  It is proposed that both human creativity and human consciousness are
(unintended) consequences of the human brain's extraordinary energy efficiency.
The topics of creativity and consciousness are treated separately, though have
a common sub-structure. It is argued that creativity arises from a synergy
between two cognitive modes of the human brain (which broadly coincide with
Kahneman's Systems 1 and 2). In the first, available energy is spread across a
relatively large network of neurons. As such, the amount of energy per active
neuron is so small that the operation of such neurons is susceptible to thermal
(ultimately quantum decoherent) noise. In the second, available energy is
focussed on a small enough subset of neurons to guarantee a deterministic
operation. An illustration of how this synergy can lead to creativity with
implications for computing in silicon are discussed. Starting with a discussion
of the concept of free will, the notion of consciousness is defined in terms of
an awareness of what are perceived to be nearby counterfactual worlds in state
space. It is argued that such awareness arises from an interplay between our
memories on the one hand, and quantum physical mechanisms (where, unlike in
classical physics, nearby counterfactual worlds play an indispensable dynamical
role) in the ion channels of neural networks. As with the brain's
susceptibility to noise, it is argued that in situations where quantum physics
plays a role in the brain, it does so for reasons of energy efficiency. As an
illustration of this definition of consciousness, a novel proposal is outlined
as to why quantum entanglement appears so counter-intuitive.
