[s_kilk]

There's a certain fetish for technology that blinds us to the obvious power of biological systems. We end up chasing pipe dreams of self-assembling materials while ignoring the already-existing self-assembling materials right in front of us.

[realharo]

There's a difference in knowing how to use a TV and knowing how to design and manufacture a TV.

Or a difference between Jesse Pinkman and Walter White.

I guess we don't need to stretch this joke too far.

[taf2]

It’s called a god complex? But the pragmatic reasoning is that what we build we can control more so than what nature has evolved. If for example, I can build a robot to pick up my trash can and walk it down to the street once a week and it’ll self heal all the wear and tear that is pretty nice.

[agumonkey]

God complex as the ignorance / greed spectrum.

It only works if you can sell your [bad re]creation to an audience.

[Dylan16807]

I have no idea what you're talking about.

There are enormous areas of research built around adapting the already-existing self-assemblers to make new things.