Taxonomy or the Differences Between Humans and Machines Organizing Data
Mario Carpo · 2024
In 1813, Swiss botanist Augustin Pyramus de Candolle coined the term taxonomy by mashing up the Greek words taxis, meaning arrangement, and nomos, meaning law or science. The applications of taxonomy include organizing and indexing knowledge, such as documents, articles, images, plans, sections, and more, in the form of a library classification system or a search engine taxonomy to enable users to quickly locate desired information. One advantage of the human method of sorting information in the form of taxonomies is that it allows for more nuanced categorization of data. The taxonomy is divided into three distinct categories: commorancies, vestures, and estrangements. On a deeper level, the taxonomy reflects the ability of diffusion models to de-structure the data in images into its minute components, reading the RGB values of each pixel and storing its numerical data.