While an isolated system of interacting molecules at thermodynamic equilibrium explores its configuration space—the three-dimensional space of possible configurations

All the same, Berzelius added a fruitful notion. Rather than postulate some “vital force”—“a word to which we can affix no idea”—we should recognize that “this power to live belongs not to the constituent parts of our bodies, nor does it belong to them as an instrument, neither is it a simple power; but the result of the mutual operation of the ins

In other words, a natural pressure to minimize free energy and produce entropy spontaneously creates an ordered structure with an objective function.