To follow up A top-down view of biological goal-directed mechanisms, 2020 and 2021 presentations by Dr. Michael Levin of Tufts University:

“We want to able to design a living form at the level of anatomy, and have the system compile it down into a set of low level instructions that you would have to give to the cellular collective to make it do this. What we would like to do is to offload all that complexity onto cells, and control this  whole thing with inputs, experiences, or stimuli.

What evolution does is to exploit bioelectricity to implement networks that store these patterns, patterns that serve as memories and goal states.”

Appreciate Dr. Levin sticking with his findings for three decades now. Credit my son for refreshing my memory.