Boltzmann Brain
Why is it not a Boltzmann rock, or a Boltzmann commemorative coin, or something else inanimate like that?<p>I thought the whole point was to give a simple metaphor for a measuring the probability that a mundane object came into being based on the widely accepted history of the universe that modern physics predicts. As opposed to just coming into its current state instantaneously based on extremely unlikely random events among its constituent atoms.<p>Or put differently (based on the Wikipedia article), if the math behind a modern physics theory means that it&#x27;s more likely the given object&#x27;s existence was due to random fluctuations then that&#x27;s a strike against adoption of that theory.<p>But if you make the object of interest a brain you get all this bikeshedding about consciousness and how do the regular brains know they&#x27;re not Boltzmann brains, etc.<p>It&#x27;d be like introducing me to your new programming language&#x27;s syntax by showing me the code for a quine instead of &quot;hello world.&quot; What is the value in doing such a thing?