No two cultures define “artificial” the same way. For some the word implies artifice and deception, and for others merely the man-made. Philosophy, anthropology, and science have defined the concept in myriad useful but dissimilar ways. For contemporary evolutionary theory, to alter an ecological niche is not the privilege of any one species but an almost universal adaptive strategy. If so, is the artificial to be found at the deepest levels of life itself? What then does it mean to speak of "artificial life,” "artificial intelligence,” "artificial bodies” (robotics) and even an "artificial ecology?” How do different cultural perspectives inform an understanding of comparative and convergent artificialization?