1 00:00:03,040 --> 00:00:05,840 Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind from how Stuff 2 00:00:05,880 --> 00:00:14,280 Speaker 1: Works dot com. Hey are you welcome to stuff to 3 00:00:14,320 --> 00:00:16,400 Speaker 1: Blow your Mind? My name is Robert Lamb, and I'm 4 00:00:16,440 --> 00:00:21,000 Speaker 1: Joe McCormick, and I want you to imagine yourself waking 5 00:00:21,079 --> 00:00:25,840 Speaker 1: up in a cube shaped room that is entirely purple 6 00:00:26,560 --> 00:00:30,479 Speaker 1: Florida ceiling, with no obvious doors or windows. You have 7 00:00:30,560 --> 00:00:33,199 Speaker 1: no idea how you got there. One minute, you're going 8 00:00:33,240 --> 00:00:35,519 Speaker 1: to sleep in your bed at home. The next you 9 00:00:35,560 --> 00:00:39,360 Speaker 1: wake up and you're in the purple room. So you 10 00:00:39,440 --> 00:00:42,720 Speaker 1: wonder about your surroundings for a second, and you're like, 11 00:00:42,760 --> 00:00:45,040 Speaker 1: how could I just be in a purple cube? And 12 00:00:45,080 --> 00:00:48,960 Speaker 1: then something tickles at the back of your mind. Oh, yeah, 13 00:00:49,000 --> 00:00:53,120 Speaker 1: those purple room kidnappings. See About ten years ago it 14 00:00:53,200 --> 00:00:57,480 Speaker 1: was announced that for research purposes, the Institute would once 15 00:00:57,480 --> 00:01:00,880 Speaker 1: a year need to randomly select a hundreds citizens and 16 00:01:00,960 --> 00:01:04,039 Speaker 1: lock them in a purple room for a day. After 17 00:01:04,120 --> 00:01:05,880 Speaker 1: your day in the room is finished, they let you 18 00:01:05,920 --> 00:01:07,640 Speaker 1: out and they give you all the ice cream you 19 00:01:07,680 --> 00:01:11,040 Speaker 1: can eat. So it's annoying, it's an inconvenience. Your plans 20 00:01:11,080 --> 00:01:13,520 Speaker 1: for the day get superseded, but nothing too big to 21 00:01:13,520 --> 00:01:19,160 Speaker 1: worry about. Then again, something else tickles your mind? Oh yeah, 22 00:01:19,200 --> 00:01:23,520 Speaker 1: the purple room killer. This is an infamous at large 23 00:01:23,520 --> 00:01:27,600 Speaker 1: serial killer who once every five years, kidnaps one person 24 00:01:27,720 --> 00:01:31,759 Speaker 1: and locks them in a purple room before murdering them. So, 25 00:01:32,120 --> 00:01:34,520 Speaker 1: given that all you know is you're in a purple 26 00:01:34,600 --> 00:01:37,320 Speaker 1: room and you don't know how you got there, should 27 00:01:37,400 --> 00:01:41,480 Speaker 1: you worry from inside? There's no way to tell whether 28 00:01:41,520 --> 00:01:44,600 Speaker 1: the purple room you're in corresponds to one scenario or 29 00:01:44,640 --> 00:01:46,679 Speaker 1: the other. So how do you know if you're just 30 00:01:46,760 --> 00:01:49,080 Speaker 1: going to be inconvenience for a day or if your 31 00:01:49,120 --> 00:01:51,640 Speaker 1: life is in danger? Yeah? Is this gonna end in 32 00:01:51,680 --> 00:01:54,840 Speaker 1: ice cream? Or is this going to end in bloody murder? 33 00:01:55,480 --> 00:01:58,080 Speaker 1: And not bloody murder? The flavor of ice cream that 34 00:01:58,120 --> 00:02:01,320 Speaker 1: has become popular with the kids, actual murder. Wait, I 35 00:02:01,320 --> 00:02:02,920 Speaker 1: can't tell if you're kidding? Is that a real flavor 36 00:02:02,960 --> 00:02:06,200 Speaker 1: of ice cream? Um? It is? Now I'm envisioning. Okay, 37 00:02:06,360 --> 00:02:08,480 Speaker 1: can't you see it? It's I'm thinking it's like a vanilla, 38 00:02:08,680 --> 00:02:12,760 Speaker 1: maybe a coconut with great tense red bin and Jerry's flavor. Yeah, 39 00:02:12,840 --> 00:02:15,640 Speaker 1: it's got like cherries and it's got what some bits 40 00:02:15,639 --> 00:02:18,680 Speaker 1: of red velvet cake in it? Yeah, kids go wild? 41 00:02:18,680 --> 00:02:20,800 Speaker 1: For the taste of bloody murder also just got some 42 00:02:20,919 --> 00:02:25,200 Speaker 1: human bones in it. For some reason, it freezes. It's 43 00:02:25,200 --> 00:02:28,600 Speaker 1: a little tough. Well, so if you were actually in 44 00:02:28,600 --> 00:02:31,240 Speaker 1: a scenario like this, far fetched as it is, you 45 00:02:31,280 --> 00:02:33,560 Speaker 1: could figure out whether you need to worry or not 46 00:02:33,680 --> 00:02:36,280 Speaker 1: by doing some simple statistics. And I've made it pretty 47 00:02:36,280 --> 00:02:39,519 Speaker 1: obvious which side is more likely. Every year, a hundred 48 00:02:39,520 --> 00:02:42,880 Speaker 1: people wake up in purple rooms as institute research subjects, 49 00:02:42,919 --> 00:02:45,639 Speaker 1: but they're going to be fine. That means every five years, 50 00:02:45,760 --> 00:02:49,360 Speaker 1: five hundred people are in this position. Meanwhile, every five years, 51 00:02:49,400 --> 00:02:51,840 Speaker 1: only one person wakes up in the clutches of the 52 00:02:51,880 --> 00:02:55,600 Speaker 1: evil purple room killer. Fact is more people who wake 53 00:02:55,680 --> 00:02:58,520 Speaker 1: up in purple rooms are going to be institute research 54 00:02:58,600 --> 00:03:00,320 Speaker 1: subjects who are going to be fine, that they are 55 00:03:00,320 --> 00:03:03,320 Speaker 1: going to be purple room killer victims. So, barring other 56 00:03:03,480 --> 00:03:06,800 Speaker 1: information that would change the probabilities, the logic here is 57 00:03:06,840 --> 00:03:09,680 Speaker 1: solid and you should probably relax. You are much much 58 00:03:09,720 --> 00:03:12,480 Speaker 1: more likely to be one of the people who's going 59 00:03:12,520 --> 00:03:15,119 Speaker 1: to be okay. So why would we start with such 60 00:03:15,160 --> 00:03:18,320 Speaker 1: a bizarre, far fetch scenario. Well, today we're gonna be 61 00:03:18,400 --> 00:03:23,360 Speaker 1: referring to quite similar logic to explain why some philosophers 62 00:03:23,360 --> 00:03:27,240 Speaker 1: and physicists have argued that at any given moment, though 63 00:03:27,480 --> 00:03:32,520 Speaker 1: you do exist in a sense, it is overwhelmingly likely 64 00:03:32,800 --> 00:03:36,400 Speaker 1: that I don't exist, and Robert doesn't exist, and you 65 00:03:36,440 --> 00:03:39,040 Speaker 1: don't have a body, and you don't have a past, 66 00:03:39,360 --> 00:03:42,440 Speaker 1: and there is no planet Earth, and all you actually 67 00:03:42,480 --> 00:03:46,600 Speaker 1: are is a brain floating in space that is momentarily 68 00:03:46,680 --> 00:03:50,600 Speaker 1: hallucinating sense, experience, and the memory of your entire life. 69 00:03:50,840 --> 00:03:52,680 Speaker 1: And within a couple of seconds you're going to be 70 00:03:52,720 --> 00:03:56,920 Speaker 1: destroyed by the vacuum of the cosmos. In case you 71 00:03:57,160 --> 00:04:01,760 Speaker 1: couldn't realize already, this is going to be thought experiment episode. 72 00:04:01,800 --> 00:04:04,600 Speaker 1: We're gonna be talking about, but basically different thoughts based 73 00:04:04,600 --> 00:04:08,200 Speaker 1: on real science. Yeah, Yeah, the best ones generally are. Yeah. 74 00:04:08,240 --> 00:04:10,440 Speaker 1: So in other words, this episode is going to tackle 75 00:04:10,480 --> 00:04:14,200 Speaker 1: a much requested subject. We've gotten several emails asking for it. Today. 76 00:04:14,200 --> 00:04:17,680 Speaker 1: We're gonna be talking about Boltzmann brains. Yeah, And I 77 00:04:17,680 --> 00:04:20,080 Speaker 1: think this is a good topic to finally get around too, 78 00:04:20,120 --> 00:04:22,800 Speaker 1: because it's one that I think people have been recommending 79 00:04:22,800 --> 00:04:26,120 Speaker 1: it for years and years. And I'll occasionally pull it 80 00:04:26,240 --> 00:04:28,440 Speaker 1: up and I'll sort of look at the basics and 81 00:04:28,520 --> 00:04:30,080 Speaker 1: I'm like, I don't know. I don't know if I'm 82 00:04:30,120 --> 00:04:32,200 Speaker 1: in the mood for the this this week. You know, 83 00:04:32,320 --> 00:04:35,080 Speaker 1: it'll it seems like maybe there'll be a little heavy. 84 00:04:35,680 --> 00:04:39,360 Speaker 1: But here we here, we are in the studio about 85 00:04:39,400 --> 00:04:42,799 Speaker 1: to dissect these space brains for everybody. Now, you're probably, 86 00:04:42,839 --> 00:04:45,599 Speaker 1: if you're not familiar with the argument, thinking like, how 87 00:04:45,640 --> 00:04:48,120 Speaker 1: on earth could you say it's more likely that I'm 88 00:04:48,120 --> 00:04:50,720 Speaker 1: a brain floating in space than that I'm a person 89 00:04:50,960 --> 00:04:54,159 Speaker 1: with an actual life living on a rocky planet. We'll 90 00:04:54,200 --> 00:04:57,120 Speaker 1: get there. We're gonna take you along step by step. Yeah, 91 00:04:57,160 --> 00:05:00,520 Speaker 1: and and ultimately, the the idea here is not that 92 00:05:00,600 --> 00:05:06,320 Speaker 1: you should question your personal existence or that you should consider, like, 93 00:05:06,400 --> 00:05:09,320 Speaker 1: seriously consider the possibility that you are a brain floating 94 00:05:09,320 --> 00:05:12,240 Speaker 1: and floating in space, but it forces us to reconsider 95 00:05:12,920 --> 00:05:16,640 Speaker 1: what we know and what we think we know about reality. Yeah, 96 00:05:16,640 --> 00:05:19,559 Speaker 1: about physics and cosmology. Now, actually, some people would argue 97 00:05:19,560 --> 00:05:22,000 Speaker 1: that you should consider your brain floating in space, but 98 00:05:22,800 --> 00:05:24,680 Speaker 1: we're probably not going to make that case today. But 99 00:05:24,800 --> 00:05:27,480 Speaker 1: we'll see, we'll see where it takes us. So there 100 00:05:27,520 --> 00:05:31,680 Speaker 1: are multiple ways of arguing that it's overwhelmingly likely that 101 00:05:31,760 --> 00:05:34,560 Speaker 1: all that stuff is true. You don't your body doesn't exist. 102 00:05:34,600 --> 00:05:37,560 Speaker 1: Planet Earth doesn't exist. You're just a brain floating in 103 00:05:37,600 --> 00:05:40,440 Speaker 1: space hallucinating whatever you think is going on right now. 104 00:05:41,040 --> 00:05:44,000 Speaker 1: And I'll start with a pretty simple way of arguing this, 105 00:05:44,640 --> 00:05:48,440 Speaker 1: probably the simplest one. It's the infinite universe full of 106 00:05:48,480 --> 00:05:51,560 Speaker 1: space brains. Now, Robert, we've talked before on the podcast 107 00:05:51,680 --> 00:05:54,359 Speaker 1: about the idea of the ultimate fate of the universe. 108 00:05:54,560 --> 00:05:59,480 Speaker 1: Right based on current evidence, we can't know for sure 109 00:06:00,320 --> 00:06:04,640 Speaker 1: how the universe will look given X time into the future, 110 00:06:05,200 --> 00:06:08,159 Speaker 1: but we can have a pretty good idea based on 111 00:06:08,240 --> 00:06:11,760 Speaker 1: current evidence. And there are definitely types of scenarios that 112 00:06:11,800 --> 00:06:15,600 Speaker 1: are within the range of possibility. Is given the evidence 113 00:06:15,600 --> 00:06:18,679 Speaker 1: of today and of the past, some look more likely 114 00:06:18,720 --> 00:06:21,480 Speaker 1: than others. For example, uh, one of the things that's 115 00:06:21,520 --> 00:06:23,599 Speaker 1: often floated as a possibility is the idea of the 116 00:06:23,600 --> 00:06:27,320 Speaker 1: big rip, which predicts that the dark energy in the universe, 117 00:06:27,400 --> 00:06:32,520 Speaker 1: the cosmic in the cosmic expansion energy, will ultimately increase 118 00:06:32,600 --> 00:06:35,839 Speaker 1: in density and it will accelerate the rate of expansion 119 00:06:35,839 --> 00:06:39,520 Speaker 1: of the universe and ultimately rip apart and disintegrate all matter. 120 00:06:40,040 --> 00:06:42,440 Speaker 1: There is also the models like the Big Bounce that 121 00:06:42,480 --> 00:06:44,880 Speaker 1: predicts a kind of cyclical version of the universe, that 122 00:06:44,920 --> 00:06:47,680 Speaker 1: the universe will expand and then reach a certain point 123 00:06:47,720 --> 00:06:51,080 Speaker 1: and then start to contract again back down to a singularity. Yeah. 124 00:06:51,080 --> 00:06:53,600 Speaker 1: This is kind of like the fluctuating creation to disc 125 00:06:53,920 --> 00:06:57,200 Speaker 1: destruction of the universe that it actually closely mirrors the 126 00:06:57,480 --> 00:07:01,520 Speaker 1: model that presented in in Hinduism, where there's creation and 127 00:07:01,560 --> 00:07:04,440 Speaker 1: the destruction creation and world destruction just going on forever 128 00:07:04,480 --> 00:07:07,400 Speaker 1: and ever. And there actually is more than one way 129 00:07:07,480 --> 00:07:11,520 Speaker 1: in modeling the cosmos to get multiple universes happening over 130 00:07:11,560 --> 00:07:14,600 Speaker 1: and over again in a cycle. And we'll be exploring 131 00:07:14,640 --> 00:07:16,760 Speaker 1: one of those ways today, not so much the Big bounce, 132 00:07:17,120 --> 00:07:20,040 Speaker 1: but a different one. But I think the ultimate fade 133 00:07:20,080 --> 00:07:22,400 Speaker 1: of the universe that the majority of physicists think is 134 00:07:22,480 --> 00:07:25,320 Speaker 1: most consistent with the evidence we have today is the 135 00:07:25,480 --> 00:07:29,520 Speaker 1: lambda cold dark matter universe. Basically the idea that the 136 00:07:29,640 --> 00:07:34,000 Speaker 1: universe just continues steadily expanding and cooling, heading out toward 137 00:07:34,120 --> 00:07:38,120 Speaker 1: total entropy until stars use up their fuel and burn out, 138 00:07:38,560 --> 00:07:40,840 Speaker 1: and then for a long time there's just a universe 139 00:07:40,880 --> 00:07:44,000 Speaker 1: full of black holes and dust floating in space, and 140 00:07:44,000 --> 00:07:47,160 Speaker 1: then even the black holes disappear over trillions of years 141 00:07:47,240 --> 00:07:51,040 Speaker 1: due to Hawking radiation, and eventually the universe tends toward 142 00:07:51,280 --> 00:07:55,720 Speaker 1: total equilibrium, a kind of uniform, random sea of cold, 143 00:07:56,240 --> 00:08:00,400 Speaker 1: useless energy that lasts for infinite time. If you've ever 144 00:08:00,440 --> 00:08:03,520 Speaker 1: been trapped in a waiting room, say, with a group 145 00:08:03,520 --> 00:08:07,400 Speaker 1: of people, and the conversation just gets gets increasingly mundane, 146 00:08:07,560 --> 00:08:11,920 Speaker 1: increasingly boring, until just utter awkward silence sets in, that's 147 00:08:11,960 --> 00:08:14,360 Speaker 1: kind of what's happening here, Like the universe just gets 148 00:08:14,880 --> 00:08:18,160 Speaker 1: more and more boring until it just reaches this absolute 149 00:08:18,280 --> 00:08:21,240 Speaker 1: level of infinite boredom. Right, And this is almost sort 150 00:08:21,280 --> 00:08:25,000 Speaker 1: of like a perfect consequence of the idea of entropy 151 00:08:25,040 --> 00:08:28,440 Speaker 1: in general. Right. The second law of thermodynamics states that 152 00:08:28,520 --> 00:08:33,080 Speaker 1: within a closed system, entropy will always increase over time, 153 00:08:33,160 --> 00:08:36,040 Speaker 1: or maybe more precisely, I think physicists would rather say 154 00:08:36,080 --> 00:08:40,000 Speaker 1: that entropy in a closed system will not spontaneously decrease. 