The so to say statistically regular "ESF" of the anorgana and non-living organic compounds was hardly an object of our scientific considerations. One had the impression that one can do without it, and also there were no other points of departure than the regularities found by theoretic chemistry. It [the ESF] doesn't appear there other than as unchanged existence. In organisms, on the other hand, it appears as very conspicuous actions and behavior and was not overlooked, because it simply couldn't be overlooked. Life, as elevated state of matter, or better as an expression of the drive of preservation of this state, and all phenomena of life, must be seen from the viewpoint of the existential function, and not as consequences of determined physiological mechanics, which [mechanics] is, in a certain sense, also true, but not as systematic cause-effect relation, but as mechanism that is taken advantage of. If indeed the organism is unanimously taken to be a whole, then the ESF is the holistic rational togetherness of all reactions and signs of life.
The matter combination of the energetically stable inorganic "end" state doesn't need consciousness in order to exist as stable compound. But the elevated or mediate states [of matter] do need it. And so consciousness is the, ordered to existence and preservation, ESF of the mesostable compounds [i.e. of the mega-molecules, organisms, being far from thermodynamic equilibrium dissipative structures].
Graphically mechanically one may say that, as to the same goal, namely existence and temporary preservation, the simple inorganic molecules spend a small amount of "cost", while the complex organismic molecules spend a high amount of "cost" in the form of functional behavior. (So as if : existence-stability times cost = C[onstant].