Human Creativity and Consciousness: Unintended Consequences of the Brain's Extraordinary Energy Efficiency?
arXiv Preprint Archive January 31, 2020 T. N. Palmer
Human creativity and consciousness may be unintended byproducts of the brain's extraordinary energy efficiency. Creativity arises from a synergy between two cognitive modes: one where energy spreads across a large neural network, making neurons susceptible to thermal noise, and another where energy focuses on a small subset for deterministic operation. Consciousness is defined as awareness of nearby counterfactual worlds in state space, arising from an interplay between memories and quantum physical mechanisms in neural ion channels, again for energy efficiency. This definition offers a novel explanation for why quantum entanglement feels counter-intuitive.