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[–] 70 points 2 years ago (6 children)

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?

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  • [–] [S] 16 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    It’s like … mythology or something, and the planet(oid) being anthropomorphized.

    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:

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  • [–] 7 points 2 years 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?

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  • [–] 9 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    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

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  • [–] 4 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    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"?

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  • [–] 4 points 2 years 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

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  • [–] 3 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Thing is everyone has one of those.

    Compare it to non-sentience, sentience, and sapience, to properly anthropomorphize it.

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