Are You a Boltzmann Brain?

Was an incredible drop in entropy responsible for the Big Bang? If that’s the case, this would lead us to conclude that a great many other things are possible, including the likelihood that you are a Boltzmann Brain. Try The Great Courses Plus at Get your own Space Time t­shirt at Tweet at us! @pbsspacetime Email us! pbsspacetime [at] gmail [dot] com Comment on Reddit: Help translate our videos! Previous Episode: The Oh My God Particle The second Law of Thermodynamics tells us that everything moves towards a state of greater entropy, but it is low entropy that enables galaxies, stars, planets and human beings. The lowest entropy state that we’re aware of in our universe was right before the Big Bang. The entirety of our own universe was condensed to a microscopic size. What caused this extreme low entropy? If it was caused by a random fluctuation in particles that implies that a great many other things are possible due to the random fluctuations of particles. One of the strangest of those possibilities is that of the Boltzmann Brain. If the Big Bang was caused by random entropic fluctuations then it is much more likely you are a Boltzmann Brain than that you are a human being. Written and Hosted by Matt O’Dowd Produced by Rusty Ward Graphics by Kurt Ross Made by Kornhaber Brown (www.kornhaberbrown.com) The Great Courses Plus is currently available to watch through a web browser to almost anyone in the world and optimized for the US market. The Great Courses Plus is currently working to both optimize the product globally and accept credit card payments globally. Big Bang Shane Robinson David Nicklas Samuel Dean Jacintho Quasar Tambe Barsbay Luna IT Solutions Coolascats Avan & Kyan Griggs Max Levine Hypernova Science Via Markets Chuck Zegar Craig Peterson Jordan Young Ratfeast John Hofmann Justin Lloyd Conor Dillon Jared Moore Michal-Peanut Karmi Bernardo Higuera Erik Stein Daniel Lyons Jade Bilkey Kevin Warne JJ Bagnell J Rejc Dylan Merida Amy Jie Anthony Caridi Avi Goldfinger John Pettit Shannan Catalano Florian Stinglmayr Yubo Du Benoit Pagé-Guitard Ronny Polonia Nathan Leniz Jessica Fraley Kirk Mathews Loro Lukic Carl P. Corliss Brandon labonte David Crane Greg Weiss Eric Jackson