I think that life is a method by which the universe produces systems that resemble parts of itself from different perspectives. A ‘mind’ is a simulation or dynamic replica of a volume of the universe that is generated by a system of interacting particles. The mind of each organism resembles its local universe to promote survival by enabling behavioral interactions with its environment. In this way each mind is a fractal shape of the universe experiencing itself. What we call ‘intelligence’ or more accurately ‘consciousness’ may be the degree of fractal recursion within a universe-replicating system.