155 00:08:40,760 --> 00:08:43,320 Speaker 1: And there are a lot of ways of paraphrasing this 156 00:08:43,520 --> 00:08:46,360 Speaker 1: to explain what it means and the point of you know, 157 00:08:46,440 --> 00:08:49,440 Speaker 1: things we understand in an everyday way. One of them 158 00:08:49,480 --> 00:08:52,040 Speaker 1: is that within a closed system, so imagine just a 159 00:08:52,080 --> 00:08:54,880 Speaker 1: closed box where nothing on the outside is interacting with 160 00:08:54,920 --> 00:08:59,160 Speaker 1: the inside. Within a closed system, order will over time 161 00:08:59,360 --> 00:09:04,920 Speaker 1: tend to disorder organized things tend to become disorganized. Eggs 162 00:09:04,960 --> 00:09:07,679 Speaker 1: crack and break and run all over the place and 163 00:09:07,760 --> 00:09:11,280 Speaker 1: decompose and lose their shape and their chemical energy and 164 00:09:11,400 --> 00:09:15,240 Speaker 1: sort of tend to turn into ambient heat. Things fall apart, 165 00:09:15,360 --> 00:09:18,360 Speaker 1: as as Yates would would put it, Uh, and to 166 00:09:18,360 --> 00:09:21,640 Speaker 1: to go back to my loose analogy of the the 167 00:09:21,679 --> 00:09:25,680 Speaker 1: individuals stuck together within an in an increasingly boring conversation. 168 00:09:26,040 --> 00:09:28,640 Speaker 1: It's like you have you have six people and they're 169 00:09:28,679 --> 00:09:30,920 Speaker 1: running out of things to talk about. They better hope 170 00:09:31,240 --> 00:09:34,160 Speaker 1: somebody funny looking walks by that will give them something 171 00:09:34,160 --> 00:09:36,600 Speaker 1: new to talk about, right, or something will pop up 172 00:09:36,600 --> 00:09:39,520 Speaker 1: on the television set that's playing in the waiting room 173 00:09:39,720 --> 00:09:43,240 Speaker 1: and provide some new nugget of conversation for them to 174 00:09:43,240 --> 00:09:45,199 Speaker 1: tear into. That would be like somebody putting a new 175 00:09:45,200 --> 00:09:48,559 Speaker 1: egg in the box. It's like introducing some new piece 176 00:09:48,600 --> 00:09:52,440 Speaker 1: of structure to a system that is tending towards total equilibrium. Yeah. 177 00:09:52,800 --> 00:09:57,280 Speaker 1: Refreshing of the air or water inside of a closed rarium. Yeah. 178 00:09:57,520 --> 00:10:00,280 Speaker 1: Another way this is often understood is that then a 179 00:10:00,320 --> 00:10:04,040 Speaker 1: closed system, useful energy, meaning energy that can be used 180 00:10:04,160 --> 00:10:08,160 Speaker 1: to do work, will over time become useless energy that 181 00:10:08,320 --> 00:10:11,720 Speaker 1: cannot be used to do work. So over time, chemical 182 00:10:11,800 --> 00:10:14,959 Speaker 1: energy and kinetic energy and so forth will decompose into 183 00:10:15,040 --> 00:10:19,000 Speaker 1: ambient heat. And this process cannot be reversed. You can't 184 00:10:19,000 --> 00:10:23,040 Speaker 1: take a room of a constant temperature and do something 185 00:10:23,160 --> 00:10:26,320 Speaker 1: useful with that temperature, unless maybe you expose it to 186 00:10:26,400 --> 00:10:29,959 Speaker 1: an equal to another area that has a different temperature. Yeah. 187 00:10:30,000 --> 00:10:33,160 Speaker 1: I'm reminded in this too of various post apocalyptic movies, 188 00:10:33,280 --> 00:10:37,520 Speaker 1: right where nobody can manufacture certain goods or things or 189 00:10:37,920 --> 00:10:41,559 Speaker 1: products anymore, and so they're steadily used up, and then 190 00:10:41,559 --> 00:10:44,920 Speaker 1: the things they were made of or used up as well. Yeah. Yeah, 191 00:10:44,920 --> 00:10:48,160 Speaker 1: and an energy can be like that. Useful energy turns 192 00:10:48,200 --> 00:10:52,600 Speaker 1: into useless energy. I think maybe the simplest best way 193 00:10:52,640 --> 00:10:55,680 Speaker 1: to explain what entropy really means is that over time, 194 00:10:55,880 --> 00:10:58,880 Speaker 1: in a closed system, like in a closed box, things 195 00:10:59,000 --> 00:11:04,160 Speaker 1: tend toward equilibrium. These things I've mentioned before order useful work. 196 00:11:04,200 --> 00:11:09,560 Speaker 1: They're all characterized by structures of difference or specialness. So 197 00:11:09,600 --> 00:11:11,680 Speaker 1: if you've got a closed box and you've got to, say, 198 00:11:11,720 --> 00:11:15,199 Speaker 1: a robot walking around in it, that's very far from 199 00:11:15,240 --> 00:11:17,960 Speaker 1: equilibrium because most of the box is empty space with 200 00:11:18,040 --> 00:11:20,240 Speaker 1: air in it, and then one part of the box 201 00:11:20,559 --> 00:11:23,959 Speaker 1: has a lot of energy potential organized into some matter 202 00:11:24,120 --> 00:11:27,120 Speaker 1: and a robot that has a power source and all that. 203 00:11:27,640 --> 00:11:30,920 Speaker 1: But then over time, the robot will sort of tend 204 00:11:31,040 --> 00:11:33,880 Speaker 1: toward evening out with the other stuff in there. The 205 00:11:33,880 --> 00:11:37,520 Speaker 1: battery will run out, it'll stop moving, it'll radiate heat 206 00:11:37,559 --> 00:11:41,360 Speaker 1: into the room. Closed systems over short or long periods 207 00:11:41,360 --> 00:11:45,480 Speaker 1: of time tend toward random uniformity, or what's known as 208 00:11:45,679 --> 00:11:48,600 Speaker 1: high entropy. When you hear the phrase high entropy, you 209 00:11:48,640 --> 00:11:52,800 Speaker 1: can just think of like sameness, a sort of sort 210 00:11:52,800 --> 00:11:56,440 Speaker 1: of sea of equilibrium where there's nothing special or interesting. 211 00:11:56,920 --> 00:12:00,680 Speaker 1: A house of robots where all the robots are broken. Yeah, 212 00:12:00,840 --> 00:12:03,680 Speaker 1: and this is going to bring us to the physicist 213 00:12:03,920 --> 00:12:07,800 Speaker 1: Ludwig Boltzman. So. Boltzmann was an Austrian physicist to live 214 00:12:07,880 --> 00:12:11,640 Speaker 1: from eighteen forty four to nineteen o six, and Boltzmann's 215 00:12:11,720 --> 00:12:14,720 Speaker 1: greatest contribution to modern physics was what's come to be 216 00:12:14,800 --> 00:12:19,319 Speaker 1: known as statistical mechanics and the kinetic theory of gases. 217 00:12:19,760 --> 00:12:23,080 Speaker 1: And this is a theory that explains the behavior and 218 00:12:23,240 --> 00:12:26,600 Speaker 1: states of gases by thinking of them as a collection 219 00:12:26,679 --> 00:12:31,800 Speaker 1: of individual particles. The statistical model of the random movements 220 00:12:31,840 --> 00:12:34,520 Speaker 1: of the many in this cloud can be thought of 221 00:12:34,520 --> 00:12:37,360 Speaker 1: as equivalent to sort of the properties of the whole, 222 00:12:37,440 --> 00:12:40,600 Speaker 1: like the thermal energy of the whole. And so he 223 00:12:40,600 --> 00:12:42,240 Speaker 1: he has a way of looking at a cloud of 224 00:12:42,280 --> 00:12:45,080 Speaker 1: gas and saying, actually, what we're seeing when a cloud 225 00:12:45,080 --> 00:12:49,240 Speaker 1: of gas behaves a certain way is the statistical average 226 00:12:49,280 --> 00:12:52,800 Speaker 1: of all the tiny particles in that cloud of gas, 227 00:12:52,840 --> 00:12:55,720 Speaker 1: all acting at the same time. And one of his 228 00:12:55,800 --> 00:13:00,000 Speaker 1: key insights was that high entropy states, remember those things 229 00:13:00,000 --> 00:13:03,640 Speaker 1: where there's just equilibrium, there's just sameness and a lack 230 00:13:03,679 --> 00:13:07,040 Speaker 1: of specialness or a lack of order. High interpee states 231 00:13:07,320 --> 00:13:12,040 Speaker 1: are characterized by apparent randomness and uniformity, and that closed 232 00:13:12,080 --> 00:13:15,319 Speaker 1: systems tend towards these states because and this is the 233 00:13:15,400 --> 00:13:19,520 Speaker 1: key part, there statistically more likely. This might be a 234 00:13:19,559 --> 00:13:22,480 Speaker 1: little abstract, and it might take a minute, but we 235 00:13:22,520 --> 00:13:25,560 Speaker 1: will try to use some illustrations to make sense of this. 236 00:13:26,320 --> 00:13:31,120 Speaker 1: High intropee states are statistically more likely, and that's why 237 00:13:31,240 --> 00:13:35,840 Speaker 1: the universe evolves towards them from low intropee states. So, 238 00:13:36,160 --> 00:13:40,080 Speaker 1: as an illustration, imagine you've got a clear plastic aquarium 239 00:13:40,400 --> 00:13:42,880 Speaker 1: inside which is a pure vacuum. There's no matter or 240 00:13:42,960 --> 00:13:46,200 Speaker 1: gas or anything inside this clear aquarium. At all. And 241 00:13:46,320 --> 00:13:49,800 Speaker 1: let's say you pump some yellow gas into the aquarium 242 00:13:49,840 --> 00:13:52,880 Speaker 1: through a nozzle on one side. What do you expect 243 00:13:52,880 --> 00:13:55,760 Speaker 1: to see? Robert m Hmmm, Well, there's I mean, the 244 00:13:55,760 --> 00:13:57,920 Speaker 1: first thing that comes to mind would be watching the 245 00:13:58,000 --> 00:14:02,360 Speaker 1: gas flow into the space. But I realized that my 246 00:14:02,480 --> 00:14:06,640 Speaker 1: expectations there are based on sort of observations of fluid mechanics, 247 00:14:06,640 --> 00:14:12,000 Speaker 1: So I'm expecting more of a floral bloom than maybe possible. No, no, no, 248 00:14:12,240 --> 00:14:14,160 Speaker 1: I think you're right. You would you would see the bloom. 249 00:14:14,200 --> 00:14:17,319 Speaker 1: You would see first the yellow gas is going to 250 00:14:17,400 --> 00:14:19,640 Speaker 1: be clumped up where the nozzle is, and it will 251 00:14:19,680 --> 00:14:22,400 Speaker 1: spread out from the nozzle and it will sort of 252 00:14:22,680 --> 00:14:25,640 Speaker 1: bloom out in the floral way, like you're saying, into 253 00:14:25,720 --> 00:14:28,960 Speaker 1: the space. But over time, let's say you watch this 254 00:14:29,120 --> 00:14:31,760 Speaker 1: happen for a few minutes and the nozzle gets shut off, 255 00:14:31,800 --> 00:14:33,760 Speaker 1: what would you expect to see a few minutes later, 256 00:14:34,000 --> 00:14:36,440 Speaker 1: everything's gonna dissipate and it's going to sort of fill 257 00:14:36,480 --> 00:14:39,720 Speaker 1: the space in in an equal way. So it just 258 00:14:39,880 --> 00:14:43,280 Speaker 1: maybe be like a what a slight yellowish tint to 259 00:14:43,400 --> 00:14:47,320 Speaker 1: the to the vacuum, right, it will disperse in order 260 00:14:47,360 --> 00:14:52,360 Speaker 1: to completely and uniformly fill the aquarium containing it. And 261 00:14:52,400 --> 00:14:56,320 Speaker 1: according to Boltzmann, the reason this happens is because if 262 00:14:56,360 --> 00:15:01,160 Speaker 1: you expect the particles of gas to manifest continuous random motion. 263 00:15:02,360 --> 00:15:06,040 Speaker 1: Think about that continuous random motion for every single particle 264 00:15:06,080 --> 00:15:09,400 Speaker 1: in that cloud. There are many many more ways for 265 00:15:09,480 --> 00:15:14,200 Speaker 1: continuous random motion to make these particles appear to uniformly 266 00:15:14,280 --> 00:15:17,960 Speaker 1: fill the aquarium. Then there are ways for continuous random 267 00:15:17,960 --> 00:15:21,760 Speaker 1: motion to make those particles do any other particular special 268 00:15:21,800 --> 00:15:24,960 Speaker 1: thing like clumping together in a sphere at the center 269 00:15:25,000 --> 00:15:29,000 Speaker 1: of the tank. Right, random motion of the particles could 270 00:15:29,120 --> 00:15:31,960 Speaker 1: make the particles clumped together in a sphere in the 271 00:15:32,000 --> 00:15:35,840 Speaker 1: middle of the tank, But that is overwhelmingly the minority 272 00:15:36,120 --> 00:15:41,600 Speaker 1: of the ways that these particles could randomly arrange themselves. Right, Yes, 273 00:15:41,800 --> 00:15:45,840 Speaker 1: so all these other formations are possible, but we know 274 00:15:46,040 --> 00:15:50,400 Speaker 1: that the just the the the even distribution of particles 275 00:15:50,480 --> 00:15:52,880 Speaker 1: is the most likely. Right, It's going to be so 276 00:15:53,080 --> 00:15:57,359 Speaker 1: overwhelmingly likely that that's all you're ever gonna see. Randomness 277 00:15:57,480 --> 00:16:03,360 Speaker 1: overwhelmingly favors uniform to attributions. Random distributions always favor equilibrium. 