The starting point of this work isthe 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 ofideating the technological object, and upon the interrelations between these two moments of inventiveness. (shrink)