hmmmm "you could make a religion out of this". Great video mate, always enjoy taking the extra time to explore these abstract concepts with such detail.
Solipsism follows naturally from assuming you can't take anything for granted, and that your senses aren't infallible (which they aren't) It's not really a philosophy you can argue with on a rational level. But, it's also functionally useless. Thus, solipsism tends to be rejected not because anyone can prove it wrong, but because on a pragmatic level it makes it impossible to do anything useful. It's more practical to assume that there is an objective shared reality and that other beings exist within it, are conscious, and we all share this reality with a consistent set of rules. This may be completely incorrect, but in the end that may not matter, and thus it's generally more useful to assume objective reality is real, whether it is or not.
@@KuraIthys what about an object-oriented "spacetime" within a single subjective "megamind": self-conscious, with infinite possibilities to configure itself except self-destruction, although possibly it can totally reset itself, which is to extent equivalent to suicide. This "Archi-consciousness" CONSTRUCTED in itself "spiritual" creatures with different levels of intelligence (and perhaps other parameters) and permitted them some amount of it's creative capabilities (a control over itself) and let them create their own world(s): Some of them came with the brilliant idea of having their creation to evolve on it's own. But since they exist also just as part of the "machine" (the Omni...) perhaps there's no other way to evolve deeply self-conscious creatures then an "online" interactive connection with those... (Monoliths after all? 🤔😉🤫). And here we are at the esoteric thought that once "we" were "spirits" (essentially there may be only a few dozen/hundreds or even only one) who forgot about themselves amidst their creative activity. I can't imagine why (if at all) they have emotions (those maybe "just" the results of progression/evolution or maybe they are the result of teleology, achieved in a super clever way). The major question: how they interact with the world? What are they probably like?
Regardless of whether or not we are crazy Boltzmann brains dreaming up our reality. i can see how pondering this type of thing too hard could actually drive one insane.
Oh yeah, it reminds me of that one time when I was really trying hard to imagine what was before the Big Bang/before time. I mean really deeply imagine, not just picture it as some sort of diagram. Well... Got really nauseous with headake and bad mood for the rest of the day. =oD
@@veejayroth lol ya know, I used to do that when I was really young. Like 8ish maybe? I'd try to imagine there being nothing. No universe, just nothing. It was really bizarre because I could alllllmost imagine it. I haven't thought about that in a long time lol. Now that I'm older, I can't really think about it the same way. Hard to explain.
I honestly feel like the opposite, I feel like people don't want to talk about it because it touches their cores and since everyone is afraid to be "MAD" no one actively tries. I honestly don't mind xD but I do understand how it can consume your though process, there are always failsafes in your mind so frankly no worries. You can actually learn a lot about feelings, desire, the purpose of destiny just asking the right questions to yourself. It's not like you can just say "abrakadabra" and get the dishes done hehehe. After enlightenment, go wash the dishes they pile up! Is one of the most wholesome quotes I've heard. (Essentially: "do the obvious thing and laugh")
@@PhysiOSQuantum except not all of us has each of those safeguards working correctly... So no, even meditation (without proper guide) is not for everyone. Yeah, I was pondering whether a true knowledge that "the spoon isn't really there" would actually help each of us to get the everyday routine done more happily or...
This reminds me of Azathoth from the Cthulhu Mythos. A giant insane entity floating alone in space dreaming of our world. When it awakens our universe is destroyed.
I was thinking of the sleeping-god Mana-Yood-Sushai from Lord Dunsany's 'The Gods of Pegāna', who was the inspiration for Lovecraft's Azathoth. For as long as the one of the gods played his drums for all time to keep Mana-Yood-Suhai asleep, the universe, along with the gods, would not end like a dream.
@@Malcadon It's all based on old Hindu concepts anyways. It usually is one of the 3 big gods, more often Brahma or Vishnu than Shiva, that is the universe-sized consciousness dreaming all the worlds up. In some versions it is the other way around and the deity-mind thinks the universe up and when falls asleep the universe ends.
@@veejayroth there's nothing imaginative or new in lovecraft really, it's all about the style and especially the buildup. But the themes are super derivative, it's almost like warcraft "lore". New baddie with "-oth" suffix, throw in a cult, protagonist goes mad, done.
