An example of anthropomorphic language used in scientific discourse
"In any attempt of a pictorial representation of the behaviour of the photon we would, thus, meet with the difficulty: to be obliged to say, on the one hand, that the photon always chooses one of the two ways and, on the other hand, that it behaves as if it had passed both ways. …
The question was whether, as to the occurrence of individual effects, we should adopt the terminology proposed by Dirac, that we were concerned with a choice on the part of 'nature', or, as suggested by Heisenberg, we should sat that we have to do with a choice on the part of the 'observer' constructing the measuring instruments and reading their recording Any such terminology would, however, appear dubious since, on the one hand, it is hardly reasonable to endow nature with volition in the ordinary sense, while on the other hand, it is certainly not possible for the observer to influence the events which may appear under the conditions he has arranged. To my mind, there is no other alternative than to admit that, in this field of experience, we are dealing with individual phenomena and that our possibilities of handling the measuring instruments allow us only to make a choice between the different complementary types of phenomena we want to study."
"The circumstances that, in general, one and the same experimental arrangement may yield different recordings is sometimes picturesquely described as a 'choice of nature' between such possibilities. Needless to say, such a phrase implies no allusion to a personification of nature, but simply points to the impossibility of ascertaining on accustomed lines directives for the course of a closed indivisible phenomenon."
Neils Bohr (2010) Atomic Physics and Human Knowledge (first published 1961). Dover Publications, Inc.
Bohr explains that talking of nature choosing is meant as metaphorical.
Read examples of anthropomorphism in science
