pebbles we see at Gusev and other places, may in fact be glacier related. Clearly the ice and water vapor is moving around on a global scale, very quickly, and in recent times.
Life is tough, it could be lurking just under the surface in equatorial regions. Just because the polar lithosphere is hard and cold, doesn't mean the equatorial lithosphere is as well.