James A. Shapiro is an American biologist, an expert in bacterial genetics and a professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the University of Chicago.

For Shapiro, changes to the genome (the DNA sequence or "genetic code") go far beyond the modern synthesis of Neo-Darwinism, which limits changes in the genetic code to random accidents in DNA sequences that are then selected for having better "fitness" or reproductive success.

Far from a read-only memory (ROM) that can only be changed by random accidents, Shapiro sees the genetic code as a read-write memory that is being changed by cell reproduction, multicellular development, and evolutionary change, including epigenetic and "mobile genetic elements" or transposons discovered by Barbara McClintock .

Shapiro proposes several processes that he describes as "natural genetic engineering,"

• Cells operate under changing conditions and continually make genome inscriptions during cell reproduction, multicellular development and evolution.

• Cells effect genome inscriptions by forming nucleoprotein complexes, epigenetic formatting and introducing changes in DNA sequence structure.

• Cells actively write data and formatting signals into their genomes by symbiogenesis, horizontal transfer and natural genetic engineering (NGE).

• Cell-regulated, stress- and hybridization-induced NGE mediates combinatorial changes of coding sequences, regulatory elements, protein domains and higher-level genome complexes.

• Mobile genetic elements rapidly disperse through genomes and provide shared signals for networks that functionally integrate different genetic loci.

Shapiro summarizes his new approach to biological evolution...

The genome has traditionally been treated as a Read-Only Memory (ROM) subject to change by copying errors and accidents. In this review, I propose that we need to change that perspective and understand the genome as an intricately formatted Read–Write (RW) data storage system constantly subject to cellular modifications and inscriptions. Cells operate under changing conditions and are continually modifying themselves by genome inscriptions. These inscriptions occur over three distinct time-scales (cell reproduction, multicellular development and evolutionary change) and involve a variety of different processes at each time scale (forming nucleoprotein complexes, epigenetic formatting and changes in DNA sequence structure). Research dating back to the 1930s has shown that genetic change is the result of cell-mediated processes, not simply accidents or damage to the DNA. This cell-active view of genome change applies to all scales of DNA sequence variation, from point mutations to large-scale genome rearrangements and whole genome duplications (WGDs). This conceptual change to active cell inscriptions controlling RW genome functions has profound implications for all areas of the life sciences.

How life changes itself: The Read–Write (RW) genome. Physics of Life Reviews, Vol 10, Iss 3, September 2013, pp.287-383

In 2014, with Denis Noble Shapiro established The Third Way of Evolution (TWE) project, which rejects natural selection as the primary cause of evolution and predicts that the entire framework of the Modern Synthesis or "Neo-Darwinism" will be replaced by the TWE.

Shapiro questions natural selection, specifically the modern synthesis with its random/chance variation in the DNA as the primary mechanism of evolution.

Shapiro has discovered regulatory networks that adapt to stress conditions to maximize the probability of survival.

All living cells sense and respond to changes in external or internal conditions. Without that cognitive capacity, they could not obtain nutrition essential for growth, survive inevitable ecological changes, or correct accidents in the complex processes of reproduction. Wherever examined, even the smallest living cells (prokaryotes) display sophisticated regulatory networks establishing appropriate adaptations to stress conditions that maximize the probability of survival. Supposedly “simple” prokaryotic organisms also display remarkable capabilities for intercellular signalling and multicellular coordination.

These observations indicate that all living cells are cognitive.

How life changes itself: The Read–Write (RW) genome. Physics of Life Reviews, Vol 10, Iss 3, September 2013, pp.287-383

Shapiro explicitly explains that this cognitive behavior is "purposeful"...

Rather than being the passive beneficiaries of random mutations and natural selection, all organisms play an active role in their hereditary variation and natural selection by activating transposable elements in response to ecological challenges.

"Evolutionary Change Is Naturally Biological and Purposeful", in Evolution on Purpose: Teleonomy in Living Systems, 2023, p.255, MIT Press

A philosophical-informational question is: Were not these "purposeful" internal regulatory networks they themselves originally randomly produced and put to the natural selection test of reproductive success, like everything else in the cosmic creation process?

These internal regulatory networks are complemented by the clearly visible and purposeful behaviors of the simplest prokaryotes, like bacteria rotating their flagella counterclockwise when measurement along their cell surface signals better conditions ahead, but who rotate clockwise and tumble, then start off in a random direction in search of better conditions.