>>5
It seems that you're talking about
self organization. The universe proves daily that it self organizes, with stellar formation, and the many examples of organization in our own solar system (alas, the only one we have the best view of). Therefore, it isn't a requirement to effect one's self against an external stimulus ... given the evidence we possess, which shows ZERO stimulus from "outside the universe".
We need to find other examples of self-organized processing. The sole example of such is in the
neural equipment of Earth lifeforms, with supporting evidence from Human-created processing equipment. So it seems that the end point you're looking for -- based upon current evidence -- is the conversion of more and more of the universe into information processors.
It would be nice to actually get Human-created information processors to the capacity where they can start designing their own processors. We might see come real progress, then. Douglas Adams may have sensed such a thing when he wrote about the great computers in his "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" series, and specifically when he wrote of the computer Deep Thought (designed by biological creators) which designed the great computer called the Earth (which was supposed to produce the question to the great answer of "42"). Science fiction and farce though that may have been, it still gives rise to the idea that our creations should seek to create things themselves.