278 00:16:03,600 --> 00:16:05,320 Speaker 1: And I want to use another image to try to 279 00:16:05,440 --> 00:16:09,160 Speaker 1: drive this point home. Okay, think about a black and 280 00:16:09,280 --> 00:16:14,000 Speaker 1: white image of ten thousand pixels square in which every 281 00:16:14,040 --> 00:16:18,360 Speaker 1: pixel is randomly filled within with either a black pixel 282 00:16:18,440 --> 00:16:20,840 Speaker 1: or a white pixel. And let's say you have a 283 00:16:20,880 --> 00:16:24,520 Speaker 1: computer program that generates these random pixel fields. So every 284 00:16:24,520 --> 00:16:27,240 Speaker 1: time you run the computer program, it puts out a 285 00:16:27,320 --> 00:16:31,640 Speaker 1: JPEG that's ten thousand pixels square in which every pixel 286 00:16:31,720 --> 00:16:35,800 Speaker 1: space is randomly filled in either black or white. And 287 00:16:35,920 --> 00:16:39,040 Speaker 1: let's say you run that program a hundred times. What 288 00:16:39,080 --> 00:16:42,760 Speaker 1: are your one hundred images gonna look like? I would 289 00:16:42,760 --> 00:16:44,560 Speaker 1: say most of them? Are you just going to be nonsense? 290 00:16:44,600 --> 00:16:47,320 Speaker 1: Most of them are just gonna be dots? Yeah, they're 291 00:16:47,520 --> 00:16:51,000 Speaker 1: The overwhelming probability is that they will all look exactly 292 00:16:51,040 --> 00:16:55,200 Speaker 1: the same. They will be uniform, gray, static. What's the 293 00:16:55,240 --> 00:16:57,800 Speaker 1: probability that this computer program is going to turn out 294 00:16:57,800 --> 00:17:01,200 Speaker 1: an image that draws a picture of b Arthur juggling chainsaws? 295 00:17:02,600 --> 00:17:07,399 Speaker 1: I would say very slim, extremely slim. It's possible that 296 00:17:07,440 --> 00:17:09,879 Speaker 1: it could draw that, because there's enough space that a 297 00:17:09,920 --> 00:17:12,760 Speaker 1: person could draw something like that in there, But the 298 00:17:12,760 --> 00:17:15,720 Speaker 1: probability of that happening is so low that it's never 299 00:17:15,760 --> 00:17:18,360 Speaker 1: ever going to happen in our lifetimes. You could run 300 00:17:18,359 --> 00:17:21,440 Speaker 1: the program a billion times and you would never draw 301 00:17:21,480 --> 00:17:24,640 Speaker 1: that picture. I mean, this is basically the monkeys pounding 302 00:17:24,640 --> 00:17:28,320 Speaker 1: on typewriter to produce the words of William Shakespeare exactly right. 303 00:17:28,800 --> 00:17:31,720 Speaker 1: But here's the kicker. Let's say you run this program 304 00:17:31,760 --> 00:17:36,800 Speaker 1: infinity times. What would it generate? Then? First of all, 305 00:17:37,000 --> 00:17:39,280 Speaker 1: we know, like you couldn't actually do this right, because 306 00:17:39,280 --> 00:17:42,040 Speaker 1: there would be physical limitations on running a computer program 307 00:17:42,040 --> 00:17:45,520 Speaker 1: infinity times. The computer would eventually break down as the 308 00:17:45,600 --> 00:17:49,200 Speaker 1: universe tends toward its ultimate fate. Whatever energy sources powering 309 00:17:49,200 --> 00:17:51,560 Speaker 1: it would probably run out. Well, let's just say, for 310 00:17:51,600 --> 00:17:54,440 Speaker 1: the sake of argument, you could run this program an 311 00:17:54,440 --> 00:17:58,880 Speaker 1: infinite number of times. Well, in that case, not only 312 00:17:58,880 --> 00:18:02,080 Speaker 1: would it generate a picture or of b Arthur juggling chainsaws, 313 00:18:02,119 --> 00:18:05,159 Speaker 1: it would draw an infinite number of those pictures and 314 00:18:05,200 --> 00:18:08,680 Speaker 1: an infinite number of variations on them. You'd also get 315 00:18:08,720 --> 00:18:12,240 Speaker 1: Scooby Doo juggling chainsaws. You'd also get be Arthur juggling 316 00:18:12,240 --> 00:18:15,920 Speaker 1: butterball turkeys. You'd also get the American flag. You'd also 317 00:18:16,000 --> 00:18:19,119 Speaker 1: get weird variations on the American flag that just have 318 00:18:19,320 --> 00:18:21,640 Speaker 1: like a bunch of clowns drawn on it. You get 319 00:18:21,680 --> 00:18:26,360 Speaker 1: every possible picture. You could get an infinite number of times. Yeah, 320 00:18:26,400 --> 00:18:29,159 Speaker 1: and in this we're really back in the Library of Battle. 321 00:18:29,280 --> 00:18:31,560 Speaker 1: We've discussed on the show before, the idea this thought 322 00:18:31,640 --> 00:18:35,280 Speaker 1: experiment of UH an infinite collection of books, not only 323 00:18:35,320 --> 00:18:39,240 Speaker 1: all books that exist, but all possible books, most of 324 00:18:39,280 --> 00:18:43,240 Speaker 1: which are nonsense. Right, So we're establishing that given infinite 325 00:18:43,240 --> 00:18:49,199 Speaker 1: time to try variations, even though randomly assorted configurations of 326 00:18:49,320 --> 00:18:53,440 Speaker 1: things will almost always turn up, you know, uniform randomness 327 00:18:53,520 --> 00:18:57,119 Speaker 1: that looks like nothing to us, given infinite time, they 328 00:18:57,160 --> 00:19:01,479 Speaker 1: will inevitably and infinitely turn up things that are ordered 329 00:19:01,680 --> 00:19:05,359 Speaker 1: and look special and look interesting and look like pictures 330 00:19:05,359 --> 00:19:08,720 Speaker 1: we recognize. So what happens when we map this back 331 00:19:08,840 --> 00:19:12,920 Speaker 1: onto not a computer program drawing pictures, but to say, 332 00:19:13,040 --> 00:19:15,720 Speaker 1: particles in a gas cloud will address that when we 333 00:19:15,720 --> 00:19:20,840 Speaker 1: come back from this break. All right, we're back. So 334 00:19:21,119 --> 00:19:25,080 Speaker 1: we've we've essentially set the stage for order to emerge 335 00:19:25,080 --> 00:19:29,439 Speaker 1: from chaos and spontaneously over vast periods of time. Just 336 00:19:29,480 --> 00:19:33,640 Speaker 1: based on pure probability, right, order tends to never emerge 337 00:19:33,720 --> 00:19:37,120 Speaker 1: from chaos because we don't have enough time to let 338 00:19:37,160 --> 00:19:40,840 Speaker 1: that happen. But if you've got infinite time to play with, 339 00:19:41,160 --> 00:19:44,440 Speaker 1: then not only could order come from chaos. It inevitably 340 00:19:44,480 --> 00:19:47,640 Speaker 1: will there's no preventing it from happening, and it will 341 00:19:47,680 --> 00:19:51,320 Speaker 1: happen an infinite number of times. Now, let's go back 342 00:19:51,359 --> 00:19:53,800 Speaker 1: to the gas particles we were talking about earlier. I 343 00:19:53,880 --> 00:19:57,159 Speaker 1: described this scenario where there is an aquarium where you 344 00:19:57,160 --> 00:19:59,640 Speaker 1: pump some yellow gas into it and you just watch 345 00:19:59,720 --> 00:20:03,439 Speaker 1: this aloud disperse. Once the cloud fills the aquarium is 346 00:20:03,480 --> 00:20:06,760 Speaker 1: just gonna sit there, equally dispersed in the aquarium forever, 347 00:20:06,800 --> 00:20:10,080 Speaker 1: and it's never gonna change. For all reasonable scenarios, this 348 00:20:10,160 --> 00:20:13,280 Speaker 1: is never going to decrease in entropy and organize itself 349 00:20:13,320 --> 00:20:16,280 Speaker 1: into something orderly. No matter how many times you run 350 00:20:16,320 --> 00:20:19,040 Speaker 1: the pixel randomizing program in your lifetime, you're never gonna 351 00:20:19,119 --> 00:20:22,520 Speaker 1: see anything other than a random field of gray. But 352 00:20:22,640 --> 00:20:25,240 Speaker 1: what if you were able to study the yellow gas 353 00:20:25,240 --> 00:20:29,640 Speaker 1: in the aquarium for infinity time, Well, then the same 354 00:20:29,640 --> 00:20:33,280 Speaker 1: principle would hold true. Right, According to Boltzmann's discoveries, you 355 00:20:33,320 --> 00:20:36,440 Speaker 1: can describe the behavior of the particles in a gas 356 00:20:36,520 --> 00:20:42,040 Speaker 1: cloud by constant random motion continuous random activity, and so 357 00:20:42,119 --> 00:20:46,639 Speaker 1: that means that randomness over time would organize the gas cloud. 358 00:20:46,760 --> 00:20:51,800 Speaker 1: If given infinity tries to perform local decreases in entropy. 359 00:20:51,920 --> 00:20:54,159 Speaker 1: So over infinite time, there will be moments when the 360 00:20:54,240 --> 00:20:57,280 Speaker 1: random motion of gas particles in the in the cloud 361 00:20:57,520 --> 00:21:00,119 Speaker 1: will coalesce into a yellow sphere in the middle of 362 00:21:00,160 --> 00:21:03,760 Speaker 1: the aquarium, and then into a yellow cube on one 363 00:21:03,840 --> 00:21:06,280 Speaker 1: side of the aquarium, and will cause them to write 364 00:21:06,359 --> 00:21:09,320 Speaker 1: short reviews of Adam Sandler movies in the gas on 365 00:21:09,359 --> 00:21:12,880 Speaker 1: the side of the aquarium and every possible arrangement for 366 00:21:12,960 --> 00:21:16,320 Speaker 1: which there are enough particles. Not only that, but again, 367 00:21:16,440 --> 00:21:19,639 Speaker 1: given infinite time, the gas will arrange itself this way 368 00:21:19,680 --> 00:21:23,879 Speaker 1: an infinite number of times. Now here's the real brilliancy 369 00:21:23,920 --> 00:21:28,640 Speaker 1: move of Boltzman. Extrapolate this to the entire universe. Are 370 00:21:28,640 --> 00:21:31,000 Speaker 1: you with me, Robert, Yes, Yeah. We're gonna take the 371 00:21:31,119 --> 00:21:35,240 Speaker 1: same idea of order occasionally emerging out of chaos, and 372 00:21:35,280 --> 00:21:37,520 Speaker 1: we're going to apply it to this universe of ours, 373 00:21:37,720 --> 00:21:41,720 Speaker 1: which in which we see order emerge out of chaos. 374 00:21:42,119 --> 00:21:44,280 Speaker 1: I want to refer to a graph that I got 375 00:21:44,359 --> 00:21:47,760 Speaker 1: from Sean Carroll's website. Sean Carroll is a Caltech physicist 376 00:21:47,800 --> 00:21:50,040 Speaker 1: who will be referring to several times in this episode 377 00:21:50,040 --> 00:21:53,879 Speaker 1: because he's dealt extensively with the idea of Boltzmann brains 378 00:21:53,960 --> 00:21:56,399 Speaker 1: and so he asks you to to go along with 379 00:21:56,440 --> 00:22:00,320 Speaker 1: Boltzman's idea of a universe like this to image engine 380 00:22:00,840 --> 00:22:03,959 Speaker 1: a graph where on the x axis you've got time. 381 00:22:04,240 --> 00:22:05,960 Speaker 1: So as you go along the bottom of the graph 382 00:22:06,280 --> 00:22:09,360 Speaker 1: x axis, time develops, and then on the y axis 383 00:22:09,440 --> 00:22:11,560 Speaker 1: you have entropy. So the higher up you go on 384 00:22:11,600 --> 00:22:14,560 Speaker 1: the graph, the more everything is the sea of sameness, 385 00:22:14,600 --> 00:22:18,040 Speaker 1: with nothing special or ordered or interesting or useful. And 386 00:22:18,080 --> 00:22:21,240 Speaker 1: then as you go down towards the bottom of the graph, 387 00:22:21,480 --> 00:22:25,399 Speaker 1: you get order, you get complexity, you get useful work. 388 00:22:26,320 --> 00:22:29,879 Speaker 1: On Boltzman's view, the baseline sort of the ground state 389 00:22:29,920 --> 00:22:32,679 Speaker 1: of this universe. What the universe is almost all of 390 00:22:32,680 --> 00:22:35,800 Speaker 1: the time is maximum entropy. So imagine the graph has 391 00:22:35,800 --> 00:22:39,120 Speaker 1: a line at the very top just going straight across 392 00:22:39,240 --> 00:22:41,240 Speaker 1: along the x axis, but at the top of the 393 00:22:41,240 --> 00:22:46,960 Speaker 1: graph total maximum entropy, thermal equilibrium. Nothing interesting at all 394 00:22:47,000 --> 00:22:49,960 Speaker 1: happens in this universe. It's this vast sea of cold, 395 00:22:50,440 --> 00:22:54,359 Speaker 1: undifferentiated sameness. But if you follow this line along the 396 00:22:54,520 --> 00:22:57,280 Speaker 1: X axis of time through history, every now and then, 397 00:22:57,720 --> 00:23:01,399 Speaker 1: the line will randomly dip down some distance from the top, 398 00:23:01,520 --> 00:23:05,760 Speaker 1: because this is due to random fluctuations. Right, A random 399 00:23:05,800 --> 00:23:09,160 Speaker 1: fluctuation will produce a lower entropy state, which will then 400 00:23:09,240 --> 00:23:12,080 Speaker 1: regress back towards the maximum entropy. So you're so you're 401 00:23:12,080 --> 00:23:14,240 Speaker 1: imagining a line going across the top of the graph 402 00:23:14,240 --> 00:23:16,040 Speaker 1: and every now and then dipping and then coming back 403 00:23:16,119 --> 00:23:19,119 Speaker 1: to the top. Most steps are very small, but some 404 00:23:19,200 --> 00:23:22,879 Speaker 1: are bigger, and the bigger the dip, the rarer it is. 405 00:23:23,600 --> 00:23:25,800 Speaker 1: But if you let the if you follow the x 406 00:23:25,840 --> 00:23:30,879 Speaker 1: axis forever for infinity time, eventually one of those dips 407 00:23:30,920 --> 00:23:33,840 Speaker 1: will inevitably go all the way down to the bottom 408 00:23:33,840 --> 00:23:37,520 Speaker 1: of the graph, a state of maximally low entropy, which 409 00:23:37,520 --> 00:23:40,879 Speaker 1: in functional terms would be like a rebooting of the 410 00:23:40,960 --> 00:23:44,200 Speaker 1: local entropy of the universe, giving us tons of order, 411 00:23:44,480 --> 00:23:48,400 Speaker 1: tons of specialness, tons of useful energy. It would be 412 00:23:48,600 --> 00:23:52,280 Speaker 1: a big bang, a sort of like boom periods in 413 00:23:52,760 --> 00:23:55,840 Speaker 1: in complex systems, emerging and coming together. Right. So, what 414 00:23:55,920 --> 00:23:58,320 Speaker 1: Boltzman is trying to show is that using his idea 415 00:23:58,359 --> 00:24:02,639 Speaker 1: of entropy fluctuation, it's just randomly occurring through infinite time. 416 00:24:03,160 --> 00:24:08,240 Speaker 1: You could, in a maximum entropy universe suddenly spontaneously generate 417 00:24:08,320 --> 00:24:12,200 Speaker 1: a big bang, which would essentially start the universe over. 418 00:24:12,240 --> 00:24:15,360 Speaker 1: It would create a universe with what appears to be 419 00:24:15,480 --> 00:24:19,000 Speaker 1: an arrow of time. Now we're almost getting to the brains. 