What Does it Mean to Mimic Nature? A Typology for Biomimetic Design

Abstract

In an effort to produce new and more sustainable technologies, designers have turned to nature in search of inspiration and innovation. Biomimetic design (from the Greek bios, life, mimesis, imitation) is the conscious imitation of biological models to solve today's technical and ecological challenges. Nowadays numerous different approaches exist that take inspiration from nature as a model for design, such as biomimicry, biomimetics, bionics, permaculture, ecological engineering, etc. This variety of practices comes in turn with a wide range of different promises, including sustainability, increased resilience, multi-functionality, and a lower degree of risk. How are we to make sense of this heterogeneous amalgam of existing practices and technologies, and of the numerous promises attached to them? We suggest that a typology of biomimetic approaches would provide a useful hermeneutic framework to understand the different tensions that pull this variegated landscape in different directions. This is achieved through a critical analysis of the literature in different fields of biomimetic design and the philosophy of biomimicry, in order to derive conceptual and normative assumptions concerning the meaning and value of the imitation of nature. These two dimensions are then intersected to derive an analytical grid composed of six different biomimetic types, which enable the classification of existing and possible biomimetic approaches, practices, and technologies according to their specific conceptual assumptions and guiding norms.

Recent Advances in Biomimetics for the Development of Bio-Inspired Prosthetic Limbs

“…Sensory feedback systems are integrated to furnish users with touch and proprioceptive feedback, augmenting their perception and control over the prosthetic limb [33]. Biomimetic design principles are harnessed to mimic the structure and function of natural limbs, resulting in prosthetic limbs with enhanced aesthetics and functionality [34]. Bio-inspired control strategies entail the implementation of algorithms grounded in biological neural systems, facilitating intuitive movement of the prosthetic limb.…”

No Such Thing as Containment? Gene Drives for Conservation and the (Im)possibility of an Island

“…In exploring the (im)possibility of containment and its normative ramifications, this article contributes to recent scholarship in philosophy of technology on the implications and underlying assumptions of biotechnology (e.g. Dicks, 2016;Jebari, 2016;Gyngell & Savulescu, 2017;Siipi & Finkelman, 2017;Turner, 2017;Gerola et al, 2023), genetic engineering (e.g. Gyngell, 2012;Powell et al, 2012), GMOs (e.g.…”

Biomimetic Epistemology

“…Thus far, the epistemological issues raised by biomimetics and related approaches have received relatively little attention (Drack and Jansen 2022). Imitating or drawing inspiration from nature has been much discussed, including in the philosophical literature (e.g., Bensaude-Vincent 2011;Blok and Gremmen 2016;Gerola et al 2023;Mathews 2011;Tamborini 2023), but the specifically epistemological issue of learning from nature, that is, in some sense acquiring knowledge from nature, has received only occasional philosophical attention (e.g., Krohs 2021;Dicks 2023). As for scientific publications, this epistemological dimension is often present in the titles of articlesfor example, "Biomimetics: Lessons from Nature-an Overview" (Bhushan 2009), "Chemists and the School of Nature" (Bensaude- Vincent et al 2002), "Learning from Nature-Biomimicry Innovation to Support Infrastructure Sustainability and Resilience" (Hayes et al 2020)-but without being explicitly analyzed in the articles themselves.…”