Kinta Facts 2: Classification

The next part of Kinta Facts! This time it's not just about kintas as we dive into the weirdly specific nomenclature this society of folks of wildly varying statures uses to get its head around who's big and who's not. The intention is that products and infrastructure designed for one category should be easy to use for everyone in that category, and partially usable by folks one class up and one class down. While a reasonable intuition, the cutoffs are ultimately arbitrary despite their mathematical precision, and most people can tell if something is the "right" size for them without a fancy system. It's an imperfect way to view the world, but it can be handy to keep in mind if you're the one designing said products and infrastructure.

Transcript:
ISA, an international organization defining many standards, has formalized the size categorization system for intelligent species. It defines these five numbered classifications based on average species height: Class 0: <1 m, Class 1: 1-2 m, Class 2: 2-4 m, Class 3: 4-8 m, Class 4: >8 m. Why 0-4 and not 1-5? Rumor is the folks who made this up wanted to make sure they were "Number 1." Some jurisdictions prefer to letter the categories A (tallest) through E (shortest). This is called the "Imperial" system. I wonder who came up with this one?

The ISA also assigns each species a two-digit code (SID); the first digit is the size category. One species gets an entire category to itself because it's quite the outlier. You can probably guess which (kintas = SID 40).

It's practical, but many argue rigid labeling like this only highlights and augments already extreme social inequalities.


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