tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3891434218564545511.post1366166092810488334..comments2024-03-27T20:37:09.185-05:00Comments on Alexander Pruss's Blog: Boltzmann brain blackoutsAlexander R Prusshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05989277655934827117noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3891434218564545511.post-1511417232027481832022-06-26T13:13:18.572-05:002022-06-26T13:13:18.572-05:00It is so funny. In the other post it is stated, th...It is so funny. In the other post it is stated, that it is supposedly <i>"notoriously hard"</i> difficult to come up with an account of matter and here it is stated or implied the matter oxygen to be an essential part or necessary matter for a functional brain.<br />I myself cannot come up with such a great irony.Zsolt Nagyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11519070636926516031noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3891434218564545511.post-91464301939296557442022-06-26T06:46:00.808-05:002022-06-26T06:46:00.808-05:00Response 1: You could have. But the theory predict...Response 1: You could have. But the theory predicts that most of your life would be a deterioration. You would probably only have a small fraction of a second of mental clarity, and then have started going down into darkness, and the going down into darkness time would probably be significantly longer than the brief moment of clarity. In other words, the theory predicts that you would already be experiencing the deterioration.<br /><br />Response 2: Don't worry about any of the fancy sceptical stuff. Just use the ordinary scientific method. You're conscious now and aren't blacking out. The theory predicts you will soon be blacking out. So wait and see. You waited and saw and there was no blackout. All well and good. Theory disproved. Alexander R Prusshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05989277655934827117noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3891434218564545511.post-82568453822930030532022-06-25T18:11:16.098-05:002022-06-25T18:11:16.098-05:00I don't see why it would need to be instantane...I don't see why it would need to be instantaneous for my point to go through. Regardless of how short or long Boltzmann brains last, it would still be the case that the reason you don't experience yourself going out of existence is because you just now came into existence. After all, you only ever experience the immediate present. You don't experience the past even a fraction of a second ago, nor the future a fraction of section from now. So you could've come into existence a fraction of a second ago, and that's why you haven't begun to deteriorate yet.Sam Harperhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15884738370893218595noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3891434218564545511.post-75860080720018854122022-06-25T12:55:42.055-05:002022-06-25T12:55:42.055-05:00Boltzmann brains aren't instantaneous. They co...Boltzmann brains aren't instantaneous. They come into existence and then die soon after that once they run out of oxygen. Most of them just barely have enough oxygen to be conscious for a very short period. But that short period isn't a moment, and their perishing isn't instantaneous.Alexander R Prusshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05989277655934827117noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3891434218564545511.post-88874633935554873212022-06-24T22:25:50.311-05:002022-06-24T22:25:50.311-05:00I don't think this response to Boltzmann brain...I don't think this response to Boltzmann brains works. The reason you don't find yourself blacking out is because you JUST NOW came into existence completely with false memories of a past that didn't actually happen. At any moment, it only SEEMS like you've been around a while because those memories were JUST NOW implanted in you. If you are a Boltzmann brain, then you will surely die in the very next moment. The only reason you haven't died yet is because you JUST NOW came into existence. I don't know if I'm explaining that well or not.Sam Harperhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15884738370893218595noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3891434218564545511.post-51871679545099287382022-06-24T10:18:53.763-05:002022-06-24T10:18:53.763-05:00Suppose that for antisceptical reasons you think t...Suppose that for antisceptical reasons you think that you should dismiss any hypothesis on which you didn't live as long as common sense days you did. Then the falsified prediction of the cosmological theory changes: it predicts we're in a bubble of "normal" reality whose radius is equal to your age times the speed of light. And that's disconfirmed by looking whether stars beyond that distance disappear. And they don't.Alexander R Prusshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05989277655934827117noreply@blogger.com