Taxonomies, this and that

[Ken Kinman]

Thomas Schlemmermeyer wrote:
>2.) a more esotherical one: Now they are looking for signs of
>extraterrestrial intelligence in the universe. More specifically,
>scientists are screening the universe for meaningful laser- or radio
>messages.  Let us suppose that this search be successful. How these
>extraterrestrial fossils would have to be dealt with taxonomically?
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Thomas,
     If you are asking about the classification of extraterrestrial life
itself, this is how I approach it.  Unless there is evidence of transfer of
life from one planet to another, I believe the probabilities are that life
evolved independently on different planets.  If we find life on Mars (living
or fossil), it almost certainly evolved there (in situ) separately from
Earth life.
     In 1994, I proposed a new taxonomic category, Cosmogenre, for
independently evolved systems of life, and classified Earth life as
Cosmogenre Geobiota.  A few years later, when fossils were supposedly
discovered in that Martian meteorite, I proposed that any life (fossil or
living) from Mars be classified as Cosmogenre Martiobiota.  This should
suffice until a variety of such forms are discovered (and then various phyla
or other taxonomic subdivisions could be proposed).
     This clearly demonstrates my belief that it is premature and rather
silly to propose that life arose first on either Mars or Earth, and that
some miraculous and improbable meteorite transferred and "seeded" life from
one planet to the other.  Even if living organisms were to survive such a
transfer, they would undoubtedly be overwhelmed by the life which was
already in place.
      Planets are continuously fed molecules (some perhaps somewhat complex)
from outer space.  But suggestions that Geobiotans (Earth life) evolved
elsewhere is speculation that only serves to generate improbable scenarios
that are more appropriate for science fiction books and movies.
                 --- Cheers, Ken Kinman

P.S.  If you were asking about classifying "messages" from space, you can
ignore the above.  As for classifying unsolicited e-mail, I suspect the
"spam" problem will get worse before getting better, but better "bulk mail"
filters will take care of much of it.
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