The Zombie Stack Exchanges That Just Won't Die
It is possible that some day we will discover proof of life outside Earth, perhaps somewhere else in our solar system or perhaps on an extrasolar planet. There will be many implications of this, especially depending on the complexity of the life form, but I would like to know how classification schemes and other methods of knowledge organization would accommodate this.
For example, the Library of Congress Classification outline of Q - Science has QH for Natural history/Biology, with QH 301 - 705.5 for Biology (General) and within that QH 359 - QH 425 for Evolution. This is only about the evolution of life on Earth. Would the evolution of life on another planet go here? Would other aspects of the science of the new life go in Q? If it was an advanced kind of life, would its music go in M and its art in N? Or would we add an entirely new section of the scheme, in a new letter or letters, perhaps recreating the entire LCC structure?
I would like to know if any serious (albeit currently theoretical) thought has been given to this, and how best we could deal with this question if it arises.
wdenton