What is a Boltzmann brain?

The greatest desire of all mankind from time immemorial was the solution of the secrets of the universe. A lot of different hypotheses and theories stir the minds of scientists around the world. What is Boltzmann's brain and why is it considered the most strange and unpleasant forecast in the history of cosmology?

Ludwig Boltzmann and his theories

Ludwig Boltzmann was a physicist who specialized in statistical mechanics, which connects Newton's physical particles in thermodynamics. The Boltzmann kinetic theory not only explains how heat, work and energy are related to one another. He also gave a clear definition of entropy. Although his Boltzmann brain and turns over traditional ideas about the universe, his ideas, despite the difficulties in their understanding, also deserve attention.

Pressure, temperature and volume are the main characteristics of the gas. Since they determine the positions and velocities of all atoms or molecules, Boltzmann has compared them to a small gas state where all microscopic particles coexist. There are many ways to make atoms move. While the average velocity of all atoms is approximately the same, the pressure, temperature and volume of the gas will also be in equilibrium.

This means that for gas there are many equivalent microstates. Boltzmann came to the conclusion that the entropy of a system in a particular state depends on the number of equivalent microstates with which it exists. The universe scientist also called a set of microstates.

The Mystery of Time

Despite the many discoveries made by people in the history of existence, many secrets will remain unsolved for a long time. For example, a deep and old question is of great interest: why time goes only in one direction?

Boltzmann explained this by the so-called time arrow, in which entropy, a measure of disorder or empty energy, can never diminish in such a closed system as the Universe. All this is very difficult, and one life is not enough to sort it all out.

The Boltzmann Universe

Boltzmann's brain is the mind of the universe. Throughout eternity, everything is possible. According to Boltzmann, the universe supposedly always existed. Modern astronomers deny this version. It was born as a result of the Big Bang, about 14 billion years ago. The energy that space has accumulated for a long time, was able to escape outward, and gradually, instead of the primordial chaos, order was restored.

Boltzmann's brains and thermodynamics

Now let's talk about the connection of the hypothetical object under consideration with thermodynamics. What makes the Boltzmann brains so interesting? As one of the theories about the creation and existence of the universal mind, they help to study the most bizarre and mysterious aspects of the physical theory of origin. This interesting and complex question anyone can bring down the table. Do not understand the theory literally. It simply can be imagined as a mental experiment in thermodynamics.

Thermodynamics is, in essence, the study of heat and its flows. Heat is a property of matter that behaves like a kind of fluid, moving from one place to another. Since everything in the universe is somehow connected with the functions of heat consumption, a lot of research has been done on the topic of thermodynamics to better understand how thermal energy behaves .

Thermodynamic equilibrium

One of the fundamental principles of thermodynamics is the idea of equilibrium. If you throw a cube of ice in a glass of water, the resulting temperature gradation will gradually equalize, the heat of the water will begin to melt the ice and eventually all the liquid will reach a uniform temperature.

One of the interesting conclusions of the idea of thermodynamic equilibrium is that the system does not always manage to find the necessary balance, it is considered extremely unlikely, so it can be safely assumed that this will never happen. There is no physical law that will allow the water in the glass into which the cubes are thrown, spontaneously cool and turn into ice.

The Paradox of Human Existence

Man is the most complex and structured set of matter that has ever existed in nature. In spite of all the laws of thermodynamics, people exist, although Boltzmann's brain (science fiction is either reality, not clear until now) implies that human existence is nothing more than a paradox. The appearance of mankind seems even more incredible than an ice cube formed in water immediately after it was poured from a tap.

Ludwig Boltzmann was puzzled by the existence of such impossible from the point of view of thermodynamics things like human beings. He expressed the idea that people are just ice cubes that are formed spontaneously. But in the infinite universe there is nothing impossible and unlikely.

Original Idea

Physicists of the 19th and 20th centuries presented several original ideas during this time, but the concept of "Boltzmann's brain" (the mind of the universe) surpassed all of them, suggesting that comprehensively educated and conscious entities are formed spontaneously in outer space. All this takes a huge amount of time.

Boltzmann's brain is a demonstration that the Universe has an unlimited lifespan. Most models of the future predict that it will forever expand exponentially.

The Living Universe: The Brains of Boltzmann

There is also the assumption that there can be an unlimited number of universes. All these universes are also constantly expanding at an incredible rate. The theory of the multiverse remains controversial, because because of its complexity it is difficult to prove. The living universe is a hypothesis about conscious entities that are produced from random fluctuations in the tissues of space and time.

This means that stochastic oscillations at the level of entropy (disorder) in the Universe can theoretically produce something complicated if enough time is given. The 19th-century physicist Ludwig Boltzmann demonstrated for the first time that this is probable from a mathematical point of view.

Infinite Universe

The Infinite Universe, where random particle configurations can spontaneously appear and disappear, a materialized brain floating in outer space - all this is so difficult to understand, as it borders on a fantastic level with fantastic ideas about this world.

An object randomly chosen in the universe, possessing the mind, is more likely to be the result of fluctuations than the product of evolution. This is the paradox. The Boltzmann brain can actually be found with less probability than the product of evolution, since the probability density of the product of evolution is higher than that of it.

According to scientists, consciousness is an illusion created as a result of the interaction of a huge number of simple elements. In the human brain, these are neurons, which each person has about 86 billion.

How a computer can use simple calculations to build complex systems, so the brain builds up actions and memories as a result of the interaction of neurons. And so the bizarre Boltzmann brain is more of a mental experiment designed to question human assumptions about the structure of the universe. And like most experiments that affect infinity and immensity, it is ephemeral.

The past is an illusion

The Boltzmann brain is said to call illusory memories and past experiences. The person believes that the accumulated experience of scientists provides strong evidence that the world appeared as a result of the Big Bang. All experimental data for all sciences are fabricated memory.

Do not consider Boltzmann's theory as a viable argument. To date, science has enough evidence to refute some fantastic theories. But the fact that the assumptions are original and interesting, is undeniable.

An ingenious assumption

You can try to imagine for a while that the universe (the Boltzmann brain is an object spontaneously formed in it) will come to thermal equilibrium. From the point of view of the molecular constitution, equilibrium is dynamic. The gas, for example, is evenly distributed in the space available to it. However, random molecular movements can lead him momentarily to a more dense state in one place and less concentrated in the other.

Larger fluctuations are also possible. Excessive fluctuation can lead to gas compression. The probability of such spontaneous compression is small. The usual volume of gas can have 1,024 molecules moving independently of each other. The probability that all of them may be in one place is amazing and unlikely, but from a physical point of view it is not so impossible.

But what if the universe were infinite, where time for random fluctuations abound? Then, at the right time, anything can arise in the right place, whether it be people, animals, machines or the universal super-mind. As the famous physicist and father of thermodynamics Ludwig Boltzmann believed, everything is possible in an infinite universe.