When I discuss the origin of life and evolution, I like to present this thought experiment:
You have a simple universe, for example, Conway's Game of Life, with a huge playing field, say 1,000,000 x 1,000,000. How would you change the rules, what rules would you add or remove, in order to give the highest likelihood of creating intelligent life - that is, some being that could form an intention and set out to make it a reality. Or even something as simple as a self-replicating factory? It's difficult to imagine what kind of parameters you could put into this universe to make it create something so complex.
It does make me wonder if there is a kind of organising principle in our universe. (Some people might call that God, but I don't think that really adds to the argument.) Some kind of force which causes things to bind together into more complex objects, a kind of "magnetism" that arranges things into fractal structures.
Very interesting thought. That "magnetism" part I haven't quite figured it out yet. Based on what @andarchy would say - first principles - I would say the organising principle could be organised randomness, which can necessarily mean "nodal connection". These "nodes" have the ability to read any signals and be connected to others. If one subscribes to the infinite universes hypothesis, well, it so happens that we're in one with organised randomness, which enables such "nodal connections". It's the basic building block for consciousness as well, with differing degrees (of intelligence) across the gazillion different structures in existence. The most condensed first principle I can think of now is simply energy or signal flow lol, and it doesn't even say much other than being overused.
Personally, I don't really care much about the organising principle. If consciousness is very rare indeed, then it's just something that happens to give rise to this particular universe. Already echoed in creation stories like the first word, logos, etc. The key that made things work as it is.
How this discussion here may relate to "free-will", I've expressed it here: https://steemit.com/philosophy/@kevinwong/the-end-of-criminalization-on-free-will-accountability-and-compassion
How it may also relate to "consciousness", I've expressed it here:
https://steemit.com/consciousness/@kevinwong/let-s-talk-about-consciousness-wtf-is-it