Definition
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.
Related concepts
AeonAge of the universeAlan GuthAndreas Albrecht (cosmologist)Andrei LindeAnthony AguirreAnthropic principleAnti-de Sitter spaceAnti-individualismArXivArthur EddingtonBekenstein boundBig BangBig CrunchBody (biology)Brain in a vatBrian GreeneCambridgeCambridge University PressChina brainCosmological constantCosmological horizonCosmologistsDe Sitter spaceDe Sitter universeDeep timeDream argumentEntropyErgodicityEric SchwitzgebelErnst ZermeloEternal inflationEvolution of biological complexityFalse vacuum decayGalaxiesGravitinoHawking radiationHeat death of the universeHeat death paradoxHiggs bosonHolographic principleIdealismIgnaz SchützInfinite monkey theoremInfinityIthaca, New YorkJournal of Cosmology and Astroparticle PhysicsJournal of High Energy PhysicsLeonard SusskindLight coneList of theoretical physicistsLudwig BoltzmannMathematicianMatrioshka brainMatthew KlebanMeasure problem (cosmology)Measurement problemMinkowski spaceMultiverseNew ScientistNick BostromNucleationOmphalos hypothesisPBS Space TimeParticlePeriodic functionPhysical ReviewPhysicistPoincaré recurrence theoremProper timeQuantum fluctuationQuantum vacuum stateQuintessence (physics)Reductio ad absurdumRichard FeynmanScienceAlertScientific theoryScrabbleSean M. CarrollSecond law of thermodynamicsSeth LloydSimulation hypothesisSolipsismSwampmanThe Colonel (Monty Python)The Feynman Lectures on PhysicsThe New York TimesThe ObserverThermal equilibriumThermal fluctuationsThermodynamicsThought experimentTimeline of the far futureTop quarkUniverseVacuum energyViatcheslav Mukhanov
15 concepts already in your glossary