@@kylezo damn! It's always really spooky whenever something like this happens, where a really ancient cultural idea or concept turns out to be pretty in tune with modern scientific understanding, in abstract or even fairly literal terms, seemingly through shear coincidence
@@m0nkeywrench Maybe the ancient aliens gave them access to the Akashic Record, but they smashed their iphones out of frustration when the next update came and slowed them down.
You've made my Sunday Isaac. My wife and i were gong to do yard work and be productive, but that priority has been superceded by the much more important task of watching Up and Atom's RU-vid content!
Wait, fusion in 3 episodes? I thought we already had one 3 years ago and it's pretty much the basis of many of your arguments. I'm genuinely excited what else you have in store for us :D
Truth be told I've been slowing sneaking most of our early episodes back as redos, expansions, and short series, as all the earlier episodes like Impact of Fusion have really bad production quality. :) I can never bring myself to do a genuine redo though, fortunatetly there's so much to talk about on most of those early topics that I don't need to repeat anything but the basic concepts.
My universe is my best friend. It is my life. I must master it as I must master my life.Without me, my universe is useless. Without my universe, I am useless.
@@jacksoncrutcher8217 well, there have been a lot of comics where weird stuff happens to Batman (ike becoming a werewolf of Lantern), so I wouldn't be surprised if they do make one like that.
It frequently shocks me how little people know about brains. Much of what was said in this video becomes significantly less convincing if you just understand some of the most basic neuroscience. The brain and our consciousness is not the extremely oversimplified random existing phenomenon that so many people seem to think they are. And before anyone responds by saying 'this is a thought experiment' or 'you're missing the point'. I can assure you I'm not, and I fully understand it's a thought experiment or a possible theory of reality, and it may be that the actual Anthropic Principle is better expressed in other sources, but that doesn't change the fact that this video is extremely unconvincing. Too many of the arguments made seem to rely on dodgy assumptions about what a brain is, what consciousness is, and why they would exist.
Hi. I'm here now. I love your stuff, but i always have to re-start your videos because i always get supper relaxed and fall asleep, not complaining though!
Same for me with Sean Carroll videos. I don't think I've ever stayed awake through an entire one, not because they're boring... they're soothing, comforting, but also full of ideas that are too big to fully process... a surefire sleep drug.
Thanks. As I stated in the comments on Jade's channel [Excellent channel, Jade!], the idea of Boltzmann brains leaves us with the same thing you pointed out in relation to dreams: who's dreaming whom? I'll just say that, whomever it is, someone is definitely a sadomasochist, and possibly psychopathic! Which leaves me with the strange conundrum of hoping it's not me. Also, what if I'm a Boltzmann brain that spontaneously happened in a simulation created by something or someone not remotely human, and they're just looking in on my crazy fevered dreams to see what 'rules' I come up with to give them ideas for other simulations? Yikes. The idea you mentioned about there being rules - regardless of whether it's a dream or I'm a Boltzmann brain, or whatever - is something that comes out of Descartes' "I think therefore I am." Clearly, there are rules of some kind, even if they're wacko Alice in Wonderland rules made up by someone in a weird dream. That gives us a basis for morals & ethics (which I won't belabor). It's all interesting philosophically, but I prefer to assume we're all real. tavi.
*When you explained why more Boltzmann Brains could technically exist than evolved brains, I literally laughed out loud uncontrollably, in an existential schizm*
Sweet collaboration! Infinite possibilities sure make for some interesting conclusions. I’m going to have to think on this one (not too hard though) to wrap my gray matter around it. I always look forward to your uploads Isaac, the mental gymnastics that inevitably follow are always intense. Good work!
:) I'm loosely aiming to average 5-6 vids a month, as I seem to be able to handle that level of output without burnout, but I don't think twice a week every week will be in the cards anytime soon :)
Very glad you actually made a video holding cosmicism accountable, I find everyone's insistence on man's worthlessness exceptionally tiring and I think it's normalizing a lot of VERY bad things in society. The fact you're doing it with science is just icing on the cake :D
For sure! Imo this pessimistic worldview on humanity that's come from the climate crisis is a very dangerous one that I'm so tired of hearing. "Humanity is a virus yada yada" How do people not see how genocidal that idea is? Worse still it takes out any agency or responsibility for dealing with the climate crisis or anything else for that matter. If humans are a virus/cancer intrinsically, then climate change is inevitable and there's no point in trying to solve it. It's a cheap cop out to deny the responsibility of our societal structures & systems (capitalism, infinite/exponential growth, how we extract, produce & distribute ressources...), and it takes away any agency for us to stop it. Seriously, fuck eco-fascism, call it out wherever you see it.
