Complex systems tend to degrade, to decrease in complexity. And the total entropy of the universe tends to increase.

The overall increase in entropy seems to be encouraged by local reversals of entropy, think of it as turbulence in otherwise laminar flow. The total overall entropy, or disorder, in the universe is actually increased by little local pockets of complexity--for example, a small plant may be much more complex than the soil, sunlight, water and atmospheric gas which makes it possible, but that same plant breaks down its surroundings for its own benefit. In other words, the total amount of disorder is increased by the plant's existence.

This is not a new idea, I remember conversations like this being thrown about when I was a student, although it appears somebody is trying to formalize it now.

But the question is not whether there is something in the thermodynamics that makes life possible, or even necessary. As I mention, life is probably pretty common in the universe. The question is whether sentient life is common enough that it it is likely to stumble onto its sentient neighbors.

Of course, it may very well be that technological civilizations may wind up contributing enormously to the increase in entropy around them. Like the example of our plant, a technical civilization may induce much more chaos and decay in its surroundings than any complexity it may contribute.