Volume 8, Issue 4, pages 190-194
According to the “Boltzmann brain” hypothesis, we popped into existence as a thermal fluctuation in an otherwise chaotic universe, with our brains replete with spurious memories of a fictitious, orderly past. The hypothesis extends less ambitious argumentation by Ludwig Boltzmann in the late 19th century, but it lacks the physical foundation of Boltzmann’s original arguments. We are assured of neither the recurrence nor the reversibility of the time developments of the applicable physics. The Boltzmann brain scenario is much more likely to produce a physically spurious “batty brain” whose memories fail to conform to the scientifically well-behaved regularities of our brains.
