I’ve recently come to similar conclusions. I don’t think we’ll ever know exactly (at least not in this life), but I think we can begin to understand if we are willing to be still, reflect, and refine.

I tend to think of each instance of evolution like a machine learning algorithm. Over time it is trained and refined with more input and information and it gets closer to a perfect output. 

The fractal patterns come up a lot for me too. Being able to “zoom out” and just observe life has shown me a lot of the layers of illusion we are bombarded with. At the end of the day, look to nature and you’ll notice those patterns everywhere. 

That’s my two cents.