Do people also view kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, species as “ranks” of some sort, with some intrinsically greater value being given to some over others?
Well, for humans we most certainly do
Comment on You are in this solar system, but we do not grant you the rank of planet
Carrolade@lemmy.world 6 months ago
You know, this post made me realize something. Some people are viewing it in terms of “rank”, instead of an arbitrary scientific classification designed to efficiently communicate ideas in a clear and concise way.
It’s like … mythology or something, and the planet(oid) being anthropomorphized.
Do people also view kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, species as “ranks” of some sort, with some intrinsically greater value being given to some over others?
GregorGizeh@lemmy.zip 6 months ago
Carrolade@lemmy.world 6 months ago
So, “homo” is better than “sapiens”? And “animal” is better than homo sapiens?
Or do I have it backwards, and “lower” ranks are better? So, “pinus ponderosa” would be better than “plant”?
GregorGizeh@lemmy.zip 6 months ago
I was just alluding to our racism 👀
psud@aussie.zone 6 months ago
Our racism is completely unrelated to our classification. We are racist between homo sapiens and homo sapiens
shneancy@lemmy.world 6 months ago
I think it’ll matter a bit more once (if) we get to explore our solar system for real. I feel like right now the concept of “planet” is still rather distant in our minds and a lot of people just base it on vibes
JJROKCZ@lemmy.world 6 months ago
Hard not to anthropomorphize things when they’re named after our gods
Khanzarate@lemmy.world 6 months ago
Thing is everyone has one of those.
Compare it to non-sentience, sentience, and sapience, to properly anthropomorphize it.
Carrolade@lemmy.world 6 months ago
Every celestial body fits into a specific classification too.
Khanzarate@lemmy.world 6 months ago
Yeah but no one just has a kingdom or phylum.
Every living creature gets an entry from domain to species.
Celestial bodies aren’t a hierarchy, a planet isn’t also a dwarf planet or an asteroid.
warmaster@lemmy.world 6 months ago
Planet Y
In case it’s a dwarf
Squorlple@lemmy.world 6 months ago
Planet ~x~
Squorlple@lemmy.world 6 months ago
I mean, the planet(oid)s are named after gods.
The personification of its classification is probably related to the exclusivity of the title and “bigger is better” mentality. Since every life form has a taxonomy for domain to species, there’s not really an exclusivity to each echelon. I don’t imagine anybody really thinks like this meme below, for example:
Image
Carrolade@lemmy.world 6 months ago
This makes me want to devise a tiered, inclusive classification scheme for space objects.
We could start with orbital objects, any object that normally experiences regular, periodic orbits with minimal deviation. So, everything in the galaxy would be one except potentially Sag A, and the galaxy itself. Perhaps the next branching subsets could be things undergoing continuous fusion somewhere in their body or not?