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Why does “form” seem to appear from nowhere?

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Is form a problem or a solution?:

Harvard biologist Richard Lewontin once described how you can excise the developing limb bud from an amphibian embryo, shake the cells loose from each other, allow them to reaggregate into a random lump, and then replace the lump in the embryo. A normal leg develops. Somehow the currently unrealized form of the limb as a whole is the ruling factor, redefining the parts according to the larger, developing pattern. Lewontin went on to remark: “Unlike a machine whose totality is created by the juxtaposition of bits and pieces with different functions and properties, the bits and pieces of a developing organism seem to come into existence as a consequence of their spatial position at critical moments in the embryo’s development.” (Lewontin 1983)

Stephen Talbott, “What Is the Problem of Form?” at Nature Institute

And Lewontin, who was a big-time Marxist naturalist, was testifying against interest here.