Basically, life tries to anticipate the future. It does this by the basic concept:
Facilitate more connections between nodes where information flows.
Think of your skin’s connection to your brain - there are many many more sensory neurons in a square centimeter of your index finger, than there is, say, in a square centimeter of your back.
There are many more connections (per area) between your finger and your brain than your back and your brain. Why? Because not a lot of data flows from a small portion of your back compared to a small portion of your finger. The resolution needs to be high because you do detailed things with your hands often. The bandwidth needs to be high so you need lots of connections.
Evolution has engineered your sensory organs this way - so that the data has enough room to flow where it needs to flow. But it’s not just evolution. The brain too does this kind of thing, in the form of neuroplasticity (on larger scales), and learning (on small scales).
Because life does this, it attempts to emulate Maxwell’s Demon, and move the matter into the right place at the right time to take advantage of energy to build complex structures and fight the eternal decay of entropy.