What does intelligence cost in physical terms?
01 / MOTIVATING OBSERVATION
Biological intelligence and artificial intelligence invite striking energy comparisons. Those comparisons become much harder when the task, the quality of the result, and the boundaries of the system have to match.
02 / STARTING CONTEXT
Thermodynamics offers a foundation for asking about the physical cost of computation. Connecting that foundation to the energy cost of an actual cognitive task requires measurements and an explicit definition of the task.
03 / WORKING HYPOTHESIS
Some apparent differences in efficiency may come from how computation, memory, and learning are organized. A useful comparison should separate architectural effects from differences in workload and accounting.
04 / PROPOSED INVESTIGATION
05 / WHAT WOULD CHALLENGE THE IDEA?
If an apparent advantage disappears when task quality and system boundaries are matched, the proposed architectural explanation needs revision.
STARTING LITERATURE
External work by other researchers provides context for this direction.
DOCUMENTING THE WORK
Papers, simulations, and video explanations will be linked as this investigation develops.
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