 In this context, it is debatable whether the thin notion of design is compatible with biological complexity. Some scholars have raised concerns that the machine-view of organisms (and use of design metaphors) may lead to a neglect of distinct biological features such as autonomy, evolvability, and intrinsic purposiveness (Nicholson 2019; see also Jacob 1977; Kogge &amp; Richter 2013; McLeod and Nerlich 2017). Design approaches may implicitly enforce the view that operations and outputs of specific parts are stable and predictable across different contexts. In biology, context-sensitivity and degeneracy between genotype-phenotype-relations may provide severe limitations to the utility of this heuristic (Boudry &amp; Pigliucci 2013; Güttinger 2013; see also  Section 3.1).  Yet, as outlined in the following sections, the ties to engineering are multi-faceted in both systems and synthetic biology.