A Boltzmann Brain "dreaming up it's own reality" is something I had thought about for a long time, it would fit nciely into the models involving things like a universal consciousness as an elemental part of the universe down to things like a global consciousness on a planet. This would also have many philosophical and spiritual implications as you could project many of the known metaphors and myths on to it.
So would this mean I am practically immortal (the time in between consciousness is not experienced)? And am going to experience every horrible and great thing possible an infinite amount of times?
Hrmmmm....Quantum Immortality vs Boltzmann Brain Am I alive and functional at age 500 because the statistical probabilities of the universe just so happen to fall into place to keep me alive -or- because the BB simulating me hasn't figured out a reset/erase option? What if it has and I keep reliving the same 40-100 or so years in the cosmological equivalent of The Sims? :thunk:
I think I was so embarrassed about taking (at least) billions of years to dream up a consistent Universe that I repressed / compressed it into the first few years of my "life" which I have no memory of.
At the end the "Mathematical Universe Hypothesis" (MUH) from Max Tegmark popped into my head. Can you do a video about that? One of the assumptions there is that everything that has the same underlying (mathematical) structure it is actually the very same entity. A famous chess match (or a universe for that matter) might "originate" from different substrates (match between humans on a wooden board, computer match, played on a sheet of paper via the coordinates of the pieces etc.). But actually (according to the MUH) there is only one (mathematical) specimen. It originated from all of the above, but it also didn't originate from anything at all. It is just a possible mathematical structure among all mathematical structures in the realm of maths and logic. Thus with the MUH in mind, the question from which scenario (ancestor simulation, boltzman brain etc) our experience/universe/mind came from becomes meaningless. Our experience/universe/mind came also from all of the above but also from nowhere. There's no hierarchy of realties, there are just cross references. If find this to be quite an elegant solution.
My god. Giant concuss space brain wales dreaming us all up. Sorry that's me mixing your videos together. Glad to see you and Jade collaborating. Big fan of you both.
If the anthropic principle is understood as knowledge about reality through the prism of scientific knowledge about the cognitive function of consciousness, then the universe appears to be the single essence of the physics of the response of a human being to the energy of the impact of the circumstances of his being.
I think Boltzmann brains are far less likely than life evolving through natural selection because conditions that are sufficiently chaotic to make a Boltzmann brain are also sufficiently chaotic to unmake one, the same principle applies to life and early cells probably did die out and re-emerge several times before something that could survive long enough to reproduce evolved.
@@cripplingautism5785 It's a good question, there's a lot of chemistry that's cyclical (salt crystals forming and dissolving in the presence/absence of water) and self sustaining (the heat of a fire enabling further combustion) so perhaps the first cells "evolved" from life-like chemistry that by chance became self sustaining and self reproducing. I'm using the word "evolved" as regarding an emergent property rather than natural selection, for lack of a better word to use.
Kinda-Sorta with Subteranean Civilization and Matrioshkwa Worlds but lava colonies would probably be something we'd do in Rogue Civilizations series, that's more the place I hit popular ideas that can be made to work but where I can't really think of why you would try.
@@isaacarthurSFIA Could be a transitional civilization, between living on a planet (as one would traditionally think) and making a Matrioshka world. Why construct one from the ground up (pardon the pun), when you can hollow out a planet? And depending on materials and infrastructure used, the planetary core could be mined directly. I've noticed some articles about material of the outer core leaking into the mantle, and it's brought up by mantle plumes closer to the surface.
Considering I have experienced psychosis and was being diagnosed for schizophrenia for a while the idea that you are just voices in my head really aren't foreign.
Thanks but it's just a fluke :) I aim for one bonus ep a month right now, on top the regular weekly ep and monthly livestream, but collabs are better done as extra episodes too.
