full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Fabio Pacucci: The Boltzmann brain paradox

Unscramble the Blue Letters


btmnlzoan didn’t get quite that far in his thinking; the bainrs themselves were iouencdrtd by later ctlsosoiogms building on his work. But they, like just about everyone else, were pretty sure that they themselves weren't just ephemeral brains. So the paradox was: how could they be correct and the universe be eternal? The resolution is something most take for granted today: that our universe has not existed forever, but rather time and space started with a Big Bang.

So that’s the paradox over and done with, right? Well, maybe not. In the last cntreuy, scientists have found evidence supporting the theory of the Big Bang everywhere we look. Yet while we know that the Big Bang happened, no one knows what, if anything, preceded and ceuasd it. Why did the universe begin in such an extremely oderred, and unlikely, state? Is our universe in an unending cycle of creation and collapse? Or might we be in one of many universes expanding within a multiverse?

Open Cloze


_________ didn’t get quite that far in his thinking; the ______ themselves were __________ by later ____________ building on his work. But they, like just about everyone else, were pretty sure that they themselves weren't just ephemeral brains. So the paradox was: how could they be correct and the universe be eternal? The resolution is something most take for granted today: that our universe has not existed forever, but rather time and space started with a Big Bang.

So that’s the paradox over and done with, right? Well, maybe not. In the last _______, scientists have found evidence supporting the theory of the Big Bang everywhere we look. Yet while we know that the Big Bang happened, no one knows what, if anything, preceded and ______ it. Why did the universe begin in such an extremely _______, and unlikely, state? Is our universe in an unending cycle of creation and collapse? Or might we be in one of many universes expanding within a multiverse?

Solution


  1. ordered
  2. century
  3. introduced
  4. boltzmann
  5. caused
  6. cosmologists
  7. brains

Original Text


Boltzmann didn’t get quite that far in his thinking; the brains themselves were introduced by later cosmologists building on his work. But they, like just about everyone else, were pretty sure that they themselves weren't just ephemeral brains. So the paradox was: how could they be correct and the universe be eternal? The resolution is something most take for granted today: that our universe has not existed forever, but rather time and space started with a Big Bang.

So that’s the paradox over and done with, right? Well, maybe not. In the last century, scientists have found evidence supporting the theory of the Big Bang everywhere we look. Yet while we know that the Big Bang happened, no one knows what, if anything, preceded and caused it. Why did the universe begin in such an extremely ordered, and unlikely, state? Is our universe in an unending cycle of creation and collapse? Or might we be in one of many universes expanding within a multiverse?

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
big bang 3
boltzmann brain 2
shattered glass 2


Important Words


  1. bang
  2. big
  3. boltzmann
  4. brains
  5. building
  6. caused
  7. century
  8. collapse
  9. correct
  10. cosmologists
  11. creation
  12. cycle
  13. ephemeral
  14. eternal
  15. evidence
  16. existed
  17. expanding
  18. extremely
  19. granted
  20. happened
  21. introduced
  22. multiverse
  23. ordered
  24. paradox
  25. preceded
  26. pretty
  27. resolution
  28. scientists
  29. space
  30. started
  31. state
  32. supporting
  33. theory
  34. time
  35. unending
  36. universe
  37. universes
  38. work