RT Journal Article
T1 Lithbea, a new domain outside the tree of life
A1 Gómez Márquez, Jaime José
K1 Viruses
K1 Synthetic organisms
K1 Artificial life
K1 Life domains
K1 Lithbea
AB At this time when the development of synthetic biology and artificial intelligence are changing the world around us, philosophers and scientists, first of all, must converge to analyze the present and predict the ethical-social consequences and biological dangers associated with new “living entities” that are not the result of the natural evolutionary process. As synthetic/artificial life forms (xenobots, robots, transgenic organisms, etc.) become more and more abundant and sophisticated, it seems first of all necessary to bring some order to all this new biodiversity, establishing what is alive and what is not, and analyzing the consequences of this incessant creative activity. Here I intend to organize all these human-made entities and clarify their status as living beings or artificial elements, leaving the door open to an uncertain future in which we will be able to see how “the artificial” and “the natural” could merge to originate something different from everything known. Accordingly, I propose the creation of a new domain, Lithbea, which includes all synthetic and artificial entities within a new kingdom called Humade (derived from human-made). I have also included viruses in a new realm, the Viral kingdom, because they were excluded from the classical three-domain tree of life despite playing a fundamental role in the evolution of biodiversity on Earth. Finally, I make a brief comment on the unpredictability of the unknown, the implications of this new landscape of biodiversity, and the uncertain future of all these advances
PB Springer
YR 2023
FD 2023
LK http://hdl.handle.net/10347/30377
UL http://hdl.handle.net/10347/30377
LA eng
NO Gómez-Márquez, J. Lithbea, a New Domain Outside the Tree of Life. glob. Philosophy 33, 4 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10516-023-09654-6
NO Open Access funding provided thanks to the CRUE-CSIC agreement with Springer Nature
DS Minerva
RD 28 abr 2026