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Eels are fish

(eocampaign1.com)
178 points speckx | 1 comments | 03 Sep 25 14:02 UTC | HN request time: 0.2s | source
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boesboes ◴[03 Sep 25 14:37 UTC] No.45116372[source]▶
Apparently we are all fish. Or fish don't exist.

To explain: if you want to define a taxonomy in which all things that look like fish and swim are 'fish' then we are too. We are more closely related to most 'fish' than sharks are. I.e the last common ancestor of herring AND sharks is older than our & herring's LCA.

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tgv ◴[03 Sep 25 15:07 UTC] No.45116695[source]▶
> things that look like fish

Well, apart from the circularity, we don't look like fish, do we? What we look like, we define, just like we define what 'fish' is. There's no need to go all Linnaeus about it.

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1. taeric ◴[03 Sep 25 15:21 UTC] No.45116853[source]▶
My stance is somewhat similar, I think? Arguments that try and precisely define "fish" in some sort of "context free" space are doomed because people don't think of terms outside of context.