life on Earth emerged as a self-organized dissipative system, driven into existence by the thermal and chemical gradients produced in hydrothermal vents, or some geologically similar location where rock, water, and intense heat intersect.

Given the first single-celled organisms, no one would have predicted dinosaurs.

the universe that produces entropy at the fastest possible rate over its lifetime is the universe in which life emerges and spreads at the fastest possible rate.