Great colaboration and a great episode :) Btw.. acording to Egyptian mythology god Atum Ra ( the old ancient all-father Ra .. not the sun Ra ) created himself out of the formless void "just like that" ... funny coincidence, their religion and myths basically described a boltzman brain comming into existence and even more.. prayed to It .. o.O
I would like to congratulate you, Isaac, on all those lovely collabs, even though I almost always like you half better. And also on the progress you've made with your voice. Awesome.
The entire premise that a brain in a different universe is anything like ours is unlikely at best. Our physiology and mentality is shaped after our environment and evolution. A brain that came into existence in a place with no predators or dangers would perhaps at most experience existential dread, but not your typical notion of fear. At least not as we know it. Our brains have different areas. Some are more ancient and some are more recent developments. How would this brain come to be in the first place and what brain centers would be missing? And what brain centers would it have, that we don't have? So many questions... so few answers.
Does anyone else ever get 3-4 videos deep into an isaac athur binge, see a new video in the sidebar and think "oh I don't remember seeing that one in my recommended before, maybe it's one of his older ones?" and then you click the video and realize it came out less than an hour ago?
ultra rare coincidences are possible even though they are extremely unlikely. I am a software engineer and I was working with java's randuuid api which generates a psedo random hexdecimal number, the number can have 16 to the power 36 unique possible values, and I was betting there is no chance in the world that I would get the same number twice, built my code around this assumption.. and it crashed, I found out that it had generated the same hexadecimal number twice which was being feed into a database which only accepts unique ids. Boltzman brains are totally possible :D
Here is a fun hypothetical. If the Earth is a simulation built with the purpose of solving some particular problem, what do you think that problem might be?
Incredible video! It was great to see this collaboration between both of you. It was a little distracting when Jade's video and audio got out of sync though 😅
Yeah normally I include some but I didn't want to mess around to much with Jade's audio, which had some syncing and volume issues, and if I'd put music on under it than it might have drowned her out a bit.
One of the weirder things about boltzman brains is that, because they would by definition form randomly, and presumably what makes you, 'you' is the pattern of your specific brain... It is inevitable, given enough space and time, that your specific mind will form somewhere as a boltzman brain. In fact, many tiny variations of your mind. In many different circumstances; from just your brain, floating in space, to your whole body, to your brain inside some kind of life support system, to you in an unrelated body... To some weird asteroid habitat or whatever... If 'you' is a pattern, then it follows from the conditions that create boltzman brains, that sooner or later 'you' will show up as one. So... That's a bizarre thing to contemplate. And in fact, assume the 'infinite time and space' premise, this isn't just possible, it's actually inevitable... So yeah... Probably not the 'afterlife' you were expecting, but one that would happen, given the right circumstances. Speaking of 'afterlife' though - it follows that any possible idea you could have for what a place like 'heaven' or 'hell' or the like is like, the same processes that would lead to boltzman brains should, statistically, also lead to such 'afterlife' scenarios existing, and a version of 'you' popping up in one. That of course presumes that it comes into existence in a place where the laws of existence allow it to exist for more than a fraction of a second. But even if it can only exist for a tiny fraction of time, over a long enough span, it could pop up over and over again in a tiny variation that if you put all the occurrences together would seem like a continuous existence... So... This just gets exceptionally weird the longer you think about it. Of course, without any shared consciousness between these many different versions of 'you', it's all a moot point, because the current 'you' will just never experience any of these things for any reason. But it's still an interesting twist on so many ideas that come up in religion and other sources...
Standard criticism of the Anthropic Principle: the weak version is tautological, and the strong version is untestable. Standard criticism of Bolzmann Brain: the observable universe isn't infinite, and we don't know whether the unobservable regions are infinite. And even if they are infinite, that alone needn't imply they contain all possibilities: e.g. the set of all even integers is infinite, but it doesn't contain any odd integers.
@@cripplingautism5785 We need to know how the set is generated (ergoticity) to know whether it will contain a Boltzmann brain. The observable universe isn't suitable because of accelerating expansion and local heat death. Other regions might fare similarly.
I like to imagine that, in the far future, wars are fought with ideas. So, the clip of every gun is a supercomputer with a simulated universe full of life, to generate said ideas. Those are then converted into lethal bolts of plasma and used to obliterate your enemies. Take that, Neo-Tojo!
