It seems to me that talking about a Universe that "decides" is indeed theology, and as a theologian it makes me very uncomfortable. As the Roman Catholic theologian Karl Rahner noted, God is not a datum of the universe (small u), and at the same time, he said, every human language has a word for "god."

I agree that random combinations over time did not give rise to e.g., blue whales. The creation being distinct from God has its own ways and means, which God does not change arbitrarily. Stones do not become bread even to feed Jesus Christ (as he obliquely points out). So there may well be intrinsic processes of the creation such as these described in your article. Time is as fascinating to theologians as to physicists, as is memory. God remembers... notes the smallest of living things... Miracles, say the Christian Scientists, arise from the application of the kinds of principles similar to what you describe. Now, I am not a devotee of Mary Baker Eddy, but in an anachronistic way, she may have had a point worth pondering.

Or we can think about the Holy Spirit's action in creation... more fruitful in the long run, I think.

Thanks for a thought-provoking article!