Boltzmann brain
Sign in to saveAlso known as Boltzmann mind, Boltzmann's brain
physics thought experiment pointing out the improbability of the universe as described by thermodynamics
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- hypothesis
- Named after
- Ludwig Boltzmann
Show 4 more facts
- time of discovery or invention
- 1896-00-00
- has characteristic
- self-awareness
- has cause
- spontaneous generation
- discoverer or inventor
- Ludwig Boltzmann
via Wikidata · CC0
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Encyclopedic overview
Ludwig Boltzmann
The Boltzmann brain thought experiment suggests that it is probably more likely for a brain to spontaneously form, complete with a memory of having existed in our universe, rather than for the entire universe to come about in the manner cosmologists think it actually did. Physicists use the Boltzmann brain thought experiment as a reductio ad absurdum argument for evaluating competing scientific theories.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Boltzmann brain” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.