Just finished binge watching this channel. It's taken me about six or seven week , stopping every so often to read books of the month. love the channel btw, not sure if I get this right. Boltzman Brains are possible, moving a planet to different star system possible , moving star system to different galaxy possible, moving galaxy possible, using black hole for engine to star ship possible, farming and colonising black holes are possible. Then there is the Matrioshka worlds possible and immortality both biological and cybernetic as well as uploading consciousness in computers all are possible. Trying to go FTL and future without the possibility of crippling financial destitution, sorry can't see it. Awesome just my luck I will be an immortal pauper. sigh " Hey buddy, can you spare a million credits for a cup of coffee?"
No, I'm aiming to do one a month but collabs are easier to do as extra episodes as they aren't easy to time, sunday is kinda the default 'extra' day, but some months might have none, some 2
@@isaacarthurSFIA I see. Still, thanks for putting so much effort into your videos. It really amazes me how much you can pull off a half hour video full of actual new and interesting ideas on just a single topic every week. Appreciate the work, man!
Strange thought. Suppose we do live in a simulation and early on the creators of said simulation decided to interfere to 'help speed things up' spawning the religions of our simulation
Or perhaps the Godhead from The Elder Scrolls. Time to meditate upon The Tower to achieve CHIM. To realize you are a just a figment must mean you have personhood apart from the one imagining you, or you *are* the one doing the imagining.
I'm not sure if you say this in the video, as I just started. But after the heat death of the universe a new universe is almost inevitable to pop back into existence from a singularity given the nature of infinity. Which is cool
Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't a Boltzmann Brain defined as an intelligence crated _entirely by random chance?_ So if, say, there were laws of the universe in the MCU that create some bias towards the emergence of such powerful "Celestial" intelligences, it wouldn't necessarily be entirely by chance. The universe itself, in a way, has set up the creation of such intelligences, much the same way the Infinity Stones don't really work as pure random chance objects. Some kind of metaphysical influence seems to exist, in the MCU, that creates these non-random things. Planets don't exist by chance, exactly. They're an inevitable result of the laws of physics at work. Matter clumping together in somewhat predictable patterns due to electromagnetic forces, gravity, different densities of different materials, etc. Likewise, it seems probably that in the MCU, certain types of naturally occurring energies/particles/whatever clump together into souls/minds/whatever, to form beings like Ego - and the other Celestials, perhaps? Like the dead one whose skull has become Knowhere. So you could argue that Ego is probably not _exactly_ a Boltzmann Brain, though he definitely resembles one fairly closely.
As if that was not enough brain-twisting.. There was a advertisement for an advertising firm advertising their use of behavioral analytics for advertisers below this video. Was it random?
So, does that means that while improbable but not impossible "God" can be a Boltzmann brain entity, that dreamed us up in to existence? I consider myself atheist, but it seems like that science is opening new possibilities with some pretty interesting suggestions. Still, i'm not quite sure how the Pope will gonna take this one, lol.
Its less likely because of occam's razor. The reason why they suggested its more likely is because they presume it'd be more likely because its smaller than a universe but thats not so because its that universe its simulating, which makes it a more complex and consistent system which a randomized brain generated wouldn't have a reason for consistency.
specifically, while the Boltzmann brain "dream" may conceivably be the foundation of our reality, it may not have any conscious control, it seems likely it would not, especially if it were born without means to sense it's own environment. I was about to call it the "Creator," but it would seem unlikely to have consciously decided to "create" us, either, just hallucinated us with little reference to anything. This is pretty far from any conception of "God" in any religion (maybe in HP Lovecraft's Cthulu fiction). I wouldn't call this "science" because there's no disprovable hypothesis or repeatable experimental result. Inspired by science, but in the same way Star Wars is inspired by science. I don't think the Pope's too worried about Jedi taking over the Vatican, and he has even less reason to lose sleep over this.
Mims Zanadunstedt Firstly, you are assuming the brain is effectively an RNG system, and that it is therefore unlikely it could simulate this. However, should the multiverse theory be true, then this argument does not apply in every case. Secondly, should the brain be conscious, then it does not generate our reality through probability, at least, no more than our brains might use probability.
Mims Zanadunstedt Thirdly, Occam's razor does not apply because the brain would not be universe sized. The very basis for the hypothesis is that it is in fact simpler and seemingly more statistically likely.
