Maybe, there’s an evolutionary advantage to thinking of yourself as distinct from the surrounding universe, that way your brain can simulate counterfactual worlds where you might take different actions. Will you actually take different actions? No, but thinking will make the one action you do take better. Since people are hardwired to think their observations are not necessarily interactions, updating in the other direction has significant surprisal.
Maybe, there’s an evolutionary advantage to thinking of yourself as distinct from the surrounding universe, that way your brain can simulate counterfactual worlds where you might take different actions. Will you actually take different actions? No, but thinking will make the one action you do take better. Since people are hardwired to think their observations are not necessarily interactions, updating in the other direction has significant surprisal.