> it would be just as easy to say that the universe cannot have curiosity; that the universe is just things playing out according to some preset rules.

Behavior/dynamics depends on structure, and structure is scale dependent.

At the scale of galaxies and stars, the universe has a relatively simple structure, with relatively boring dynamics mostly governed by gravity and nuclear fusion.

When you zoom down to the level of dynamics on a planet full of life, or of a living entity such as a human, then things get a lot more interesting since at those scales there is far more structure causing a much greater variety of dynamics.

It's the structure of an LLM vs the structure of a human brain that makes the difference.