At the beginning of life on earth, the chaotic interlocking materials of our universe came together in a way that, perhaps (but undemonstrably) for the first time in our reality's history, created structures that could execute algorithms; they started being able to change their alignments in response to stimuli, acquire energy, hook into more materials, and transform them into more algorithm execution machines. Even today I find myself amazed by this process looking at things like leaves on trees which demonstrate the structured shapes these compounding material rules orchestrate the creation of intricate patterns in the name of the alignment of the linear optimization variables of these autonomous chemicals.
But animals developed a particular relationship with this optimization. The brain, with its ability to model conceptual reality and perform optimizations upon it, can attempt to expend energy to directly produce theoretical actions that will optimize our energy consumption to produce the needed outcomes. Humans take this ability a step further by being able to describe the models that our brains act upon and translate them into external structures for sharing and optimizing. However, the tools for this, the development of the language of optimization, has taken millenia of the development of knowledge across our species and the improvement of our tools for processing it.
However, even without our conscious abilities to offload optimization work, our brains have still continued passively doing it based on ever growing experiences and processing of inputs and outputs. The brain, commanding our nervous systems and adrenal systems to direct muscles and organs, must be finely tuned to how much energy is being produced to perform what necessary tasks. But how much energy does the brain use? By weight, its energy consumption is more excessively inefficient than anything else; it uses ten times more energy than any other organ at comparable passive operation, and on average consumes upwards of 20 percent of our energy (with that number only increasing based on factors like age and activity). With the brain's tasks of energy optimization across the body considered, it can be reasoned then that the brain must exist in a torturous paradox: At rest, it must know it is burning massive amounts of energy.
But the brain cannot simply shut itself off. Without its constant passive operation, our organs fail, and our body quickly ceases to be able to reject the push from other life around it to be broken down into its fundamental components again. So what can the brain do when it needs to produce a theoretical model to optimize its own energy use, but it can't reduce its consumption?
If we are constantly passively producing models that attempt to mirror our inputs around us and turn them into optimizable ones, then we need to modify our models to impossible conditions to solve impossible problems. This begins producing theoretical optimized solutions, fulfilling the task the brain needs to operate to fulfill its purpose- the brain is meeting its needed output condition of producing actions that can carry out its optimization, despite the inability for our bodies to truly act upon them.
Does this, then, contribute to long felt and communicated and repeated spiritual considerations among humanity about rest and recovery? Do we need to understand the potential for spiritual rest in order for us to even conceptualize of a condition where we aren't constantly needing to take in and consume energy simply for existence?
Do our souls need alternate universes where it is possible for us to be tired?
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