The speaker says that some patterns in nature become capable of looking ahead, and that life models possible futures, implements those models in genomes or mental models, has preferences about the future, and thereby begins to control it.

“And at some point, you'll get patterns in nature that are capable of looking ahead, and this is basically what life is doing. Life is making models of futures and implements them, for instance, in genomes or in mental models, and then has preferences about the future, and then it starts to control the future.”