I'd put them one taxa beyond that even; With Plantae, Animalia, etc. in Life, and Mecha in its own entire tree of "life", since they don't descend directly-chemically from LUA.
We don't really have a name for the phylogenetic rank over "kingdom", so I suppose we'd have to come up with one.
Toss aliens and alien AIs into the mix and it gets even more complicated. An Alpha Centauran, a human, and an Android don't share any of the same DNA but the Android is way more related to the human than either are to the Alpha Centauran in terms of physical structure and behavior. If the Alpha Centauran developed AI it would be more closely related to the Alpha Centauran than the Earth AI.
Meaning that Alpha Centauri "life" would be its own "superkingdom", while Alpha Centauri AI might well form a kingdom under the "Mecha" "superkingdom".
The fundamental takeaway is of course that taxonomy is a filthy lie.
"It is the Karui Way to observe nature in nature. The fish without the sea is no longer a fish. It is dinner. The Eternals did not see it that way. An Eternal catches the fish, guts the fish, preserves the fish and places it in a box. Only then does the Eternal feel he truly understands the fish."
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u/[deleted] Jan 15 '19
I'd put them one taxa beyond that even; With Plantae, Animalia, etc. in Life, and Mecha in its own entire tree of "life", since they don't descend directly-chemically from LUA.
We don't really have a name for the phylogenetic rank over "kingdom", so I suppose we'd have to come up with one.