James Barham talks about emergence and “functional stability,” as background to future profiles of scientists: Here.
The pseudo-explanation of natural selection has blinded us to the importance of functional stability for too long. But the phenomenon is there, right in front of our eyes—both in the massive coherence and coordination of the biochemistry of life, and in the amazing adaptivity of living things to perturbation.
All the empirical evidence points to the existence of a fundamental power of intelligent agency underlying life. All we have to do is throw aside our mental blinders and look.”