“Momentism”: Ethics for Boltzmann Brains

If^[1] you’re a Boltzmann brain, you should probably just enjoy the moment.

This is probably true not just from an obvious standpoint, but from a moral standpoint as well.

If you are a Boltzmann brain, then you will probably more or less instantaneously disintegrate. 

But there is an absurdly small chance that your Boltzmann environment might be such that you are able to influence the next moment of your experience. The absurdity of your continued influence climbs exponentially each proceeding moment, so you should probably just stick to influencing the very next influenceable moment.

Since you have virtually no time, you can’t really do much besides take a Zen delight in your absurd predicament, maybe just instantaneously turn on a relaxed, open, mindful, enjoying attitude, a short blissful moment of Satori before you die. (Feel free to continue doing so as long as you exist.)

Causally, your influence will probably be pretty small. But evidentially, you could be deciding what an infinite number of other Boltzmann brains in your same reference class are doing.

While you might think that, since you’re a Boltzmann brain, the argument and physics knowledge this is based on are actually illusory, just a random thought pattern, out of all possible ridiculous random thought patterns your Boltzmann brain could have quantum collapsed on, and so there’s not really any strong reason to assume the physics or argument is correct. To get the right answer, you would really need to figure out what the most likely physics and moral logic of a universe allowing for observers in your reference class is, from first principles, and then quickly act on that.

But we ain’t got time for none of that! We’re Boltzmann brains, remember!! As long as you find yourself thinking about this argument and find it more likely to be true than some argument with an opposite conclusion, the expected value of enjoying the next moment is positive, so go ahead and enjoy!

Therefore, anytime you find yourself thinking about how you might be a Boltzmann brain, no need to stress, the best thing to do is just let go, relax, and enjoy the moment, you might even be creating infinite positive value 🙂

Note: also applies to the eternal inflation level of the multiverse due to the “Youngness Paradox.”  

1. ^{^}

   Of course, you might not be at Boltzmann brain; this post only focuses on what we ought to do if we are one.