420 00:24:19,960 --> 00:24:22,720 Speaker 1: The area of time is no small matter either way 421 00:24:22,760 --> 00:24:27,120 Speaker 1: of explaining why we have causality in the universe, right right, 422 00:24:27,160 --> 00:24:30,040 Speaker 1: So there they're going to be problems with Boltzman's model, 423 00:24:30,119 --> 00:24:32,600 Speaker 1: But this is what he's trying to imagine, is that, Yeah, 424 00:24:32,720 --> 00:24:35,520 Speaker 1: so we've got causality in the universe. We've got entropy, 425 00:24:35,600 --> 00:24:38,560 Speaker 1: we've got the arrow of time. The universe seems to 426 00:24:38,720 --> 00:24:43,200 Speaker 1: develop from one direction to another. Entropy doesn't go backwards usually, 427 00:24:43,560 --> 00:24:46,040 Speaker 1: So why does it look like that? Well, maybe it 428 00:24:46,080 --> 00:24:49,040 Speaker 1: looks like that because we are on one side of 429 00:24:49,080 --> 00:24:52,320 Speaker 1: this dip in the line on the graph. Right, We've 430 00:24:52,359 --> 00:24:56,280 Speaker 1: fluctuated into a state of maximally low entropy, and now 431 00:24:56,320 --> 00:24:58,600 Speaker 1: we're on our way back to the ground state of 432 00:24:58,680 --> 00:25:02,280 Speaker 1: high entropy. This is true if this actually were how 433 00:25:02,320 --> 00:25:04,560 Speaker 1: the universe was shaped, and this is how the history 434 00:25:04,600 --> 00:25:08,400 Speaker 1: of big bangs developed, one implication would be that though 435 00:25:08,400 --> 00:25:11,480 Speaker 1: our universe will eventually cool and dissipate and tend toward 436 00:25:11,560 --> 00:25:15,720 Speaker 1: total disorder, there will be an infinite number of other 437 00:25:16,000 --> 00:25:21,119 Speaker 1: future universes fluctuating randomly out of equilibrium in the future, 438 00:25:21,160 --> 00:25:23,679 Speaker 1: which is maybe kind of comforting. Right. You can imagine 439 00:25:23,720 --> 00:25:25,679 Speaker 1: if this line on the top of the graph just 440 00:25:25,760 --> 00:25:29,080 Speaker 1: keeps going on, even though our universe may one day 441 00:25:29,240 --> 00:25:31,600 Speaker 1: die a heat death, it may one day just go 442 00:25:31,680 --> 00:25:35,639 Speaker 1: to thermal equilibrium. It will fluctuate back into existence again. 443 00:25:35,960 --> 00:25:37,879 Speaker 1: All right, Well, there's there's hope in that in a 444 00:25:38,000 --> 00:25:41,520 Speaker 1: very like distant cosmic sense. Yeah, But there is a 445 00:25:41,600 --> 00:25:45,239 Speaker 1: super creepy dark implication if this is the case, and 446 00:25:45,280 --> 00:25:47,639 Speaker 1: this is where it turns back in on ourselves and 447 00:25:47,680 --> 00:25:52,520 Speaker 1: becomes less this this remote physics thought experiment kind of thing, 448 00:25:52,520 --> 00:25:55,680 Speaker 1: It becomes a personal thought experiment when based on our 449 00:25:55,720 --> 00:25:59,840 Speaker 1: perceptions are individual perceptions of reality exactly, a high ent 450 00:26:00,040 --> 00:26:03,400 Speaker 1: p universe full of dispersed matter and energy, tending toward 451 00:26:03,480 --> 00:26:06,840 Speaker 1: equilibrium and lasting forever you're in that state, that's your 452 00:26:06,840 --> 00:26:10,000 Speaker 1: ground state. If this were to happen, you would have 453 00:26:10,160 --> 00:26:14,320 Speaker 1: infinite time for random fluctuations within the universe to depart 454 00:26:14,359 --> 00:26:17,160 Speaker 1: from equilibrium and form not just big bangs, but all 455 00:26:17,280 --> 00:26:21,400 Speaker 1: kinds of ordered systems. So you might occasionally get big bangs, 456 00:26:21,440 --> 00:26:26,240 Speaker 1: but actually much more frequently you'd get smaller fluctuations creating 457 00:26:26,320 --> 00:26:31,160 Speaker 1: smaller objects. So you'd have a mostly uniform random universe 458 00:26:31,560 --> 00:26:34,920 Speaker 1: with the extremely rare fluctuation into existence of a fish 459 00:26:34,960 --> 00:26:38,960 Speaker 1: with wings, and of a steel ball bearing and of 460 00:26:39,000 --> 00:26:43,520 Speaker 1: a glass of lemonade, and even a human brain complete 461 00:26:43,520 --> 00:26:48,119 Speaker 1: with memories and ongoing sensory hallucinations. And you're saying, wait 462 00:26:48,119 --> 00:26:51,960 Speaker 1: a minute, that sounds far fetched. You're right, it is 463 00:26:52,080 --> 00:26:55,760 Speaker 1: far fetched. This would never happen, not in a billion 464 00:26:55,840 --> 00:27:00,800 Speaker 1: billion years, unless you had infinite time. And then if 465 00:27:00,800 --> 00:27:04,920 Speaker 1: you had infinite time or or a functionally infinite amount 466 00:27:04,960 --> 00:27:08,359 Speaker 1: of time, not only would it happen, it's guaranteed to 467 00:27:08,560 --> 00:27:11,720 Speaker 1: and it would happen an infinite number of times. That's 468 00:27:11,720 --> 00:27:14,600 Speaker 1: the power of infinity. Though. Yeah, it opens up the 469 00:27:14,600 --> 00:27:20,080 Speaker 1: possibility for virtually everything to do occur. So, because on 470 00:27:20,119 --> 00:27:22,840 Speaker 1: some models of the universe, these brains would be infinite 471 00:27:22,880 --> 00:27:27,359 Speaker 1: in number, they would out number normal brains produced on 472 00:27:27,400 --> 00:27:31,040 Speaker 1: a cooling planet by evolution. And thus the argument you 473 00:27:31,080 --> 00:27:35,960 Speaker 1: are statistically more likely to be a temporary random brain 474 00:27:36,200 --> 00:27:40,040 Speaker 1: fluctuating into existence in deep space time then you are 475 00:27:40,119 --> 00:27:43,239 Speaker 1: to be one of these normal biological brains produced by 476 00:27:43,280 --> 00:27:48,399 Speaker 1: evolution on a rocky planet. The fluctuating brains over the 477 00:27:48,440 --> 00:27:52,879 Speaker 1: course of the entire universe's history are more numerous. Thus 478 00:27:53,080 --> 00:27:55,919 Speaker 1: you're more likely to be one of them than you 479 00:27:55,960 --> 00:27:58,680 Speaker 1: are to be one of us. All right, Well, I'm 480 00:27:58,680 --> 00:28:00,239 Speaker 1: with you. I know this can be a difficult thing 481 00:28:00,280 --> 00:28:03,399 Speaker 1: to sort of wrap one's head around. I also have 482 00:28:03,480 --> 00:28:05,560 Speaker 1: to say that as we were reading over the material, 483 00:28:05,920 --> 00:28:11,879 Speaker 1: I found myself hearing the descriptions in my head read 484 00:28:12,359 --> 00:28:15,000 Speaker 1: in in the form of the Galaxy song from Monty 485 00:28:15,040 --> 00:28:19,040 Speaker 1: Python that people might remember from the Meaning of Life. 486 00:28:19,240 --> 00:28:22,000 Speaker 1: How's I go? Uh? You know, so, remember when you're 487 00:28:22,000 --> 00:28:26,359 Speaker 1: feeling very small and insecure, how amazingly unlikely is your birth? 488 00:28:26,520 --> 00:28:29,160 Speaker 1: You know, like that, I'm I'm singing the wrong part 489 00:28:29,200 --> 00:28:31,720 Speaker 1: with the wrong tune, but you get the idea. Yeah, 490 00:28:31,880 --> 00:28:33,600 Speaker 1: it's all about the you know, the size of the 491 00:28:33,680 --> 00:28:37,240 Speaker 1: universe and how insignificant humans are when you when you 492 00:28:37,280 --> 00:28:40,040 Speaker 1: try and factor us into the whole grand design. Well, 493 00:28:40,080 --> 00:28:42,800 Speaker 1: I mean that can be a comforting thought sometimes, yeah, 494 00:28:42,880 --> 00:28:46,120 Speaker 1: and and and also a terrifying one. You're just like, Wow, 495 00:28:46,200 --> 00:28:52,040 Speaker 1: I'm I'm nothing. I had the same situation. Um just 496 00:28:52,120 --> 00:28:55,880 Speaker 1: recently my trip to Kauai with my family. We we 497 00:28:55,880 --> 00:28:58,120 Speaker 1: we got to see the canyon there in Kauai, which 498 00:28:58,160 --> 00:29:02,880 Speaker 1: is beautiful. It's it far grander than one might expect 499 00:29:03,080 --> 00:29:05,360 Speaker 1: visiting an island out in the middle of the Pacific. 500 00:29:05,800 --> 00:29:08,080 Speaker 1: But I get the same same impression that I get 501 00:29:08,120 --> 00:29:10,800 Speaker 1: gazing out at something like the Grand Canyon. There's all 502 00:29:10,800 --> 00:29:14,440 Speaker 1: this space, all this emptiness, and it's just it's just overwhelming. 503 00:29:14,480 --> 00:29:17,280 Speaker 1: It's so vast, and I just feel so small and insignificant. 504 00:29:17,480 --> 00:29:20,400 Speaker 1: And then it's no wonder that small children don't see 505 00:29:20,440 --> 00:29:23,720 Speaker 1: what the big deal is, because they can hardly conceive 506 00:29:23,920 --> 00:29:27,000 Speaker 1: of of life and death, and therefore the idea of 507 00:29:27,040 --> 00:29:29,840 Speaker 1: just a vast, yawning emptiness is just kind of boring 508 00:29:29,880 --> 00:29:33,320 Speaker 1: to them. Once you try to conceptualize infinity, it really 509 00:29:33,360 --> 00:29:39,160 Speaker 1: does change your perspective on everything, because infinity is an 510 00:29:39,240 --> 00:29:43,400 Speaker 1: inconceivable concept. Yeah, and when I'm talking about a canyon, 511 00:29:43,440 --> 00:29:45,560 Speaker 1: I'm not I'm certainly not talking about infinity. I'm talking 512 00:29:45,600 --> 00:29:49,000 Speaker 1: about a finite amount of space. But it's an amount 513 00:29:49,000 --> 00:29:52,440 Speaker 1: of space that is far greater than what I have 514 00:29:52,480 --> 00:29:54,720 Speaker 1: sort of baked into my usual world view. Well, it 515 00:29:54,800 --> 00:29:59,080 Speaker 1: hints towards infinity. It does to see something much vaster 516 00:29:59,240 --> 00:30:04,000 Speaker 1: than yourself and and realize it is also vanishingly insignificant 517 00:30:04,000 --> 00:30:06,280 Speaker 1: and in the face of the universe. Yeah, and then 518 00:30:06,320 --> 00:30:09,040 Speaker 1: and and the whole area of infinity. We actually have 519 00:30:09,160 --> 00:30:13,600 Speaker 1: an episode of two from the back catalog on the 520 00:30:13,680 --> 00:30:17,320 Speaker 1: nature of infinity and infinities, talking about the the whole 521 00:30:17,360 --> 00:30:20,240 Speaker 1: thought experiment of the infinity hotel. What happens if you 522 00:30:20,320 --> 00:30:24,240 Speaker 1: have a hotel with an infinite number of rooms and 523 00:30:24,240 --> 00:30:26,520 Speaker 1: then a bus load of of infinite guests show up, 524 00:30:26,560 --> 00:30:29,280 Speaker 1: and then a second bus shows up, etcetera. I mean 525 00:30:29,320 --> 00:30:32,960 Speaker 1: a lot of these thought experiments about infinity tend to 526 00:30:33,040 --> 00:30:37,480 Speaker 1: indicate that there's something wrong with your starting assumptions, and 527 00:30:37,560 --> 00:30:40,400 Speaker 1: that maybe actually where we're going with the Boltzman brains here, 528 00:30:40,960 --> 00:30:43,280 Speaker 1: hopefully that's what we are. Otherwise you're gonna have to 529 00:30:43,320 --> 00:30:46,040 Speaker 1: accept that you are statistically a Boltzman brain and not 530 00:30:46,160 --> 00:30:49,560 Speaker 1: a biological organism involved on the rocky planet. So you 531 00:30:49,640 --> 00:30:52,200 Speaker 1: might be asking a question like you, I know, I 532 00:30:52,360 --> 00:30:55,240 Speaker 1: for a while didn't understand. Wait a minute, why does 533 00:30:55,360 --> 00:30:59,320 Speaker 1: this this model of the universe predict more Boltzmann brains 534 00:30:59,400 --> 00:31:03,520 Speaker 1: than regular are observers in an infinite universe, wouldn't there 535 00:31:03,520 --> 00:31:06,640 Speaker 1: be an infinite number of both? Right? You get an 536 00:31:06,640 --> 00:31:10,480 Speaker 1: infinite number of big bangs creating rocky planets, with evolution 537 00:31:10,680 --> 00:31:15,480 Speaker 1: giving rise to infinite uh normal biological observers, then you'd 538 00:31:15,520 --> 00:31:18,880 Speaker 1: also have infinite Boltzman brains floating in space, fluctuating out 539 00:31:18,880 --> 00:31:21,760 Speaker 1: of nothing. Why would space brains, which we have no 540 00:31:21,840 --> 00:31:24,200 Speaker 1: proof that they exist, why would they have privileged status 541 00:31:24,440 --> 00:31:29,680 Speaker 1: over actual organic brains, which, unless everything is an illusion, 542 00:31:30,080 --> 00:31:32,800 Speaker 1: actually space brains. Uh, you know, unless that is the case, 543 00:31:32,840 --> 00:31:35,360 Speaker 1: we have definite proof that they exist. If you go 544 00:31:35,440 --> 00:31:38,200 Speaker 1: back to our random pixel field program, remember we were 545 00:31:38,200 --> 00:31:42,680 Speaker 1: discussing earlier, the computer program that randomly creates images by 546 00:31:42,760 --> 00:31:45,160 Speaker 1: randomly filling in one pixel at a time black or 547 00:31:45,200 --> 00:31:48,000 Speaker 1: white in a big field. If you give that program 548 00:31:48,080 --> 00:31:51,520 Speaker 1: infinite time, how often will it draw a smiley face 549 00:31:51,640 --> 00:31:54,120 Speaker 1: on a grid of pixels that's a hundred by a hundred. 