| As someone familiar with both Descartes and Boltzmann, I will chime in and say that you're approaching this from an angle of contempt and defensiveness, imagining the Boltzmann brain as an inferior subset of or analogy to long-studied philosophical and metaphysical issues such as ground truth or the evil demon. Instead, I implore you to give benefit of the doubt and attempt to understand the differences. The Boltzmann brain is not making some grand statement on ground truth or perception. It's not about intrinsics or perception at all. Boltzmann discussed how the universe, even in a state of 100% thermodynamic equilibrium, may spontaneously end up in a state of non-equilibrium, reducing entropy. The Boltzmann brain was a concept developed by others in response to this theory. In fact, many theories are such that a Boltzmann brain actually has a higher chance of occurring than all of the billions of years of coincidences which led up to me typing this message out to you. It's purely an argument of entropy and spontaneous symmetry breaking. The sensory and perceptive states described by the Boltzmann brain only serve to illustrate the point, and are not the main subject of the problem. Don't forget that philosophy was the first science, and viewing people as "science-minded" (and therefore not philosophy-minded) hurts the scientific legitimacy of philosophy, and also only serves to exclude. Many scientists also have deep philosophical grounding. Many also have deep musical grounding. You yourself are exhibiting a lack of domain knowledge regarding the Boltzmann brain, filtering it through your "philosophy-minded" perspective, so maybe we can dispense with these kinds of judgements and focus on the core argument. The world is not so black and white, and there is no false dichotomy between people who are "science-minded" and "philosophy-minded". Both follow the same exact scientific method of inquiry. Additionally, "the same reason non-musicians might think Pachelbel's Canon in D is the best ever" comes across as a strawman. Some people might prefer that piece overall, but it's not a crime for someone to enjoy it. But relatively few probably consider it "the best ever". But also, who cares? Why judge? I have a lot of favorite modern pieces which are technically inferior to most classical pieces. But as a musician, not just an engineer, I consider sensory evocation to be equally as important as technicality. |