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the TRIMERAL SYSTEM in BIOLOGICAL TAXONOMY - universala ...

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elevant facts about <strong>the</strong> group under consideration.<br />

Includ<strong>in</strong>g a situation where new f<strong>in</strong>d<strong>in</strong>gs — ei<strong>the</strong>r <strong>the</strong>oretical<br />

or observed — may make it necessary to alter an exist<strong>in</strong>g<br />

and accepted name, despite its previous validity. Now,<br />

s<strong>in</strong>ce it rema<strong>in</strong>s essential to know exactly which species or<br />

genus is affected, this is where <strong>the</strong> Law of Reference comes<br />

<strong>in</strong>to play. It will, <strong>in</strong> all required <strong>in</strong>stances, also give <strong>the</strong><br />

Catalogue Number — a list<strong>in</strong>g procedure for which <strong>the</strong><br />

established Decimal Classification seems ready-made. The<br />

new CBC Databank could output a totality of detail on any<br />

taxon or species, or even subspecies. And if anyone is<br />

<strong>in</strong>terested <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> historic background, all <strong>the</strong> names ever<br />

assigned, plus when and where and by whom, could be<br />

accessed too. Except that <strong>the</strong>re would no longer be any<br />

real need to preserve all those little known and often<br />

unpronounceable personal names.<br />

So <strong>the</strong> globeflower might be fully catalogued as:<br />

Trollius laxus CBC 34-1056.<br />

At <strong>the</strong> moment of publication, this system of catalogu<strong>in</strong>g all liv<strong>in</strong>g th<strong>in</strong>gs<br />

<strong>in</strong> a worldwide databank may appear like sciencefiction to some, not<br />

aware yet of <strong>the</strong> BioCode commotion. However, even <strong>the</strong>y cannot stay<br />

bl<strong>in</strong>d for <strong>the</strong> explosive growth of <strong>in</strong>formation technology nor for this<br />

practicability be<strong>in</strong>g near at hand. In fact, such catalogu<strong>in</strong>g would and<br />

should become a fully automated process, provided it is modelled on <strong>the</strong><br />

way <strong>the</strong> human bra<strong>in</strong> stores and accesses its <strong>in</strong>formation. 5 No formally<br />

constituted oversee<strong>in</strong>g authority (always lagg<strong>in</strong>g beh<strong>in</strong>d) would any<br />

longer be necessary if <strong>the</strong> CBC — through on-l<strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>g with o<strong>the</strong>r<br />

databanks — cont<strong>in</strong>ually monitors all <strong>the</strong> relevant books and periodicals.<br />

If a given name allocation is found <strong>in</strong>, say, five (dist<strong>in</strong>ctly) different<br />

sources dur<strong>in</strong>g, say, three consecutive years, <strong>the</strong>n this name will<br />

become officially recognized and recorded as such — without any<br />

human <strong>in</strong>tervention! While no specialist could ever hope to consult each<br />

and every member of his profession, <strong>the</strong> CBC would be able to achieve<br />

total and simultaneous coverage and thus enable consensus to be<br />

reached as expeditiously as possible.<br />

5 The author also conceived a set of algorithms enabl<strong>in</strong>g a pars<strong>in</strong>g<br />

programme to automatically determ<strong>in</strong>e <strong>the</strong> subject of a given text.<br />

13

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