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Discussion of "mityjutcti"

Comment #1: Degree
Curtis W Franks (Thu Dec 3 19:29:21 2020)

We should also have some mechanism by which to easily specify the degree
of similarity. "jutsi" is, heh, not specific in its x1 value nor in the
spacing between any two consecutive sumti slots. Give the fractalic nature
of the organization of life and the arbitrarity involved in segmenting a
continuous thing, I would argue that the narrowest degree accommodated by
this word should be to eat oneself, followed by one's close kin, and then
more distant kin (perhaps metaphorically – memetic/cultural clades are
independent organization from genetic/biological ones). Then, yes, it does
include eating a member of the same species, without reference to how
distant they are from the subject in any given sense. But if we stop here,
which is more or less what English "cannibalize" does, then we are missing
out on some wider possibilities and also drawing arbitrary distinctions in
a continuum and between hierarchical levels. Does eating an early H.
sapiens count? How about a a Neanderthal? H. erectus? Lucy? A modern
chimpanzee? Our most recent common ancestor with that of modern
chimpanzees? How about a jellyfish? And so forth. My point is that "jutsi"
allows for more inclusive levels of the hierarchy, so we should embrace
the possibility. This word should be able to the eating of a member of
one's own genus and greater taxa/clades. Ultimately, the eating of any
member of the same connected tree of life without further specification of
graph geodesic distance or clade would constitute the broadest form of
cannibalism. We currently believe that all life on Earth, which is our
only example of life in the universe, shares a single origin; thus, the
eating of any other known organism would constitute this broad
cannibalism. We should account for the range of possibilities between
eating oneself and eating one's most distant relative on the tree of life.

Obviously, for some of these concepts, we could use more specific terms.
Eating oneself could be given its own word, for example. And maybe eating
a distant relative on the tree of life could be given its own word. But
they should all fall under the umbrella of cannibalism with a specifiable
degree of closeness.

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