According to CTMU, why are humans and other intelligent lifeforms of value to reality?

To do this, He needs two things: (1) active sensors (agents, internal  proxies) who can recognize and affect the state of the universe from local internal vantages; (2) a stratified utility function allowing Him and His agents to prefer one possible future over another. Human beings and other intelligent life forms are useful to God on both of these counts. Thus, the first criterion of His development is the possibility, and in fact the inevitability, of their existence.
 * The CTMU says that God, as embodied by the universe, Self-configures.

To understand this, consider an extraordinarily wise child responsible for the development and maintenance of its own body and physiology (because the universe is in the process of self-configuration, we can  liken it to a child). To meet this responsibility, the child requires internal sensors that provide information on exactly what is happening deep inside its growing body, preferably at the intracellular level, and that permit feedback. The child further requires that these sensors be <span style="color:rgb(0,0,153);font-family:Verdana,Arial,Helv;font-size:small;line-height:normal;">able to register the utility of what they detect... whether it is "good" <span style="color:rgb(0,0,153);font-family:Verdana,Arial,Helv;font-size:small;line-height:normal;">or "bad" from their own local perspectives. That way, the child can <span style="color:rgb(0,0,153);font-family:Verdana,Arial,Helv;font-size:small;line-height:normal;">weigh the perceptions and utilities of all of its internal sensors to <span style="color:rgb(0,0,153);font-family:Verdana,Arial,Helv;font-size:small;line-height:normal;">form overall developmental goals.

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,153);font-family:Verdana,Arial,Helv;font-size:small;line-height:normal;">In order to meet the Self-configurative goals that it sets (as  <span style="color:rgb(0,0,153);font-family:Verdana,Arial,Helv;font-size:small;line-height:normal;">aggregates of the goals of its sensors), the child has the power to <span style="color:rgb(0,0,153);font-family:Verdana,Arial,Helv;font-size:small;line-height:normal;">establish internal self-optimizative tendencies that affect the behavior <span style="color:rgb(0,0,153);font-family:Verdana,Arial,Helv;font-size:small;line-height:normal;">of its internal agents, influencing them to perform such local <span style="color:rgb(0,0,153);font-family:Verdana,Arial,Helv;font-size:small;line-height:normal;">operations and make such repairs as are necessary for the good of the <span style="color:rgb(0,0,153);font-family:Verdana,Arial,Helv;font-size:small;line-height:normal;">whole child. To this end, they are equipped with global utility <span style="color:rgb(0,0,153);font-family:Verdana,Arial,Helv;font-size:small;line-height:normal;">functions, "consciences", that combine with intelligence to make them <span style="color:rgb(0,0,153);font-family:Verdana,Arial,Helv;font-size:small;line-height:normal;">responsive to the welfare of the whole organism (as opposed to their own  <span style="color:rgb(0,0,153);font-family:Verdana,Arial,Helv;font-size:small;line-height:normal;">individual welfares).

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,153);font-family:Verdana,Arial,Helv;font-size:small;line-height:normal;">For want of a better name, we can use the term "soul" to describe the <span style="color:rgb(0,0,153);font-family:Verdana,Arial,Helv;font-size:small;line-height:normal;">channel through which individual and global utility functions are put in <span style="color:rgb(0,0,153);font-family:Verdana,Arial,Helv;font-size:small;line-height:normal;">consistent mutual contact. This channel permits the sensors to make more <span style="color:rgb(0,0,153);font-family:Verdana,Arial,Helv;font-size:small;line-height:normal;">informed, more global, and more valid judgments about what is "good" and <span style="color:rgb(0,0,153);font-family:Verdana,Arial,Helv;font-size:small;line-height:normal;">what is "bad", and gives them the internal strength to do what is good <span style="color:rgb(0,0,153);font-family:Verdana,Arial,Helv;font-size:small;line-height:normal;">even if it means sacrificing individual utility (because global utility  <span style="color:rgb(0,0,153);font-family:Verdana,Arial,Helv;font-size:small;line-height:normal;">is an aggregate function of individual utility, serving global utility  <span style="color:rgb(0,0,153);font-family:Verdana,Arial,Helv;font-size:small;line-height:normal;">ultimately makes individuals happier).
 * <p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.15;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:15px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">Now let’s look at some convincing cybernetic

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.15;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:15px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">evidence that we participate in the self-creation of reality.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.15;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:15px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">Because intentional self-creation entails an internal stimulusresponse

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.15;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:15px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">dynamic consisting of feedback, any selfconfiguring

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.15;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:15px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">system needs internal sensors (agents, internal

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.15;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:15px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">self-proxies) capable of not only recognizing and affecting its

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.15;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:15px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">state from local internal vantages, but of responding to

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.15;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:15px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">higher-level instructions tending to enforce global structural

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.15;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:15px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">criteria. Moreover, the system must possess a stratified

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.15;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:15px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">utility function allowing it and its agents to prefer one

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.15;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:15px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">possible future over another. Human beings and other

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.15;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:15px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">intelligent life forms are useful to reality on both of these

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.15;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:15px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">counts. So the first criterion of reality is the possibility, and

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.15;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:15px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">in fact the inevitability, of the existence of “sensors” just like

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.15;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:15px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">us…sensors with an advanced capacity to recognize,

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.15;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:15px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">evaluate and respond to internal states of the system.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.15;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:15px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">How, in general, would the universe self-configure? It

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.15;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:15px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">would select itself from a set of internally-generated,

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.15;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:15px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">internally-refined structural possibilities in order to

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.15;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:15px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">maximize its self-defined value. In the (somewhat

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.15;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:15px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">inadequate) terminology of quantum mechanics, this set of

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.15;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:15px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">possibilities is called its quantum wave function or QWF, and

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.15;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:15px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">the utility-maximizing self-selection principle is traditionally

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.15;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:15px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">called teleology. In exploiting this self-actualization

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.15;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:15px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">mechanism, human beings would select their specific goals

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.15;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:15px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">from the global QWF according to their own specific self

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.15;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:15px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">selection principles or “teleses”. In the course of being

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.15;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:15px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">realized, these individual teleses would interfere with

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.15;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:15px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">teleology (and each other) in a constructive or destructive

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.15;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:15px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">way, depending on whether they and their specific methods

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.15;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:15px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">of implementation (modes of interference) are teleologically

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.15;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:15px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">consistent or inconsistent. In this way, the “good”, or

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.15;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:15px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">teleologically constructive, may be distinguished from the

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.15;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:15px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">“bad”, or teleologically destructive. I.e., free will would give

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.15;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:15px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">human beings a real choice between good and evil…a choice

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.15;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:15px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">like that which we already seem to possess. <p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.15;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;">


 * <span style="font-size:15px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;font-weight:normal;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;">The Anthropic Principle, a controversial (but in the final analysis, necessary) ingredient of modern cosmology, is already about as anthropocentric as it gets. The CTMU replaces it with something called the Telic Principle, which avoids reference to particular agents such as human beings. The Telic Principle says merely that the universe, in addition to being self-configuring and self-processing, is self-justifying. Only the real universe can formulate and provide a real answer for the question of why it exists, and it does so through internal self-projections (distributed syntactic endomorphisms) called sentient agents.
 * <span style="font-size:15px;font-family:Arial;color:#000000;font-weight:normal;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;">Intelligence is inseparable from purpose, and since the CTMU distributes intelligence over the universe, it does the same for purpose. Voila - a new brand of teleology that prefers increasing control and knowledge to a dysgenic deterioration of cognitive ability. You're right that humanity can "screw everything up". But if it does, it won't enjoy the luxury of a valid philosophical justification for its crime.