Is Consciousness Related to Imagination?

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I think it's actually necessary that something like free will exist if the universe is going to be as creative as possible. If I were all intelligent being inventing a universe and I wanted it to have maximal number of interesting things happen, then I would want the agents to have free will because it means that they're more individual. And somehow free will is also at the intersection of the counterfactual becoming the actual. So can you elaborate on that a little bit that consciousness is imagination? I don't know exactly how to articulate it.

Sara Walker is an astrobiologist and theoretical physicist. Lee Cronin is a chemist. This is a conversation and debate about alien life and alien civilizations. Please support this podcast by checking out our sponsors:
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OUTLINE:
Here’s the timestamps for the episode. On some podcast players you should be able to click the timestamp to jump to that time.
(00:00) – Introduction
(07:47) – Aliens
(21:53) – What is life?
(29:35) – Assembly theory
(52:03) – Math
(1:03:45) – Communication with aliens
(1:28:38) – Evolution of the universe
(1:37:56) – Creating alien life
(1:45:29) – Origin of life
(1:52:29) – Before the Big Bang
(1:59:22) – God
(2:09:39) – Goal-directed behavior
(2:27:37) – Time
(2:35:54) – Free will and imagination
(2:51:06) – UFO sightings
(2:56:06) – Alien life forms debate
(3:11:14) – Robots
(3:20:29) – Love and emotion
(3:38:55) – Beauty in science
(3:49:06) – Random questions
(3:58:30) – Advice for young people
(4:01:48) – Life on Earth
(4:06:12) – Memory