550 00:31:54,600 --> 00:31:57,720 Speaker 1: And then, given infinite time, how often will it draw 551 00:31:57,760 --> 00:31:59,800 Speaker 1: a smiley face on a grid of pixels that's a 552 00:32:00,040 --> 00:32:05,280 Speaker 1: million by a million pixels. Both occurrences are extremely rare 553 00:32:05,320 --> 00:32:08,800 Speaker 1: in real time, and both will happen an infinite number 554 00:32:08,840 --> 00:32:11,760 Speaker 1: of times given an infinite number of tries. But the 555 00:32:11,840 --> 00:32:15,880 Speaker 1: one hundred by one smiley face will nevertheless happen much 556 00:32:15,920 --> 00:32:18,960 Speaker 1: more often than the million by one million smiley face 557 00:32:19,040 --> 00:32:23,080 Speaker 1: because it remires. It requires a smaller number of coincidences. 558 00:32:23,800 --> 00:32:27,040 Speaker 1: Here's one for you. Hopefully this is not going too 559 00:32:27,080 --> 00:32:32,040 Speaker 1: far off the point, but imagine Connor McCloud from the 560 00:32:32,120 --> 00:32:36,000 Speaker 1: Highlander films lives forever an infinite number of an infinite 561 00:32:36,080 --> 00:32:39,720 Speaker 1: number of years, infinite number of days. Uh So that 562 00:32:39,800 --> 00:32:41,840 Speaker 1: means we need to think how many times is he 563 00:32:41,920 --> 00:32:44,880 Speaker 1: going to use the restroom versus how many times is 564 00:32:44,920 --> 00:32:48,960 Speaker 1: he going to cut off somebody's head? All right now, 565 00:32:49,000 --> 00:32:51,080 Speaker 1: not factoring in the idea that there's going to be 566 00:32:51,400 --> 00:32:54,600 Speaker 1: a finite number of immortals, etcetera, just know that those 567 00:32:54,640 --> 00:32:57,040 Speaker 1: are two things that Connor McLoud does. If you watch 568 00:32:57,120 --> 00:33:01,720 Speaker 1: these films and present that he has normal biological functions. 569 00:33:01,880 --> 00:33:03,920 Speaker 1: He's going to use the bathroom and he's gonna cut 570 00:33:03,920 --> 00:33:07,160 Speaker 1: off heads. But the frequency uh, at which he goes 571 00:33:07,200 --> 00:33:08,840 Speaker 1: to the bathroom is going to be greater than the 572 00:33:08,840 --> 00:33:11,720 Speaker 1: frequency at which he cuts off heads, unless unless he's 573 00:33:11,760 --> 00:33:15,520 Speaker 1: like a really prolific headcutter. Offer maybe, but I'm still 574 00:33:15,560 --> 00:33:17,360 Speaker 1: I'm still going with the assumption that he's going to 575 00:33:17,480 --> 00:33:23,000 Speaker 1: urinate more than he decapitates, and you've given an infinite lifespan, 576 00:33:23,360 --> 00:33:25,680 Speaker 1: he is going to cough infinite heads and he's gonna 577 00:33:25,720 --> 00:33:29,960 Speaker 1: take infinite leaks and infinite poops. But the poops and 578 00:33:29,960 --> 00:33:33,560 Speaker 1: the leaks are going to be greater infinities than the heads. 579 00:33:33,680 --> 00:33:38,080 Speaker 1: This has been gorgeous. Uh so yeah, So let's extrapolate 580 00:33:38,120 --> 00:33:41,720 Speaker 1: that to the universe again. There's an infinite universe full 581 00:33:41,760 --> 00:33:46,080 Speaker 1: of stuff in equilibrium and their entropy fluctuations, and those 582 00:33:46,240 --> 00:33:50,720 Speaker 1: entropy fluctuations can create things they can create. And let's 583 00:33:50,720 --> 00:33:53,040 Speaker 1: say I want to use an entropy fluctuation like that 584 00:33:53,080 --> 00:33:57,040 Speaker 1: to create regular human observers the revolution, just like us. First, 585 00:33:57,080 --> 00:33:59,640 Speaker 1: I need to get a universe sized amount of matter 586 00:33:59,680 --> 00:34:02,760 Speaker 1: and inner g randomly into one place, so will form 587 00:34:02,800 --> 00:34:05,560 Speaker 1: a new Big Bang and create lots of useful energy 588 00:34:05,600 --> 00:34:08,520 Speaker 1: stars galaxies, which in turn create planets, some of them 589 00:34:08,520 --> 00:34:12,520 Speaker 1: habitable on which some are on, some of which intelligent 590 00:34:12,600 --> 00:34:15,879 Speaker 1: life will evolve and observe the universe. Again, on this 591 00:34:15,920 --> 00:34:19,600 Speaker 1: model that can happen. Random entropy fluctuations are going to 592 00:34:19,719 --> 00:34:23,920 Speaker 1: eventually produce big bangs, but because that requires so much 593 00:34:24,160 --> 00:34:27,719 Speaker 1: more of the content of the universe to randomly fluctuate 594 00:34:27,800 --> 00:34:31,280 Speaker 1: into an ordered state, it will happen far less often 595 00:34:31,320 --> 00:34:36,000 Speaker 1: than random fluctuations turning into smaller objects like a fish 596 00:34:36,080 --> 00:34:40,280 Speaker 1: with wings or like a brain. So it's actually more 597 00:34:40,320 --> 00:34:45,560 Speaker 1: likely and thus more common for a brain to spontaneously 598 00:34:45,600 --> 00:34:49,880 Speaker 1: appear in space than for a big bang to spontaneously coalesce. 599 00:34:50,360 --> 00:34:52,680 Speaker 1: So what are we talking about when we're talking about 600 00:34:52,719 --> 00:34:56,120 Speaker 1: brains in these thought experiments. That's a good question, because 601 00:34:56,160 --> 00:34:59,440 Speaker 1: what we're really talking about is observers. Right, you're just 602 00:34:59,560 --> 00:35:02,200 Speaker 1: trying to account for the fact that you are able 603 00:35:02,239 --> 00:35:05,000 Speaker 1: to be here saying, wait a minute, what kind of 604 00:35:05,080 --> 00:35:09,759 Speaker 1: universe am I in? Right? Anything that could say wait 605 00:35:09,760 --> 00:35:12,640 Speaker 1: a minute, what kind of universe am I in? Counts 606 00:35:12,680 --> 00:35:15,960 Speaker 1: as an observer, So it technically wouldn't really need to 607 00:35:16,040 --> 00:35:19,120 Speaker 1: be a biological brain made out of all these weird 608 00:35:19,160 --> 00:35:21,719 Speaker 1: fatty cells and neurons, like our brains are made out 609 00:35:21,719 --> 00:35:26,239 Speaker 1: of the objects produced by fluctuation that that you supposedly 610 00:35:26,280 --> 00:35:29,240 Speaker 1: probably are. Don't have to be brains like this. Brains 611 00:35:29,239 --> 00:35:32,080 Speaker 1: are just chosen because their physical objects that we know 612 00:35:32,200 --> 00:35:35,680 Speaker 1: from experience can produce the effect of a conscious observer. 613 00:35:36,120 --> 00:35:39,680 Speaker 1: But technically, unless I'm missing something, what the Boltzmann brain 614 00:35:39,719 --> 00:35:43,840 Speaker 1: logic should actually predict is that brains in the universe 615 00:35:43,840 --> 00:35:48,359 Speaker 1: are going to be outnumbered by structurally the most structurally 616 00:35:48,440 --> 00:35:51,759 Speaker 1: simple objects containing the smallest number of atoms or the 617 00:35:51,760 --> 00:35:55,120 Speaker 1: smallest amount of energy that are still capable of producing 618 00:35:55,120 --> 00:35:59,480 Speaker 1: conscious observation, and these objects will even out number the 619 00:35:59,520 --> 00:36:04,160 Speaker 1: boltzman On brains that outnumber the normal biologically evolved humans 620 00:36:04,160 --> 00:36:07,440 Speaker 1: and other aliens. So in all this you we're not 621 00:36:07,560 --> 00:36:10,960 Speaker 1: merely talking say like a self aware nebula or a 622 00:36:10,960 --> 00:36:12,960 Speaker 1: living planet, but it could also be something like a 623 00:36:13,040 --> 00:36:16,400 Speaker 1: conscious speck of dust. Right. That's contingent on whether or 624 00:36:16,440 --> 00:36:18,840 Speaker 1: not it's possible for a spec of dust to be conscious. 625 00:36:18,880 --> 00:36:21,520 Speaker 1: We don't know. We we don't know what the minimum 626 00:36:21,520 --> 00:36:25,960 Speaker 1: physical conditions for conscious observers are. Of course, fluctuations resulting 627 00:36:26,000 --> 00:36:29,120 Speaker 1: in specs of dust of any possible sort will vastly 628 00:36:29,160 --> 00:36:34,000 Speaker 1: outnumber fluctuations resulting in brains or computers or conscious watermelons 629 00:36:34,080 --> 00:36:37,279 Speaker 1: or conscious horses and space or whatever. There will be 630 00:36:37,320 --> 00:36:39,880 Speaker 1: an infinite number of all of them, but there's probably 631 00:36:39,880 --> 00:36:42,080 Speaker 1: going to be more specs of dust than there will 632 00:36:42,120 --> 00:36:44,960 Speaker 1: be those other things. Of Course, a great takeaway from 633 00:36:44,960 --> 00:36:47,759 Speaker 1: this is if this universe is actually the one we 634 00:36:47,800 --> 00:36:51,080 Speaker 1: live in, if there actually is an infinite universe or 635 00:36:51,120 --> 00:36:53,879 Speaker 1: a functionally infinite amount of time in the universe, then 636 00:36:53,920 --> 00:36:58,759 Speaker 1: all mythological beasts, imagined and unimagined, will at some point exist. Well, 637 00:36:58,760 --> 00:37:02,480 Speaker 1: there's a silver lining. I guess it depends on who's 638 00:37:02,480 --> 00:37:06,960 Speaker 1: an adjative world you're attaching yourself to, you know, if 639 00:37:06,960 --> 00:37:09,839 Speaker 1: you're diving into a bunch of Lovecraft and hr geek 640 00:37:09,880 --> 00:37:11,840 Speaker 1: or I don't know how how beautiful that ultimately is. 641 00:37:11,920 --> 00:37:15,240 Speaker 1: But um, but hey, it means there's there's a planet 642 00:37:15,239 --> 00:37:19,120 Speaker 1: of works out there somewhere in the vast, infinite sea 643 00:37:19,280 --> 00:37:24,200 Speaker 1: of being God bless the entropy fluctuations. That's just great. Now, 644 00:37:24,239 --> 00:37:25,680 Speaker 1: I guess I guess we've got to get to the 645 00:37:25,680 --> 00:37:29,800 Speaker 1: big question, which is that we've now outlined this thought experiment. 646 00:37:29,880 --> 00:37:32,320 Speaker 1: But does it mean that we have to be convinced 647 00:37:32,320 --> 00:37:34,799 Speaker 1: by it? Are we doomed to accept that we are 648 00:37:34,960 --> 00:37:40,279 Speaker 1: statistically in fact Boltzmann brains. I want to assure you 649 00:37:40,400 --> 00:37:43,200 Speaker 1: some very smart physicists are you know, you don't have 650 00:37:43,280 --> 00:37:45,560 Speaker 1: to accept that that's the case, even though it does 651 00:37:45,640 --> 00:37:49,560 Speaker 1: seem statistically more likely, because there might be problems with 652 00:37:49,600 --> 00:37:53,279 Speaker 1: the assumption going into this thought experiment, and we're going 653 00:37:53,360 --> 00:37:56,080 Speaker 1: to explore that later in the episode. All Right, we're 654 00:37:56,120 --> 00:38:00,960 Speaker 1: gonna take a quick break, but we'll be right back. Alright, 655 00:38:00,960 --> 00:38:04,600 Speaker 1: we're back with more brains. Now, these types of thought 656 00:38:04,680 --> 00:38:08,360 Speaker 1: experiments about like what an observer can know just starting 657 00:38:08,400 --> 00:38:11,080 Speaker 1: from the point of knowing you exist and being aware 658 00:38:11,080 --> 00:38:14,359 Speaker 1: of your own consciousness. That this is not originated with 659 00:38:14,400 --> 00:38:17,640 Speaker 1: the Boltzmann brain problem. Right, this goes like way back 660 00:38:17,640 --> 00:38:21,120 Speaker 1: into history. I know Descartes did stuff like this. Yeah, 661 00:38:21,160 --> 00:38:25,400 Speaker 1: Reneed de Carte lived a fift through sixteen fifty. Uh. 662 00:38:25,440 --> 00:38:28,080 Speaker 1: He incidentally he died at age fifty three, the same 663 00:38:28,080 --> 00:38:30,399 Speaker 1: as Terence McKenna. Oh. Yeah, we were just recording another 664 00:38:30,400 --> 00:38:36,919 Speaker 1: episode where we talked about Yeah, he would have relished that. Now, 665 00:38:36,960 --> 00:38:39,440 Speaker 1: if if we're to sum up the work of Reneeda 666 00:38:39,480 --> 00:38:42,080 Speaker 1: cart And a single sentence, it is of course I 667 00:38:42,120 --> 00:38:45,239 Speaker 1: think therefore I am. That's what he's most famous for. Right. Yeah. 668 00:38:45,280 --> 00:38:48,360 Speaker 1: Descart was a big fan of using logic and reason 669 00:38:48,560 --> 00:38:52,680 Speaker 1: as opposed to using your senses. Right. Uh. And he 670 00:38:52,719 --> 00:38:55,160 Speaker 1: was a duelist. He saw the mind and body is separate. 671 00:38:55,239 --> 00:38:57,759 Speaker 1: The essence of mind is thought, and body is an 672 00:38:57,760 --> 00:39:00,680 Speaker 1: extension of it. Thoughts are not extended into space, but 673 00:39:00,760 --> 00:39:04,160 Speaker 1: the body is. He also proposed a thought experiment that 674 00:39:04,280 --> 00:39:07,200 Speaker 1: is sort of a forefather to these weirdo space brains. 