This could be the next move for my delusionality (that never was). The so-called universe wouldn’t be anything more than a single quantum state - roughly identical to my self awareness- shaped demiurgically by the cosmic quantum observer (or “devil”). I should point out though, that this Boltzmann brain would differ from that posited by the thought experiment in that it would not be made of smaller constituents, but rather it would be itself a quantum.
It’s only a theory of course. I mean, who could hold such a ridiculous belief about the true nature of our cosmic drama with any degree of conviction?
“it would likely be because of the hallucinations your consciousness is having.”
I think I heard somewhere that the eyes don’t see very much and most of what we see are hallucinations made up by the brain anyway, so I like this idea very much.
You might consider if your demiurg has spread your self awareness / mind even to dead objects or that the consciousness already was there in the first place.
Have you ever read anything about Panpsychism?:
"Panpsychism is the idea that consciousness did not evolve to meet some survival need, nor did it emerge when brains became sufficiently complex. Instead it is inherent in matter — all matter.
In other words, everything has consciousness. Consciousness is not limited to humans and other animals. Plants have it, too. It doesn’t stop at living things, either. Stones and stars, electrons and photons, even quarks have consciousness. According to some versions of the theory, the universe itself is conscious. (This variety of panpsychism is known as cosmopsychism.)
This may sound like the wackiest idea ever — far crazier than space aliens living secretly among us. But plenty of sane and reputable thinkers take panpsychism seriously, and the numbers of those who do are increasing."
Years ago before all my weird conclusions, I have thought of this also. The Boltzmann Brain idea. I don’t have a good understanding of physics or nearly enough to understand it though, but luckily I convinced myself I’m not the only one with a brain so to speak here. I tend to not believe it anymore, but not sure what the difference between brain(S) in the vat VS Boltzmann brain though. I don’t think it’s true largely because of my own belief system. It’s not healthy too. Though it’s really interesting for sure.
I think it depends if (randomness) truly exists; (consciousenss) is a physics/computational problem and a few other things like if entropy can be reversed(?) and some possible other things…
Buy ya, after reading the wikipedia article, pretty startling. It has some more information adding to OP.
Personally, with my schizophrenia, I feel my past or history before 2011 was falsified or really didn’t exist except in some memories and I always wasn’t sentient(having consciousness). It’s hard for me to point out the differences between sim theory and boltzmann brains…
It also reminds me if the universe is infinite then ya, atoms should assemble a brain in space or something like it over time with randomness whether it’s a real brain or some hypothethical object with consciousness and self-awareness.
I feel like a lot of folks are NPCs or philosophical zombies though too.
I’ve never been a fan of panpsychism, not even while on drugs. Within my “unusual beliefs” consciousness is neither an emergent property born out of increasing complexity nor does it have any particular spiritual value. From the demiurges perspective it is simply a prison for the divine spark. By saving ourselves it’s not our consciousness, let alone our self awareness, that we are saving.
Sims, brain in the vat, and even Boltzmann brains can be used to illustrate the same point, but as you know they were originally conceived to serve fairly different purposes.
