This is a brilliant post! Very well articulated.

I know that you are a Theist, and you made one indirect reference to a Designer who might have provided the root purpose from which others flowed. (at least I detected a bit of thinking in that direction I think.)

In any case, it seems you have made a compelling argument that just as evolution might be an emergent property to which the physical universe might be inherently predisposed towards. We might see that purpose is an aspect of evolving systems to which they are inherently predisposed towards.

That feels very right to me. And it is astounding! It really makes 'purpose' as real as you or me. Sure one can just say it is "just an interpretation" and is not "real". Likewise I could say that you are not real, but are instead just a particular configuration of wave functions. Your argument elevates purpose to the level of many other very strongly accepted emergent properties of the physical world.

Astounding.

But I am not sure if we can take it further. Does this provide evidence for an ultimate purpose above all others (beyond the purpose of perpetuation)? I am not sure that it does.

But even if it does not, it still takes us one step closer to a world with "real" meaning.

Such an interesting read, and the historical context of these ideas was really great. Thanks!!