Your distinction doesn't hold up to analysis: at some level any system can be said to consist of elbow joints - eg. "processor opcodes are just elbow joints." T

Your distinction doesn't hold up to analysis: at some level any system can be said to consist of elbow joints - eg. "processor opcodes are just elbow joints." The same can be said not only of the subsystems but also the intellectual heritage of so-called "original" systems. Nothing and everything is new. News at nine. Someone watches the news. They create a new system ever so subtly influenced by yours. Ad infinitum.