Controlled experiment demonstrates improved survival and energy returns in autonomous systems using synthetic memory, suggesting imagination provides an efficient computational advantage.
This paper presents UMA (Universal Memory Architecture), a novel cognitive architecture that models imagination as an energy investment. The system maintains two distinct memory structures: a Real Cortex for ground-truth experiences and a Dream Cortex for synthetic experiences. A controlled experiment demonstrates that dreaming improves survival by +6.80% (p = 0.005) and produces a positive net ROI of 0.848 (84.8%). The system is implemented with <35 KB RAM and microsecond-scale query latencies, suitable for low-power autonomous systems.
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Darius Puzinas (2026) studied this question.
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