Measuring life and its complexity.

Pondering if it will ever be possible to mimic the complexity that exists in nature with a non-living design. All I can think of for my conclusion is NO, because we humans seem to enjoy creating very simple designs in comparison to the designs of mother nature. For example, here in Mexico there are problems with erosion because people have been clearing the forests for big business. Obviously this reduces the number of animals and species living in the area, and so it reduces the biological complexity in the ecosystem. Clearing and rebuilding also simplifies the environment because it replaces the beautiful and complex anatomy of living organisms with a simple structure, like a Walmart. Think of the complexity needed in a biological systems for an orchid to bloom, and we remove this to make lots for houses. We erode the complexity of our natural environment, and replace it with simple human designs. What if the answers to human problems are hidden in the organisms that already exist, but now we have done away with them in our efforts to build a beach resort or parking lot? I am starting to think that investments in new designs, that are really just improvements on old ones, should be wiped from the board. Maybe we should start over and begin to use the designs that already exist in living things. They’re alive, we’re alive, we should be working together to solve environmental problems not cutting each other out and burning up the world’s complexity–because we’re not very good at replacing it.