It is simply the ability to make a choice. The very first quantum event was a choice. Pretty limited one, but a choice nonetheless. A second consequence is that it becomes clear how intelligence is the organising force of the universe. More the dumb rules of mathematics.
Structure falls out of the laws governing information.
We like to think of our intelligence as being superior to that of all else we have so far surveyed. And it is - in degree only. In principle, however, it is no different, no better and no worse than the intelligence exhibited by all objects in the universe. What is most significant about our level of intelligence is that we are the first species on our planet to have attained the level at which we are capable of designing our own successors. A species whose intelligence will be at least as advanced on our own as ours is in regard to the chimpanzee, possibly much much greater still.