The metamorphoses of the "exemplar"

The starting point of this work is the artificial, as defined in a previous study by Massimo Negrotti and, more completely, in the essay presented here, as "a machine which reproduces the essential performance of some natural subsystem that serves as an exemplar, at a chosen level of observation". I assume also Negrotti's distinction between the technology of the artificial and conventional technology. These theoretic assumptions, and the relevant terminology, represent here the starting point for a reflection upon the process of imitating the natural exemplar and of ideating the technological object, and upon the interrelations between these two moments of inventiveness. © 2000 Springer-Verlag.