The prospect of an artificial intelligence entity capable of designing and constructing complex physical systems has captured attention lately, often framed as a scenario when human engineering becomes obsolete in the hands of these futuristic constructs. For the hype masters, it is easy to imagine digital superintelligence conceiving a machine, generating its schematics, orchestrating its manufacturing, and assembling the final product in a seamless, automated chain. However, this vision assumes that engineering is a tidy, fully digital discipline without gaps across domains. What would an algorithm need to replace us?