" a machine of rather random and haphazard structure will have certain near-equilibrium positions, and certain positions far from equilibrium, and that the near-equilibrium patterns will by their very nature last for a long time, while the others will appear only temporarily. The result is that in Ashby’s machine, as in Darwin’s nature, we have the appearance of a purposefulness in a system which is not purposefully constructed simply because purposelessness is in its very nature transitory. Of course, in the long run, the great trivial purpose of maximum entropy will appear to be the most enduring of all. But in the intermediate stages an organism or a society of organisms will tend to dally longer in those modes of activity in which the different parts work together, according to a more or less meaningful pattern. "

― Norbert Wiener , The Human Use of Human Beings: Cybernetics and Society