Synthetic MindsIntelligence Substrates

The Cost of Consciousness

From the 20-watt biological miracle to megawatt-scale quantum supremacy. Exploring the energy chasm between synthetic and organic intelligence.

Click brain to stimulate neural activity

Quantum vs. Biological

Visualizing the "Sleepy" 20-Watt Paradox: How the human brain outperforms megawatt-scale supercomputers in efficiency.

Power Consumption Analysis
Comparing biological, neuromorphic, and quantum substrates
Human BrainIntel Loihi 2Google SycamoreIBM EagleFrontierSupercomputer
* Note: Logarithmic Scale. Neuromorphic chips (Loihi 2) offer a middle ground.
Consciousness Correlator
Correlating quantum states with biological complexity
Quantum Processor Size (Qubits)53 Qubits
10 (Toy)53 (Sycamore)127 (Eagle)1000 (Future)
State Space Complexity
253
Energy Efficiency Gap
1,250x
vs. Human Brain

Neuromorphic Bridge

Chips like Intel Loihi 2 mimic biological spiking neural networks, consuming only ~2W. They represent the most promising path to closing the efficiency gap before fault-tolerant quantum computing arrives.

Quantum Complexity Roadmap
Projected timeline for quantum hardware to reach biological state-space complexity
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