I think the universe is intelligent because of what science tells us but also because we can arrive at a new and different understanding about what is intelligence.

I am pretty certain that we don’t need an 'outside' Designer to explain all the order and 'fine tuning' we observe in the universe. So none of my arguments that follow should be misconstrued as arguments for Intelligent Design. We can see that very complex order can arise directly from the universe through the operation of natural laws. We can readily see how the diversity and complexity of living organisms can evolve by natural selection.

Modern physics doesn’t have convincing explanations for the apparent fine-tuning of the universe for life. One approach is to say the properties will be explained in some future theory of everything. Another thought is that the fine-tuning is largely the result of chance. To make this work, physicists may hypothesize that there are many universes with many different attributes and properties. Some universes collapse immediately upon themselves. And many universe will support life but be based on silicon instead of carbon because of the values of various nuclear forces. These theories assume that the properties of the physical universe were built in in at its beginning and are not changing. It is possible, however, that the properties and attributes of the universes – the values that permit life and intelligence to exist – have changed in the past and may change in the future. In fact this is what we observe in many cases.

I think it shouldn't be controversial to claim that the universe is really a super quantum computer. The fact that we have working quantum computers today, albeit basic as they are at this stage of development, is still proof of concept. Quantum computers 'hack in' to the quantum processing that the universe is already doing. This is how quantum computers work.

So in short, my claim is that the universe grows and evolves based upon internal dynamics. The laws of our universe might not be constant but the properties, particles, forces, and matter could have evolved in time and might be different in the future. The reason this is not apparent is that we are living at a time when we are unable to see into the earliest beginnings of this universe and, of course, cannot see into the future. We may be living at a point of relative stability. However, there are some indications from Planck and measurements of electro weak forces that even now we might suspect some of these forces are not constant. The apparent fine-tuning might only exist at this time in the universe and life and intelligence have come about as part of the natural evolution of the universe. The universe is fine-tuning itself. And this is an intelligent process because it is producing random information and over time, its self correcting due to a feed back system. Randomness is the engine of creativity.

Example: An electron has to be aware that it is in the near vicinity of another electron, even perhaps self-awareness that it is aware that it is in near proximity to another electron. The mutually repulsive force between them ensures that.

Another example: Two neutrons would have to be aware of their mutual gravitational attraction. That attraction might be incredibly tiny, but it’s not zero.

Also, if there is no such thing as absolute causality, then particles will do their particle thing at random. Or, particles will do their particle thing based on some nebulous awareness (maybe even self-awareness) which may, or may not, be or appear to be, random. Awareness would have to be restricted to particles, maybe up to and including atoms, even perhaps molecules, but anything more macro than that is just a label we give to that macro object, like a rock or chair or star or ice cube. The particles that make up what we label a table may each have awareness, but the table doesn't since the table can easily be reshaped into something else like a footstool or a pile of kindling. As a whole, a table isn't a system that integrates information to any degree.

But, at the living level, there's stuff which cannot be rearranged and awareness does appear above the particle, atomic and/or molecular levels. A unicellular organism or body cell, the most fundamental and basic of living structures, exhibits awareness and responds to external, even internal stimuli - think of white blood cells and their awareness of invading bacteria, or red blood cells and their awareness hence regulation of oxygen and carbon dioxide levels. But awareness probably stops at the cellular level. It would be incorrect to say that the circulatory system was aware or that the heart was aware. The exception would be brains or something similar to a nervous system, for example. And a biological life is a system that is emergent from the systems that support it all the way down to the self aware molecules and particles that combine and interact to 'build up' the complete biological system.

The paper called Causal entropic forces and is written by A. D. Wissner-Gross and C. E. Freer attempts to derive a general theory of intelligence from basic physical processes and “describes intelligent behavior as a way to maximize the capture of possible future histories of a particular system.”

The authors developed special software called Entropica that they apply to various examples, including a particle in a box, a cart and pole system, a tool use puzzle, and a social cooperation puzzle. Running these examples in the software the authors discover unexpected complex and intelligent behavior in systems that maximize the capture of their possible future histories. “Adaptive behavior might emerge more generally in open thermodynamic systems as a result of physical agents acting with some or all of the systems’ degrees of freedom so as to maximize the overall diversity of accessible future paths of their worlds.”

Could this be what the universe itself is doing?

If the universe is “maximizing the overall diversity of accessible future paths of the world” then we would have at least a beginning on an overriding principle why life and intelligence came about. DNA might be itself the foundation capturing information and “maximizing future histories” on long time scales. This is jsut what Richard Dawkins’ described as the “selfish gene”. What we generally think of as intelligence (planning, rational behavior, etc) is in this case, “maximizing” on real-time scales. The apparent fine-tuning of the universe for life comes about as our universe expands by the operations relating to maximization of future possibilities.

As to the God question, I suppose it could be argued that IF one defines God as the implicate order and intelligence of our reality, then God may be self evident. Or you could just call the universe the universe. Either way I find that the words we use aren't as important as what we actually believe or understand. However using the G word is a good conversation starter.