We operate under a shared delusion: that the chaos of the world is just order waiting to be revealed. That with the right system, the right data, the right boxes, we can see things as they truly are. This is the foundational fantasy of taxonomy—the belief that our categories are neutral. But they are not. The moment we draw a line in the sand, we reveal what we value and what we choose to ignore. The box is a technology of power.
As Neil Postman observed, "Technology is not just a tool; it is a state of mind." The act of classification—whether of living organisms or job roles—creates a new lens. It elevates some truths and hides others. The Linnaean system didn't just describe nature; it built a hierarchy. The corporate org chart doesn't just organize labor; it assigns value and visibility. The taxonomy becomes the reality.
The endless debate over "What is Art?" exposes this. There is no perfect, objective definition of art. The category is a battleground. Is a signed urinal art? A viral AI-generated image? The struggle isn't about finding the right answer, but about who gets to decide. We cling to the category to avoid the discomfort of a world without clear rules.
This desire for perfect order reaches its peak in the age of algorithms. Just as genetic sequencing promised to be the final word on species, Big Data promises to categorize human desire with mathematical certainty. But as Postman warned, the tool reshapes the thing it describes. Consider how a voter is reduced to a data profile: "suburban, fiscally conservative, socially liberal." This profile becomes more real to political strategists than the complex person it represents. The map becomes the territory. We are fed the fantasy that the numbers don't lie, but they only show us what we've programmed them to see.
This is why the seemingly dull debate between "Lumpers" and "Splitters" in any field is actually a power struggle. The corporate obsession with hyper-specific job titles ("Principal DevOps Architect" vs. "Software Engineer") isn't about efficiency. It's a system that assigns value, salary, and identity. The box defines the worth of the person inside it.
We cannot escape our boxes. They are the very tools of thought. But the danger lies in believing they are natural. We must never mistake the box for the thing inside. The Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Žižek has spent his career examining how ideology operates through such seemingly neutral structures—how the systems we build to understand reality actually construct that reality. As he would put it, "The fundamental fantasy of contemporary society is the belief that we can have a world without fundamental fantasy,"–a world of pure, objective data.
Taxonomy is that fantasy of perfect order. And its constant, inevitable failure—the thing that never quite fits in the box—is the most real thing of all.