675 00:39:07,200 --> 00:39:11,839 Speaker 1: We're discussing here the evil demon. So he presented this 676 00:39:11,880 --> 00:39:16,359 Speaker 1: in his work Meditations on First Philosophy Colon, in which 677 00:39:16,400 --> 00:39:18,960 Speaker 1: the existence of God and the immortality of the soul 678 00:39:19,000 --> 00:39:23,040 Speaker 1: are demonstrated. That's one heck of a title, that's from one. Well, 679 00:39:23,080 --> 00:39:25,719 Speaker 1: a lot of times people forget this. That like what 680 00:39:25,880 --> 00:39:28,399 Speaker 1: he's remembered for. I think therefore I am, But that's 681 00:39:28,480 --> 00:39:32,000 Speaker 1: for him part of a proof of God's existence. Yeah. Yeah. 682 00:39:33,000 --> 00:39:34,239 Speaker 1: It's kind of a case with a number of the 683 00:39:34,239 --> 00:39:36,520 Speaker 1: different ideas that he trots out right, and they can 684 00:39:36,560 --> 00:39:39,120 Speaker 1: be they can kind of be taken up by either side. 685 00:39:39,480 --> 00:39:41,680 Speaker 1: So when he's talking about the evil demon here, he's 686 00:39:41,840 --> 00:39:45,520 Speaker 1: it's essentially an exercise in Cartesian skepticism. He presents the 687 00:39:45,560 --> 00:39:48,480 Speaker 1: idea that everything that you think you observe could in 688 00:39:48,560 --> 00:39:51,680 Speaker 1: fact be an illusion inflicted upon you by an evil 689 00:39:51,760 --> 00:39:54,480 Speaker 1: demon as far as you know. Yeah, I mean, another 690 00:39:54,520 --> 00:39:57,319 Speaker 1: example he brings up in this is mistaking dream for 691 00:39:57,400 --> 00:40:01,640 Speaker 1: waking experience. So, in other words, are perceptions and sensations 692 00:40:01,680 --> 00:40:04,160 Speaker 1: they can deceive us. It falls to each of us 693 00:40:04,160 --> 00:40:07,240 Speaker 1: to be able to distinguish between true and false beliefs, 694 00:40:07,800 --> 00:40:10,600 Speaker 1: not to truly outwit a demon or escape from a 695 00:40:10,800 --> 00:40:15,200 Speaker 1: you know, particularly potent dream, but to navigate a reality 696 00:40:15,239 --> 00:40:18,920 Speaker 1: full of fallible data and ideas. And it's it's so 697 00:40:18,960 --> 00:40:23,919 Speaker 1: another way that's important to remain skeptical, uh, in one's world. Yeah, 698 00:40:23,920 --> 00:40:25,360 Speaker 1: I mean this is a this is the thing we 699 00:40:25,400 --> 00:40:28,000 Speaker 1: don't usually think about all that much from day to day, 700 00:40:28,040 --> 00:40:31,839 Speaker 1: but it is a philosophically interesting foundational question, which is 701 00:40:32,360 --> 00:40:34,920 Speaker 1: how much stock do you put in the evidence of 702 00:40:34,960 --> 00:40:39,560 Speaker 1: your senses. If you just deny the evidence of your senses, 703 00:40:39,640 --> 00:40:42,880 Speaker 1: you're locked into a pretty ridiculous place and you can't 704 00:40:42,880 --> 00:40:46,560 Speaker 1: really live a life. Right. But if you say the 705 00:40:46,880 --> 00:40:49,760 Speaker 1: it's impossible for the evidence of my senses to be wrong, 706 00:40:50,200 --> 00:40:53,640 Speaker 1: then you're opening up yourself to the possibility of like, Okay, 707 00:40:54,040 --> 00:40:57,759 Speaker 1: if you're experiencing a hallucination, you're not going to be 708 00:40:57,880 --> 00:41:00,440 Speaker 1: able to be convinced that the thing you're seeing is 709 00:41:00,480 --> 00:41:03,759 Speaker 1: in fact erroneous data. Yeah. Yeah, the first hallucination that 710 00:41:03,800 --> 00:41:07,920 Speaker 1: you experience, the first false memory that you encountered, would 711 00:41:08,000 --> 00:41:12,440 Speaker 1: be a potentially of life wrecking occurrence. Now there's a 712 00:41:12,480 --> 00:41:14,640 Speaker 1: there's a modern vary end of all this. Uh. And 713 00:41:14,640 --> 00:41:18,960 Speaker 1: this was first presented by Hillary Putnam in reason truth 714 00:41:19,000 --> 00:41:21,960 Speaker 1: in history in nine it is the brain in a 715 00:41:22,040 --> 00:41:25,400 Speaker 1: vat argument to go. Yeah, and you know we we 716 00:41:25,480 --> 00:41:28,080 Speaker 1: touched on versions of this. I believe there's a science 717 00:41:28,120 --> 00:41:32,960 Speaker 1: fiction story that we discussed by Daniel Dennetts. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, 718 00:41:33,040 --> 00:41:35,839 Speaker 1: the one where his brain gets taken out of his body. Yes, 719 00:41:36,040 --> 00:41:38,919 Speaker 1: I think this story is called where am I? Yes, yeah, 720 00:41:39,040 --> 00:41:42,440 Speaker 1: and it uh he had a nice robust sci fi setting, 721 00:41:42,760 --> 00:41:45,719 Speaker 1: Uh that went along with this, and it's rather nice. 722 00:41:46,400 --> 00:41:50,720 Speaker 1: I recommend reading it. But and that was basically the scenario. 723 00:41:50,920 --> 00:41:53,399 Speaker 1: These scenarios usually involved a brain that's been removed from 724 00:41:53,400 --> 00:41:56,120 Speaker 1: your body and hooked up to a computer that deceives 725 00:41:56,160 --> 00:41:59,120 Speaker 1: you with the experience of being a living, embodied being. 726 00:42:00,080 --> 00:42:02,640 Speaker 1: But in Putnam's version, it's very stripped down. There are 727 00:42:02,680 --> 00:42:06,719 Speaker 1: no evil demons, there are no evil supercomputers, there's no 728 00:42:06,760 --> 00:42:10,440 Speaker 1: mad scientists all you have. Yeah, well, it's stripped down 729 00:42:10,480 --> 00:42:12,400 Speaker 1: for a reason because when you started adding in all 730 00:42:12,400 --> 00:42:15,640 Speaker 1: those details, you start you start tweaking it and asking questions, well, 731 00:42:15,680 --> 00:42:18,840 Speaker 1: how mad was the scientists? You know, you want it 732 00:42:19,000 --> 00:42:22,080 Speaker 1: as stripped down as possible to make it more plausible, right, yeah, 733 00:42:22,120 --> 00:42:25,360 Speaker 1: And and you all also it will become more obvious 734 00:42:25,360 --> 00:42:27,759 Speaker 1: why it so stripped down. But basically, all you have 735 00:42:28,400 --> 00:42:31,360 Speaker 1: you have brains, you have thats, and you have a 736 00:42:31,400 --> 00:42:35,920 Speaker 1: laboratory supercomputer that stimulates the brains. Anything else would just 737 00:42:35,960 --> 00:42:38,720 Speaker 1: be a complicating plot element. Okay, so what does Putnam 738 00:42:38,760 --> 00:42:41,480 Speaker 1: think about this? Okay, so well, there's what he thinks 739 00:42:41,480 --> 00:42:44,719 Speaker 1: and what the skeptic would argue. So simply put, the 740 00:42:44,760 --> 00:42:48,160 Speaker 1: skeptic would argue that we cannot know if the brain 741 00:42:48,280 --> 00:42:51,560 Speaker 1: in a vat hypothesis is false, and if it's true, 742 00:42:51,600 --> 00:42:54,799 Speaker 1: there's no difference in our reception of reality. Therefore, we 743 00:42:54,880 --> 00:42:58,840 Speaker 1: actually don't know any propositions about the external world because 744 00:42:58,880 --> 00:43:02,320 Speaker 1: these propositions would be false if the that hypothesis is true. 745 00:43:02,520 --> 00:43:06,200 Speaker 1: So the simple version goes like this, if you know X, 746 00:43:06,280 --> 00:43:10,040 Speaker 1: and X can be anything. Um, give me an example. 747 00:43:10,040 --> 00:43:13,879 Speaker 1: What's what's a truth you take? For granted, water when 748 00:43:13,960 --> 00:43:17,800 Speaker 1: heated sufficiently, turns into steam. Okay, if you know that 749 00:43:17,840 --> 00:43:20,160 Speaker 1: the heated water turns into steam, and I mean really 750 00:43:20,280 --> 00:43:22,360 Speaker 1: know it, then you know that you are not a 751 00:43:22,360 --> 00:43:26,000 Speaker 1: brain in a vat. Okay, yeah, okay, but here's the thing. 752 00:43:26,400 --> 00:43:28,239 Speaker 1: The second point is you do not know that you 753 00:43:28,280 --> 00:43:30,520 Speaker 1: are not a brain in a vat. You cannot prove this, 754 00:43:30,840 --> 00:43:33,600 Speaker 1: and so the third point is you do not know 755 00:43:34,239 --> 00:43:37,319 Speaker 1: that heated water turns into steam. I must say I'm 756 00:43:37,360 --> 00:43:40,759 Speaker 1: quite skeptical of the brain in a VAD argument, but 757 00:43:40,920 --> 00:43:43,640 Speaker 1: I mean, I respect, I respect the thoughtfulness of it. 758 00:43:43,960 --> 00:43:46,359 Speaker 1: There is a certain logic at work here. But one 759 00:43:46,360 --> 00:43:47,920 Speaker 1: thing we should be aware of is that the brain 760 00:43:47,920 --> 00:43:51,040 Speaker 1: in a VAT argument is not necessarily a parsimonious starting point, 761 00:43:51,600 --> 00:43:54,520 Speaker 1: like the imagining yourself as a brain in a VAT 762 00:43:54,600 --> 00:43:59,920 Speaker 1: could potentially be an extravagant scenario that's rather ad hawk. Yeah. Yeah, 763 00:44:00,120 --> 00:44:03,000 Speaker 1: And it's also worth noting that there are varying levels 764 00:44:03,040 --> 00:44:06,560 Speaker 1: of complexity on these the simple formulas, because, for instance, 765 00:44:06,760 --> 00:44:10,640 Speaker 1: Putnam's counter argument was that, yes, we can know that 766 00:44:10,760 --> 00:44:12,480 Speaker 1: we're not a brain in a VAT, and we can 767 00:44:12,480 --> 00:44:16,120 Speaker 1: do it via basic semantic considerations if on reference and 768 00:44:16,200 --> 00:44:19,200 Speaker 1: truth like a right. So the simple version, and this 769 00:44:19,239 --> 00:44:21,960 Speaker 1: is a simple version. Again, you can get increasingly complicated 770 00:44:22,000 --> 00:44:24,520 Speaker 1: with it. But first of all, if I'm just a 771 00:44:24,560 --> 00:44:27,760 Speaker 1: brain in a vat, then my then then my word 772 00:44:27,880 --> 00:44:32,799 Speaker 1: tree doesn't refer to trees, Okay, because I'm just this 773 00:44:33,000 --> 00:44:35,239 Speaker 1: this is I've never actually seen a tree. Yeah, because 774 00:44:35,280 --> 00:44:37,600 Speaker 1: I remember that that very stripped down description of the world. 775 00:44:37,640 --> 00:44:40,160 Speaker 1: I didn't say anything about trees. All. I said brain, 776 00:44:40,360 --> 00:44:44,520 Speaker 1: that supercomputer. So okay, So if I'm just a brain 777 00:44:44,560 --> 00:44:46,440 Speaker 1: in a vat, then my word tree doesn't refer to 778 00:44:46,480 --> 00:44:51,440 Speaker 1: trees at all. But consideration number two, my word tree 779 00:44:52,120 --> 00:44:55,120 Speaker 1: does refer to a tree. Therefore I am not a 780 00:44:55,160 --> 00:44:58,560 Speaker 1: brain in a vat. And again it gets more complicated 781 00:44:58,560 --> 00:45:02,160 Speaker 1: from there. They're increasingly more complex ruminations on that concerning 782 00:45:02,400 --> 00:45:05,239 Speaker 1: the semantic truth of the of of this whole tree thing. 783 00:45:05,320 --> 00:45:07,640 Speaker 1: Wait a minute, so how does he justify that his 784 00:45:07,719 --> 00:45:14,239 Speaker 1: word tree does refer to a tree? Because what's it 785 00:45:14,280 --> 00:45:18,000 Speaker 1: referring to if it's not? Okay, it's like saying, I'm 786 00:45:18,040 --> 00:45:21,000 Speaker 1: not saying that, it's just oh yeah, yes, a simple 787 00:45:21,120 --> 00:45:23,319 Speaker 1: sort of nod and go along with the situation. Like 788 00:45:23,360 --> 00:45:28,040 Speaker 1: he gets very very very very deep rather fast. But yeah, 789 00:45:28,040 --> 00:45:30,560 Speaker 1: it comes down to sort of like the internal logic 790 00:45:31,120 --> 00:45:36,520 Speaker 1: of well, essentially your brain, uh and and your reasoning um, 791 00:45:36,560 --> 00:45:38,560 Speaker 1: And he's saying, you can sort of you can argue 792 00:45:38,680 --> 00:45:41,239 Speaker 1: your way out of that paper sack. Well, you could 793 00:45:41,239 --> 00:45:46,279 Speaker 1: say that semantics in a way necessitate externality. Yeah, yeah, yeah, 794 00:45:46,280 --> 00:45:50,360 Speaker 1: the fact that we have this, this robust semantic system 795 00:45:50,400 --> 00:45:54,080 Speaker 1: to call upon. Now. Of course, we run into various 796 00:45:54,400 --> 00:45:57,319 Speaker 1: versions of this, right, various echoes of this and other 797 00:45:57,360 --> 00:46:00,080 Speaker 1: thought experiments, such as, say that the computer stance the 798 00:46:00,080 --> 00:46:04,439 Speaker 1: computer simulation argument reality. Yeah, the simulation argument often gets 799 00:46:04,440 --> 00:46:07,160 Speaker 1: brought up when the Boltspon brain argument gets brought up, 800 00:46:07,200 --> 00:46:09,960 Speaker 1: because there are definite similarities between them. Right, and then 801 00:46:10,000 --> 00:46:12,160 Speaker 1: we see so many interesting sci fi treatments of this. 802 00:46:12,200 --> 00:46:14,960 Speaker 1: We mentioned Daniel then a short story. But obviously the 803 00:46:15,000 --> 00:46:17,759 Speaker 1: matrix is an example of one not necessarily a brain 804 00:46:17,760 --> 00:46:20,080 Speaker 1: in a vada, but a body, a full body in 805 00:46:20,120 --> 00:46:24,239 Speaker 1: a vat that its dreaming a simulated world. Of course, 806 00:46:24,280 --> 00:46:27,239 Speaker 1: it's also worth noting that this whole, this whole concept 807 00:46:27,560 --> 00:46:31,239 Speaker 1: is is pretty ancient too. Uh. It's I mean of 808 00:46:31,280 --> 00:46:34,040 Speaker 1: like the external reality being an illusion. Yeah, yeah, I 809 00:46:34,080 --> 00:46:35,480 Speaker 1: mean you can go all the way back to the 810 00:46:35,600 --> 00:46:40,080 Speaker 1: Hindu concept of Maya, which which predates all of this. Obviously, 811 00:46:40,080 --> 00:46:43,560 Speaker 1: the concept that there's a veil of illusion cloaking the 812 00:46:43,560 --> 00:46:48,120 Speaker 1: phenomenal world and it gives rise to false apprehensions about 813 00:46:48,160 --> 00:46:52,200 Speaker 1: the nature of self and of cosmos. One has to 814 00:46:52,200 --> 00:46:54,760 Speaker 1: see through this veil. In Hinduism, to gain a full 815 00:46:54,800 --> 00:46:59,640 Speaker 1: awareness of deep reality or or or Brahmin. Are there 816 00:46:59,719 --> 00:47:02,520 Speaker 1: con create steps to how to see through it? Yeah? Well, 817 00:47:02,520 --> 00:47:05,160 Speaker 1: I mean that's kind of like where where the whole 818 00:47:05,200 --> 00:47:08,359 Speaker 1: religion uh comes through, you know, the idea that there 819 00:47:08,400 --> 00:47:11,240 Speaker 1: are there are practices, there are steps, their rights, there 820 00:47:11,280 --> 00:47:14,560 Speaker 1: are ways to to achieve this. Uh. There, I'm going 821 00:47:14,640 --> 00:47:18,080 Speaker 1: to read a quick line from the Upanishads from the 822 00:47:18,120 --> 00:47:23,040 Speaker 1: first millennium BC. This whole world the illusion maker projects 823 00:47:23,120 --> 00:47:26,359 Speaker 1: out of brahmin and in it by illusion, the other 824 00:47:26,680 --> 00:47:30,480 Speaker 1: is confined. So, you know, a lot of of life 825 00:47:30,520 --> 00:47:32,360 Speaker 1: then comes down to like how do I how do 826 00:47:32,400 --> 00:47:34,600 Speaker 1: I see out of my illusions? How do I see 827 00:47:34,840 --> 00:47:38,880 Speaker 1: see through them and grasp like the true reality of 828 00:47:38,920 --> 00:47:41,920 Speaker 1: the world. The irony I think here is that that 829 00:47:42,080 --> 00:47:44,640 Speaker 1: is a great project, how do you see beyond your illusions? 