The practice effect, David Brin, 1984
This seems a likely candidate. In the depicted universe, a robotic probe from our universe starts to self-optimize both physically and mentally while the human intelligence remains unaltered. Also physical objects tend to self-optimize: a wooden sleigh develops lubricant to easily slide on the road. This practice effect can be boosted by a special state of trance where the solution appears immediately by itself, hence inanimate objects perform a wide-range evolution within non-polynomial time (Seeking a near infinite array of posible solutions within a short period of time). This universe actually transcends P=NP.
