Does it make sense to speak of "Universal Consciousness" or "Universal Intelligence"?

[Mudhammam]

I want to talk about the idea of Universal Conscious or Intelligence in a philosophical context, as a notion that logically proceeds from the realization that there really isn't an external world that is fundamentally separate from the mind. That is because the mind is itself a product of the external world, just another feature that arose from atomic interactions. In the sense that we are all part of the larger Cosmos, perhaps analogous to the cells that comprise one brain, it seems at least that something like a Universal Conscious or Intelligence can be made into an intelligible framework... no?

Re-using bits and pieces from a post in another topic.

Here's a Carl Sagan Quote From Cosmos

“The surface of the Earth is the shore of the cosmic ocean. On this shore, we've learned most of what we know. Recently, we've waded a little way out, maybe ankle-deep, and the water seems inviting. Some part of our being knows this is where we came from. We long to return, and we can, because the cosmos is also within us . We're made of star stuff. We are a way for the cosmos to know itself.

This is very poetic and inspiring but it's not referring to a Universal Intelligence or Consciousness. I found an article which explains how it's possible for the universe to be aware of itself and how far we can take the idea. Is The Universe Conscious?

Humans are tiny fragments of the universe and we evolved the type of brain which produces consciousness. Our species also has the ability to do scientific investigations in order to gain some understanding of how the universe works. So, we can say that the universe is conscious when taking this point of view. It wasn't conscious before tiny parts of it evolved brains which produce consciousness, though, and it won't stay conscious if all conscious life forms become extinct. As the article points out, how long it stays conscious depends on how many conscious life forms there are in those billions of galaxies with billions of star systems

Cosmologists have come up with more than one model of the universe and some models suggest that everything is connected in some way. There is no evidence that all consciousness producing brains are creating a group mind, though.

That's a great Sagan quote. Good post too. Thanks.

If something like the multiverse theory is in fact the case, I like to think of our Universe as some sort of quasi-organism that is in some Darwinian way competing with other Universes, perhaps to bring about the prevention of it's own death, although that's all very far out and I don't think of it much beyond a place of intrigue.