830 00:47:44,719 --> 00:47:47,680 Speaker 1: But that one of your illusions could be that your 831 00:47:47,719 --> 00:47:52,879 Speaker 1: mind has been captivated by a probably false argument that 832 00:47:52,920 --> 00:47:55,719 Speaker 1: your world is an illusion. That's kind of the risk 833 00:47:55,760 --> 00:47:58,440 Speaker 1: to with the Boltzman sit scenario, Right, are we not 834 00:47:58,520 --> 00:48:03,359 Speaker 1: just creating another illusion and our attempt to grasp absolute reality? Well, yeah, 835 00:48:03,400 --> 00:48:06,040 Speaker 1: I think some physicists would say definitely yes. So I 836 00:48:06,040 --> 00:48:08,560 Speaker 1: think it's time to ask the question, is there any 837 00:48:08,680 --> 00:48:12,000 Speaker 1: escape from the Boltzman brain paradox? What would physicists say 838 00:48:12,880 --> 00:48:15,200 Speaker 1: about this paradox? Is there a way out of it? 839 00:48:15,360 --> 00:48:18,320 Speaker 1: Or are you trapped by the logic of you must 840 00:48:18,360 --> 00:48:21,760 Speaker 1: be statistically a brain floating in space. There are several 841 00:48:21,760 --> 00:48:24,160 Speaker 1: ways to answer this question. First of all, I think 842 00:48:24,160 --> 00:48:26,920 Speaker 1: we should start with something the physicist Sean Carroll points 843 00:48:26,920 --> 00:48:29,879 Speaker 1: out I mentioned him earlier. He says, the Boltzmann brain 844 00:48:30,000 --> 00:48:35,080 Speaker 1: paradox is quote cognitively unstable, and that means that while 845 00:48:35,080 --> 00:48:38,120 Speaker 1: it does seem true to us based on logic and probability, 846 00:48:38,160 --> 00:48:43,480 Speaker 1: it also undermines its own foundations. Because if we were 847 00:48:43,520 --> 00:48:46,600 Speaker 1: just a random fluctuation of a brain full of memories 848 00:48:46,600 --> 00:48:50,759 Speaker 1: and hallucinations of current sense experience, and our lives never happened, 849 00:48:51,040 --> 00:48:53,920 Speaker 1: and the past never existed, and all of the premises 850 00:48:53,960 --> 00:48:56,680 Speaker 1: on which the statistical argument that you are a Boltzman 851 00:48:56,760 --> 00:49:01,520 Speaker 1: brain is based would be hallucinatory and unfounded. In reality, 852 00:49:02,880 --> 00:49:06,200 Speaker 1: there would have been no Ludwig Boltzman right. There would 853 00:49:06,200 --> 00:49:08,440 Speaker 1: be no guarantee that the universe is one in which 854 00:49:08,520 --> 00:49:12,040 Speaker 1: the laws of physics give rise to random fluctuations. Also, 855 00:49:12,320 --> 00:49:14,439 Speaker 1: you would have no confidence that you could have real 856 00:49:14,520 --> 00:49:18,160 Speaker 1: problem solving intelligence since you've never actually tested it out 857 00:49:18,200 --> 00:49:21,000 Speaker 1: against the world outside, you never needed to evolve any 858 00:49:21,040 --> 00:49:24,239 Speaker 1: kind of problem solving reasoning. If you really were a 859 00:49:24,280 --> 00:49:27,560 Speaker 1: Boltzman brain, there would be absolutely no reason to think 860 00:49:27,800 --> 00:49:31,040 Speaker 1: that the process of thought leading you to believe yourself 861 00:49:31,080 --> 00:49:35,000 Speaker 1: to be a Boltzman brain was valid or sound. So, 862 00:49:35,200 --> 00:49:37,840 Speaker 1: and I could be misinterpreting this, But is that the 863 00:49:37,880 --> 00:49:42,520 Speaker 1: idea here that there's too much internal consistency in the 864 00:49:42,520 --> 00:49:45,839 Speaker 1: illusion for it too for our lives and our existence 865 00:49:45,960 --> 00:49:49,399 Speaker 1: to truly be an illusion of this Boltzman brain. Well, 866 00:49:49,560 --> 00:49:52,239 Speaker 1: it's that the argument for the fact that you're a 867 00:49:52,239 --> 00:49:56,319 Speaker 1: Boltzman brain is based on premises that you have obtained 868 00:49:56,760 --> 00:49:59,839 Speaker 1: through the history of scientific research, and like, the only 869 00:50:00,000 --> 00:50:02,279 Speaker 1: reason for you to think you're a Boltzman brain is 870 00:50:02,320 --> 00:50:05,839 Speaker 1: because the past did exist and we've done science and 871 00:50:05,880 --> 00:50:08,799 Speaker 1: you can use logic and all that. If if none 872 00:50:08,800 --> 00:50:11,560 Speaker 1: of that was actually true, and maybe the universe doesn't 873 00:50:11,640 --> 00:50:15,359 Speaker 1: have random entropy, fluctuations and all that, then how would 874 00:50:15,360 --> 00:50:18,319 Speaker 1: you know you're a Boltzman brain. Essentially, one would be 875 00:50:18,520 --> 00:50:24,200 Speaker 1: using maya two arrive at Brahmin, which is the reverse 876 00:50:24,239 --> 00:50:27,040 Speaker 1: of the proposition. Yeah, you'd be using something that is 877 00:50:27,080 --> 00:50:32,160 Speaker 1: necessarily an illusion in order to discover the fact that 878 00:50:32,239 --> 00:50:34,839 Speaker 1: you are an illusion. Okay, yeah, that makes sense. So 879 00:50:34,920 --> 00:50:38,720 Speaker 1: it's cognitively unstable. It undermines the very evidence and logic 880 00:50:38,800 --> 00:50:41,160 Speaker 1: that allowed us to arrive at the conclusion of the 881 00:50:41,200 --> 00:50:43,960 Speaker 1: Boltzman brain paradox. All right, well that works for me. 882 00:50:44,000 --> 00:50:46,440 Speaker 1: I'm willing to write that on a postcard and put 883 00:50:46,480 --> 00:50:48,799 Speaker 1: it in my pocket and pull that out the next time. 884 00:50:48,840 --> 00:50:51,080 Speaker 1: I'm terrified of the brains. Now. I think the way 885 00:50:51,120 --> 00:50:54,200 Speaker 1: Carol uses this is not that it necessarily disproves the 886 00:50:54,200 --> 00:50:58,880 Speaker 1: Boltzman brain hypothesis, but that it should make us suspicious 887 00:50:58,920 --> 00:51:01,000 Speaker 1: of it. That we still have to deal with the 888 00:51:01,040 --> 00:51:05,280 Speaker 1: idea that the universe looks like it might generate Boltzman brains. 889 00:51:05,320 --> 00:51:07,399 Speaker 1: From a physical point of view, you need to do 890 00:51:07,440 --> 00:51:09,239 Speaker 1: something about that evidence. We still have to deal with 891 00:51:09,280 --> 00:51:13,400 Speaker 1: the physics, right, So there's another possible answer. The number 892 00:51:13,440 --> 00:51:16,160 Speaker 1: of Boltzman brain observers in a universe relative to the 893 00:51:16,239 --> 00:51:19,399 Speaker 1: number of normal observers in a universe is determined by 894 00:51:19,600 --> 00:51:23,040 Speaker 1: what kind of universe you're in, And we don't know 895 00:51:23,160 --> 00:51:26,919 Speaker 1: exactly what kind of universe we're in. We have some ideas, 896 00:51:26,960 --> 00:51:29,080 Speaker 1: but there may be ways in which our picture of 897 00:51:29,120 --> 00:51:32,640 Speaker 1: the universe isn't quite right because some universes do not 898 00:51:32,920 --> 00:51:37,000 Speaker 1: generate more Boltzman brains than regular biological brains. So it 899 00:51:37,080 --> 00:51:39,719 Speaker 1: seems reasonable to think that we are likely living in 900 00:51:39,760 --> 00:51:43,600 Speaker 1: one of those types of universes that creates more biological 901 00:51:43,640 --> 00:51:47,080 Speaker 1: brains than Boltzman brains, and maybe doesn't create any Boltzman 902 00:51:47,120 --> 00:51:51,239 Speaker 1: brains at all. So what do those universes look like? Well, 903 00:51:51,280 --> 00:51:53,279 Speaker 1: I'd say there are two main ways of approaching this. 904 00:51:53,360 --> 00:51:54,879 Speaker 1: There might be more, but there are two main ways 905 00:51:54,920 --> 00:51:58,240 Speaker 1: I've come across. First of all, what if the universe 906 00:51:58,239 --> 00:52:02,480 Speaker 1: has a different history and ultimate fate. I would call 907 00:52:02,560 --> 00:52:07,680 Speaker 1: these states collectively infinity denial. If you live in a 908 00:52:07,719 --> 00:52:11,560 Speaker 1: state of infinity denial, they are not infinite or functionally 909 00:52:11,640 --> 00:52:15,360 Speaker 1: infinite amounts of time in which Boltzmann brains can arise, 910 00:52:16,120 --> 00:52:19,400 Speaker 1: meaning they'll probably never exist at all. I mean, remember 911 00:52:19,440 --> 00:52:23,279 Speaker 1: how crazily unlikely this is. You put yourself back in 912 00:52:23,360 --> 00:52:27,400 Speaker 1: real headspace for a second. A brain fluctuating into existence 913 00:52:27,440 --> 00:52:31,480 Speaker 1: in space unless there are pretty much infinite opportunities, that 914 00:52:31,600 --> 00:52:35,000 Speaker 1: is never ever going to happen. So in a universe 915 00:52:35,080 --> 00:52:38,200 Speaker 1: that has a fixed beginning and end and does not 916 00:52:38,400 --> 00:52:42,040 Speaker 1: have infinite time. Even if it has a very vast age, 917 00:52:42,440 --> 00:52:44,440 Speaker 1: you're just not going to see it occur, right, Well, 918 00:52:44,440 --> 00:52:46,880 Speaker 1: I mean it depends on how on what kind of 919 00:52:46,960 --> 00:52:50,319 Speaker 1: vast you're talking about, Like how many orders of magnitude 920 00:52:50,360 --> 00:52:53,759 Speaker 1: you go at some point. Obviously there's not like a 921 00:52:53,920 --> 00:52:57,440 Speaker 1: number infinity, but at some point the universe does become 922 00:52:57,600 --> 00:53:01,520 Speaker 1: so vast in time scale that you generate Boltzman brains. 923 00:53:01,520 --> 00:53:05,000 Speaker 1: But that's a kind of vastness that's incomprehensible to us. 924 00:53:05,440 --> 00:53:08,279 Speaker 1: But if there are these infinity denial limits on the 925 00:53:08,280 --> 00:53:10,480 Speaker 1: shape of spacetime in the age of the universe, then 926 00:53:10,520 --> 00:53:12,839 Speaker 1: Boltzmann brains are dead in the water. And I want 927 00:53:12,880 --> 00:53:15,520 Speaker 1: to use one example that Sean Carroll and Kimberly Body 928 00:53:15,640 --> 00:53:18,319 Speaker 1: have put forward, which is in their paper can the 929 00:53:18,400 --> 00:53:22,280 Speaker 1: Higgs Boson save us from the menace of Boltzmann Brains? 930 00:53:22,520 --> 00:53:25,880 Speaker 1: So essentially they explore the possibility that quote, the Higgs 931 00:53:25,960 --> 00:53:29,920 Speaker 1: field will decay via bubble nucleation sometime in the future, 932 00:53:30,239 --> 00:53:34,759 Speaker 1: dramatically changing the physics of our universe. So, to paraphrase, 933 00:53:35,200 --> 00:53:39,120 Speaker 1: the decay of the strength of the Higgs field will 934 00:53:39,160 --> 00:53:43,839 Speaker 1: periodically destroy the universe and cause it to transition into 935 00:53:43,880 --> 00:53:48,200 Speaker 1: a different type of vacuum with different laws of physics. Now, 936 00:53:48,239 --> 00:53:51,520 Speaker 1: that wouldn't be great for us, but that would be 937 00:53:51,560 --> 00:53:54,799 Speaker 1: interesting because it would avoid the Boltzman brain problem. Right. 938 00:53:54,840 --> 00:53:59,319 Speaker 1: If the physics properties of space change over time due 939 00:53:59,400 --> 00:54:01,480 Speaker 1: to the weakening of the Higgs field or or a 940 00:54:01,640 --> 00:54:04,600 Speaker 1: change in the Higgs field, then you would potentially have 941 00:54:04,680 --> 00:54:07,960 Speaker 1: a universe where there would not be these vast opportunities 942 00:54:08,000 --> 00:54:11,279 Speaker 1: in which Boltzman brains could arise. Okay, and again this 943 00:54:11,360 --> 00:54:15,279 Speaker 1: is another another scenario that would interrupt essentially the flow 944 00:54:15,320 --> 00:54:18,480 Speaker 1: of infinity exactly. And another way you could do this 945 00:54:18,880 --> 00:54:21,040 Speaker 1: would be the other side of the coin, which would 946 00:54:21,080 --> 00:54:25,200 Speaker 1: be fluctuation denial. What if the universe actually isn't able 947 00:54:25,280 --> 00:54:28,200 Speaker 1: to fluctuate a brain or any other kind of conscious 948 00:54:28,200 --> 00:54:32,160 Speaker 1: observer into existence, and the only way conscious observers can 949 00:54:32,200 --> 00:54:35,920 Speaker 1: come into existence is by regular old biological evolution. And 950 00:54:35,920 --> 00:54:37,440 Speaker 1: this comes back to the point you made about we 951 00:54:37,440 --> 00:54:40,960 Speaker 1: don't know what like we we don't know the limits 952 00:54:41,280 --> 00:54:46,960 Speaker 1: uh and the minimum requirements for consciousness about I think 953 00:54:46,960 --> 00:54:50,000 Speaker 1: we're talking about dust spects. Could a dust spect become conscious? 954 00:54:50,320 --> 00:54:53,479 Speaker 1: We don't know. But it's also likely that the only 955 00:54:53,480 --> 00:54:57,960 Speaker 1: way to arrive at consciousness is via biological evolution. That's 956 00:54:58,000 --> 00:55:00,239 Speaker 1: the only way we know about. I mean, there could 957 00:55:00,280 --> 00:55:02,840 Speaker 1: be other ways, and so that's one thing. A weird 958 00:55:02,880 --> 00:55:06,240 Speaker 1: possibility would be that what if you just like materialized 959 00:55:06,280 --> 00:55:09,440 Speaker 1: brains in space, but for some reason, brains like that 960 00:55:09,560 --> 00:55:13,680 Speaker 1: can't become conscious, that that's possible, Okay, Then you would 961 00:55:13,680 --> 00:55:16,279 Speaker 1: never expect to be one of those observers. Then you 962 00:55:16,320 --> 00:55:21,200 Speaker 1: could say, Okay, it's more likely I'm a biological evolved organism. 963 00:55:21,239 --> 00:55:23,400 Speaker 1: It's kind of hard to imagine how that would happen, 964 00:55:23,560 --> 00:55:26,600 Speaker 1: like why those brains would be denied access to consciousness. 