The general hilltop marble idea here of what are now called attractor fields and their use in biological development predates Waddington by some decades. Essen

The general hilltop marble idea here of what are now called attractor fields and their use in biological development predates Waddington by some decades. Essentially it seems his work is a reapplication of Sewell Wright’s fitness landscapes from the 1920s and 30s to cell differentiation, and I’m not very sure the idea originated with Wright. Waddington would have been aware of Wright’s work.