Endless forms most beautiful 2.0: teleonomy and the bioengineering of chimaeric and synthetic organisms.

This article focuses on expanding the understanding of life and intelligence through the study of chimaeras, cyborgs, hybrots, and other synthetic or hybrid organisms that combine evolved biological components with engineered systems. It highlights significant gaps in knowledge about the origin of anatomical novelty, the genome–form relationship, and control of large-scale biological structures, emphasizing the need to analyze novel living forms to uncover deep design principles of life beyond Earth's evolutionary history. The authors propose teleonomy—goal-directed, problem-solving behavior—as a unifying framework to compare diverse agents regardless of their composition or origin, arguing that life exhibits multi-scale competency architectures enabling robustness and adaptability. This perspective dissolves traditional distinctions between living organisms and machines, with implications for regenerative medicine, robotics, artificial intelligence, and ethics, calling for new conceptual tools and ethical frameworks to address the emerging diversity of life forms and intelligences.