[winbig]

You think the West dun 抄袭? In fact, every invention on this earth is built upon the invention of something else. The progress of humankind is simply taking what others have already created and making them better. 

I have been doing R&D for a long time and all the time we read the research papers of others and trying to do what others have done, then improve on them. This is not just in Spore but the same everywhere in the world.

That's very true. R&D is mostly incremental improvements. Takes years or decades or even centuries to have a major break through.