965 00:55:26,600 --> 00:55:31,000 Speaker 1: But that's possible, I mean without going down the rabid 966 00:55:31,000 --> 00:55:33,680 Speaker 1: hole of consciousness discussions. I mean, you can make the 967 00:55:33,760 --> 00:55:36,200 Speaker 1: argument for all the various species with brains on our 968 00:55:36,239 --> 00:55:40,480 Speaker 1: planet that are not conscious by various definitions of consciousness. Yeah, 969 00:55:40,560 --> 00:55:42,799 Speaker 1: as far as we know. But there's another way of 970 00:55:42,840 --> 00:55:46,719 Speaker 1: doing this that goes directly to the fluctuation potential of 971 00:55:46,800 --> 00:55:51,120 Speaker 1: space itself. For Bolt Samann brains to randomly fluctuate into 972 00:55:51,120 --> 00:55:54,040 Speaker 1: existence in the universe, we need a process by which 973 00:55:54,080 --> 00:55:57,000 Speaker 1: those fluctuations could occur. And so if we go back 974 00:55:57,040 --> 00:56:01,479 Speaker 1: to our clear plastic aquarium, those fluctuations were explained via 975 00:56:01,600 --> 00:56:05,200 Speaker 1: the apparently random motion of particles in a gas cloud 976 00:56:05,200 --> 00:56:07,799 Speaker 1: in a closed system. But in the universe, we're not 977 00:56:07,840 --> 00:56:11,040 Speaker 1: talking just about random motion of particles in a gas cloud. 978 00:56:11,400 --> 00:56:15,600 Speaker 1: We're talking about fluctuations decreasing local entropy, which would be 979 00:56:15,600 --> 00:56:19,600 Speaker 1: caused by quantum mechanical fluctuations in the vacuum energy of 980 00:56:19,640 --> 00:56:22,680 Speaker 1: space time. I know that's kind of abstract. I I 981 00:56:22,840 --> 00:56:26,280 Speaker 1: can't honestly get too deep in explaining what that means, 982 00:56:26,360 --> 00:56:29,880 Speaker 1: because that is that is deep cosmology, and it's way 983 00:56:29,920 --> 00:56:33,279 Speaker 1: over my head. But basically, the idea is that there 984 00:56:33,480 --> 00:56:37,759 Speaker 1: is virtual particle potential in empty space, and that it 985 00:56:37,760 --> 00:56:41,640 Speaker 1: appears like empty space has the power to undergo random 986 00:56:41,680 --> 00:56:47,320 Speaker 1: fluctuations which generate events and energy and temperature and stuff. 987 00:56:47,760 --> 00:56:50,880 Speaker 1: And we definitely observe what appeared to be vacuum fluctuations 988 00:56:50,880 --> 00:56:53,839 Speaker 1: in the universe. The solution here is a different way 989 00:56:53,840 --> 00:56:57,480 Speaker 1: of interpreting those fluctuations. What if they're not a property 990 00:56:57,520 --> 00:57:01,359 Speaker 1: of space itself, but of some other special condition, Like 991 00:57:01,400 --> 00:57:04,600 Speaker 1: what if space is not fluctuating, then empty space cannot 992 00:57:04,600 --> 00:57:08,000 Speaker 1: create a brain or anything else. And this is explored 993 00:57:08,040 --> 00:57:12,360 Speaker 1: in another paper by authors Sean Carroll and Kim Kimberly Body, 994 00:57:12,480 --> 00:57:16,080 Speaker 1: also with the author Jason Pollock, called disider space without 995 00:57:16,160 --> 00:57:21,640 Speaker 1: dynamical quantum fluctuations, Explaining it on his blog Carol Carol 996 00:57:21,680 --> 00:57:25,800 Speaker 1: summarizes this by saying, quote, what we call quantum fluctuations 997 00:57:25,840 --> 00:57:31,360 Speaker 1: aren't true dynamical events that occur in isolated quantum systems. Rather, 998 00:57:31,480 --> 00:57:34,360 Speaker 1: they are a poetic way of describing the fact that 999 00:57:34,680 --> 00:57:39,200 Speaker 1: when we observe such systems, the outcomes are randomly distributed 1000 00:57:39,320 --> 00:57:43,440 Speaker 1: rather than deterministic lee predictable. But when we're not looking, 1001 00:57:43,520 --> 00:57:46,400 Speaker 1: a system in its ground state, like an electron at 1002 00:57:46,400 --> 00:57:51,120 Speaker 1: its lowest energy orbital around an atomic nucleus, isn't fluctuating 1003 00:57:51,120 --> 00:57:54,920 Speaker 1: at all. It's just sitting there. And in disider space, 1004 00:57:55,320 --> 00:57:59,280 Speaker 1: an empty space with a positive cosmological constant, all of 1005 00:57:59,320 --> 00:58:02,440 Speaker 1: the fields are in their ground states. If we were 1006 00:58:02,480 --> 00:58:05,840 Speaker 1: to probe empty disider space with a particle detector, it 1007 00:58:05,880 --> 00:58:10,200 Speaker 1: would certainly detect particles, but there are no particle detectors around, 1008 00:58:10,720 --> 00:58:14,200 Speaker 1: so in fact, the quantum fields are sitting there quietly 1009 00:58:14,360 --> 00:58:18,360 Speaker 1: in a stationary state with no definite particle number. Therefore, 1010 00:58:18,520 --> 00:58:23,520 Speaker 1: these kinds of fluctuations aren't really happening. Okay, now does 1011 00:58:23,560 --> 00:58:26,480 Speaker 1: that defeat boltsman brains? I feel like it. It may 1012 00:58:26,520 --> 00:58:30,840 Speaker 1: have defeated my brain. Yes, I mean you have to 1013 00:58:30,880 --> 00:58:34,320 Speaker 1: get into the physics to explain. And again I can't 1014 00:58:34,320 --> 00:58:36,480 Speaker 1: pretend to explain all of the ideas about the quantum 1015 00:58:36,480 --> 00:58:40,360 Speaker 1: mechanical fluctuations of the vacuum energy of space. But essentially, 1016 00:58:40,440 --> 00:58:43,520 Speaker 1: Carol and Body and Pollocure are are arguing that if 1017 00:58:43,560 --> 00:58:47,640 Speaker 1: you take a certain view of what quantum mechanics means 1018 00:58:47,640 --> 00:58:51,360 Speaker 1: on the cosmological scale of what's going on with with 1019 00:58:51,440 --> 00:58:54,960 Speaker 1: quantum mechanics and empty space, then you actually don't have 1020 00:58:55,000 --> 00:58:58,440 Speaker 1: a problem of fluctuations that could bring objects into random 1021 00:58:58,480 --> 00:59:01,720 Speaker 1: existence if you've got an dead universe. So the idea 1022 00:59:01,760 --> 00:59:05,480 Speaker 1: here is, we have a room full of typewriters and chimpanzees, 1023 00:59:05,880 --> 00:59:08,800 Speaker 1: but most of the chimpanzees are dead. They're all dead. 1024 00:59:08,840 --> 00:59:12,160 Speaker 1: They're nothing's typing. So yeah, you do have an infinite room. 1025 00:59:12,360 --> 00:59:14,880 Speaker 1: You've got an infinite room full of infinite monkeys and 1026 00:59:14,920 --> 00:59:19,000 Speaker 1: infinite typewriters, but none of them are typing, so that's 1027 00:59:19,000 --> 00:59:22,400 Speaker 1: no fluctuations model. Essentially, Body, Carol and pollic are proposing 1028 00:59:22,440 --> 00:59:25,840 Speaker 1: an empty, cold universe of space that doesn't produce Boltzman 1029 00:59:25,920 --> 00:59:28,760 Speaker 1: brains because it is not like the aquarium full of 1030 00:59:28,800 --> 00:59:32,280 Speaker 1: gas with its random continuous motion of particles. Instead, it's 1031 00:59:32,280 --> 00:59:35,840 Speaker 1: an empty universe as long as nothing becomes entangled with it, 1032 00:59:36,040 --> 00:59:38,680 Speaker 1: and it just sits there and does absolutely nothing, and 1033 00:59:38,680 --> 00:59:41,960 Speaker 1: there are no fluctuations. Now, of course, all that's dependent 1034 00:59:42,080 --> 00:59:44,760 Speaker 1: on their argument in the paper being correct, which I 1035 00:59:44,800 --> 00:59:47,040 Speaker 1: am not a physicist. I can't adjudicate, and so I 1036 00:59:47,080 --> 00:59:49,480 Speaker 1: don't have an opinion on that. But I do think 1037 00:59:49,520 --> 00:59:52,840 Speaker 1: we've been given enough to consider that will at least 1038 00:59:52,880 --> 00:59:54,920 Speaker 1: allow me to think I I don't have to be 1039 00:59:54,960 --> 00:59:58,520 Speaker 1: convinced by the Boltzman brain argument, right Like, I feel 1040 00:59:58,520 --> 01:00:01,360 Speaker 1: like we have we have some semana and cognitive arguments, 1041 01:00:01,360 --> 01:00:04,040 Speaker 1: and then we have some physics spaced arguments, even if 1042 01:00:04,040 --> 01:00:06,400 Speaker 1: they're a bit too lofty for most human brains. So 1043 01:00:06,600 --> 01:00:09,120 Speaker 1: so we have we have some arguments against it, and 1044 01:00:09,160 --> 01:00:11,120 Speaker 1: we can kind of pile those up, stack them up, 1045 01:00:11,320 --> 01:00:13,360 Speaker 1: slip them in our pocket, and feel a little more 1046 01:00:13,360 --> 01:00:19,520 Speaker 1: secure that we're we're not just some randomly hallucinating brain 1047 01:00:20,040 --> 01:00:24,560 Speaker 1: floating in the cold, dead depths of space. I mean, 1048 01:00:24,600 --> 01:00:26,400 Speaker 1: if you were, how would you know it? I don't 1049 01:00:26,400 --> 01:00:27,919 Speaker 1: know you might as well look on the bright side 1050 01:00:27,920 --> 01:00:30,680 Speaker 1: of life, right, and just assume that we're not enjoy 1051 01:00:30,720 --> 01:00:32,640 Speaker 1: your a few seconds while you've got them. Yeah, it 1052 01:00:32,720 --> 01:00:35,360 Speaker 1: might as well keep dreaming. I mean, why would you 1053 01:00:35,360 --> 01:00:38,600 Speaker 1: want to wake up from that dream? But again, that's 1054 01:00:38,640 --> 01:00:41,880 Speaker 1: kind of the argument of I guess that's the argument 1055 01:00:41,880 --> 01:00:45,200 Speaker 1: of a lot of of philosophy and religion, right, the 1056 01:00:45,240 --> 01:00:47,840 Speaker 1: idea that maybe the dream is not worth dreaming. Maybe 1057 01:00:47,880 --> 01:00:50,080 Speaker 1: this is a dream you want to wake up from. 1058 01:00:50,080 --> 01:00:53,000 Speaker 1: Maybe maybe it's not a pleasant dream anymore. Maybe the 1059 01:00:53,160 --> 01:00:58,360 Speaker 1: more pleasant reality would be the uh, the Boltsman brain 1060 01:00:58,480 --> 01:01:02,480 Speaker 1: floating and and uh, you of nothingness. I dissent, I dissent. 1061 01:01:02,800 --> 01:01:06,520 Speaker 1: I argue that lower entropy is better. It is just 1062 01:01:06,600 --> 01:01:10,120 Speaker 1: objectively better. All right, Well, hopefully our listeners out there 1063 01:01:10,120 --> 01:01:12,320 Speaker 1: we'll have some thoughts on all of this. Are you 1064 01:01:12,440 --> 01:01:15,640 Speaker 1: afraid of the Baltzman brain? Do you? What? How much 1065 01:01:15,640 --> 01:01:17,600 Speaker 1: stock do you put in some of these arguments for 1066 01:01:17,640 --> 01:01:19,960 Speaker 1: it and against it? And hey, I'd also love to 1067 01:01:20,000 --> 01:01:21,600 Speaker 1: know just what are some of your favorite sci fi 1068 01:01:22,080 --> 01:01:25,360 Speaker 1: examples of of this sort of idea? The sort of 1069 01:01:25,400 --> 01:01:29,720 Speaker 1: brain a brain in a vat, a brain spontaneously generating 1070 01:01:30,480 --> 01:01:33,960 Speaker 1: out of nothingness, in Space, best Brain in VAP movie's 1071 01:01:33,960 --> 01:01:36,320 Speaker 1: got to be RoboCop two. Oh god, that is such 1072 01:01:36,360 --> 01:01:38,720 Speaker 1: a good a good one. You know, why didn't they 1073 01:01:38,760 --> 01:01:42,000 Speaker 1: do more of a philosophical treatment of that character of Kane? 1074 01:01:42,480 --> 01:01:48,040 Speaker 1: Kane wonders Tom Noonton, Yeah, man, maybe that's in the novelization. 1075 01:01:48,520 --> 01:01:51,080 Speaker 1: That would be. That would be wonderful. There's a novelization 1076 01:01:51,120 --> 01:01:53,320 Speaker 1: of RoboCop two. I assume there has to be, like 1077 01:01:53,400 --> 01:01:55,680 Speaker 1: the timing was right for there to be a novelization, 1078 01:01:55,840 --> 01:01:59,240 Speaker 1: Is it Alan Dean Foster? Maybe? Maybe? But but that 1079 01:01:59,320 --> 01:02:00,880 Speaker 1: but you know, that would be. That would be so 1080 01:02:00,960 --> 01:02:05,000 Speaker 1: perfect if whoever did the novelization spent a whole chapter 1081 01:02:05,200 --> 01:02:10,560 Speaker 1: two just just just really biting into them, the existential 1082 01:02:11,240 --> 01:02:14,080 Speaker 1: worries of Kine. What am i? Am I really a 1083 01:02:14,160 --> 01:02:17,240 Speaker 1: RoboCop two? Or am I just the brain of a 1084 01:02:17,240 --> 01:02:20,800 Speaker 1: psychopath inside of a RoboCop? We've got to stop. You've 1085 01:02:20,840 --> 01:02:24,240 Speaker 1: got to call it there, all right. Well, if you 1086 01:02:24,280 --> 01:02:25,840 Speaker 1: want to interact with us, hey, head on over to 1087 01:02:25,880 --> 01:02:29,160 Speaker 1: any of our social media accounts, Facebook, Twitter, Tumbler, Instagram. 1088 01:02:29,480 --> 01:02:31,919 Speaker 1: Also check out stuff to Blow your Mind dot com. 1089 01:02:32,040 --> 01:02:34,200 Speaker 1: That is the website. That's what we will find all 1090 01:02:34,240 --> 01:02:37,080 Speaker 1: of the podcast episodes, as well as some blog post 1091 01:02:37,200 --> 01:02:39,840 Speaker 1: links out to our various social media accounts, and hey, 1092 01:02:40,080 --> 01:02:41,600 Speaker 1: if you want to help us out, if you want 1093 01:02:41,600 --> 01:02:44,680 Speaker 1: to support the show. Uh I can't stress this enough. 1094 01:02:45,080 --> 01:02:47,720 Speaker 1: Rate and review us wherever you have the ability to 1095 01:02:47,760 --> 01:02:51,880 Speaker 1: do so, because that that will ultimately help us and 1096 01:02:51,920 --> 01:02:55,160 Speaker 1: empower us to put out more episodes. Thanks as always 1097 01:02:55,200 --> 01:02:58,840 Speaker 1: to our excellent audio producers Alex Williams and Tory Harrison, 1098 01:02:58,920 --> 01:03:01,840 Speaker 1: and big thanks to Paul for stepping in as a 1099 01:03:01,920 --> 01:03:05,479 Speaker 1: guest producer today. I think Paul does an excellent job, 1100 01:03:05,640 --> 01:03:07,800 Speaker 1: So if you would like to get in touch with us, 1101 01:03:07,840 --> 01:03:10,960 Speaker 1: you can email us at blow the Mind at how 1102 01:03:11,040 --> 01:03:23,720 Speaker 1: stuff works dot com for more on this and thousands 1103 01:03:23,720 --> 01:03:48,880 Speaker 1: of other topics. Is it how stuff works dot com