Morphogenesis

The question some developmental biologists have found themselves asking is, where does this break down? Is there a scale of biological organization where goal-directed agency is not apparent, and it's all molecules jostling into one another through the action of external forces? It's not apparent that there is.

Scales of Agency and Awareness Morphogenesis is the creation of form where a single embryonic cell becomes many cells which functionally differentiate into all the different tissues of the organism and create the specific body plan of that organism.

Biologists have observed numerous examples of goal-directed activity in morphogenesis, cases where normal development is significantly perturbed and the organism makes radical adjustments to create the same high-level outcome it would usually achieve.

By high-level outcome, I mean anatomical ones like make four limbs, not seven, or put the eyes above the mouth, not below.