Astronomical number of associations in brain is responsible for consciousness and thinking

Astronomical number - 10 and million zeros.

In Second Nature: Brain Science and Human Knowledge, Edelman theorizes that the human brain’s astonishing interconnectivity produces consciousness and, because of the astronomical number of associations our brains are capable of making, pattern recognition is the basis not just for metaphorical thinking but for all thinking

Early thought likely proceeded by metaphor and continues to be a major source of creativity even now after the acquisition of logic and maths