From time immemorial, the greatest desire of all mankind has been to unravel the secrets of the universe. Many different hypotheses and theories excite the minds of scientists around the world. What is the Boltzmann brain and why is it considered the strangest and most unpleasant forecast in the history of cosmology?
Ludwig Boltzmann and his theory
Ludwig Boltzmann was a physicist who specialized in statistical mechanics connecting Newton's physical particles in thermodynamics. Boltzmann's kinetic theory not only explains how heat, work, and energy are related. He also gave a clear definition of entropy. Although his Boltzmann brain overturns traditional ideas about the Universe, his ideas, despite the difficulties in understanding them, 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 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 given state depends on the number of equivalent microstates that it has. The scientist also called the universe a set of microstates.
Mystery of time
Despite the many discoveries made by people throughout 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 does time go in only one direction?
Boltzmann explained this by the so-called arrow of time, 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 properly understand all this.
Boltzmann universe
The Boltzmann brain is the mind of the universe. Everything is possible throughout eternity. According to Boltzmann, the Universe supposedly always existed. Modern astronomers deny this version. She was born in the Big Bang, about 14 billion years ago. The energy that the cosmos accumulated for a long time was able to break out, and gradually instead of primal chaos, order was restored.
Boltzmann brains and thermodynamics
Now let's talk about the relationship of the hypothetical object under consideration with thermodynamics. What makes 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 difficult question anyone can bring down. Do not take the theory literally. It can simply be imagined as a thought experiment in thermodynamics.
Thermodynamics is essentially the study of heat and its flows. Heat is a property of matter that behaves like a kind of liquid, 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 in order to better understand how thermal energy behaves .
Thermodynamic equilibrium
One of the fundamental principles of thermodynamics is the idea of equilibrium. If you throw an ice cube into a glass of water, the resulting temperature gradation will gradually equalize, the heat of the water will begin to melt the ice and as a result, 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, this is considered extremely unlikely, so we can safely assume that this will never happen. There is no physical law that allows water in a glass into which a cube of people are thrown to spontaneously cool and turn into ice.
The paradox of human existence
Man is the most complex and structured aggregate of matter that has ever existed in nature. In spite of all the laws of thermodynamics, people exist, although the Boltzmann brain (science fiction or reality, is not clear so far) 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 things impossible in terms of thermodynamics, such as human beings. He suggested that people are just ice cubes that form 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 the “Boltzmann brain” (the mind of the Universe) surpassed them all, putting forward the assumption that comprehensively educated and conscious entities form spontaneously in outer space. All this takes a huge amount of time.
The Boltzmann brain is a demonstration that the Universe has an unlimited lifetime. Most models of the future predict that it will forever exponentially expand.
Living Universe: Boltzmann's brains
There is also the assumption that there can be an unlimited number of universes. All of these universes are also constantly expanding at an incredible rate. The theory of the multiverse remains controversial, because it is difficult to prove because of its complexity. The Living Universe is a hypothesis of conscious entities that are produced from random fluctuations in the fabric 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. A 19th-century physicist Ludwig Boltzmann first demonstrated that this is mathematically probable.
Infinite universe
An infinite Universe, where random configurations of particles can spontaneously appear and disappear, a materialized brain floating in outer space - all this is so difficult to understand, as it borders on fantastic ideas about this world.
An object randomly selected in the Universe, possessing intelligence, is more likely to be the result of fluctuations than the product of evolution. This is the paradox. In fact, the Boltzmann brain can be met with less probability than the product of evolution, since the probability density of the formation 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, of which each person has about 86 billion.
As a computer is able to use simple calculations to build complex systems, so the brain builds actions and memories as a result of the interaction of neurons. And so the bizarre Boltzmann brain is rather a thought experiment designed to cast doubt on 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
They say about the Boltzmann brain that he calls the memories and past experience illusory. Man believes that the accumulated experience of scientists gives strong evidence that the world appeared as a result of the Big Bang. All experimental data for all sciences are fabricated memory.
You should not consider the Boltzmann 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.
Brilliant assumption
You can try to imagine for some time that the Universe (the Boltzmann brain is an object that spontaneously formed in it) will come into thermal equilibrium. In terms of molecular constitution, equilibrium is dynamic. Gas, for example, is evenly distributed in the space accessible to it. However, random molecular movements can lead him momentarily to a slightly more dense state in one place and less concentrated in another.
Larger fluctuations are also possible. Excessive fluctuation can cause gas compression. The likelihood of such spontaneous compression is small. A typical volume of gas can have 1,024 molecules moving independently of each other. The likelihood that they can all 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 there is enough time for random fluctuations? Then at the right time in the right place, anything can arise, be it people, animals, cars or the universal supermind. As the famous physicist and father of thermodynamics Ludwig Boltzmann believed, everything is possible in an infinite universe.