Cosmic Consciousness

"'Has the universe therefore brought forth sentience, in order to protect and give purpose to its own existence? That is not an answerable question.'"

-Poul Anderson, The Shield Of Time (New York, 1991), PART SIX, 1990 A. D., p. 435.

Why not answerable? One answer would be that the pre-conscious universe could not do anything in order to do anything else. That would have been a purpose before there could have been a purpose. 

But was there an inevitability about the emergence of consciousness? Mass and energy always had the potential to become conscious so maybe statistically it had to happen somewhere and some time?

We try to understand the universe. Does it have not an intention but at least a tendency to try to understand itself through us? So far, empirical scientific knowledge and introspective self-knowledge do not connect: subatomic particles and neuronic interactions as against subjective experiences and mental processes. But it is the reality composed of particles and neurons that becomes conscious of itself through experiences and minds so they must connect somehow.