Adam Elga

Indeed, you're liable to be hallucinating all sorts of doctor reports of memory type things when that really didn't happen at all.

And you think, oh my God, what do I think?

First thinking, okay, I have a horrible memory.

I'm just going to do my memory training or whatever.

Then you think, wait, if my memory is so bad and I hallucinate all sorts of doctor reports and memory, why do I even trust that

memory, that seeming memory.

And I think, okay, my memory is fine.

But then you think, wait, if memory is fine, I should trust that memory.

It's like there's this potential instability.

So this is analogous to a kind of instability that several people, including you, have pointed out happens in the case of Boltzmann brains.

For those of us who get pulled along to the argument with the argument that

seems to show that you should be confident that you're a Boltzmann brain.

I think that the second part of the instability gets less press than the first part.

But it's really, if you're worried about one thing, you really should be worried about being bopping around both directions.

So in the Boltzmann case, you think, okay, everyone's a Boltzmann brain.

I'm a Boltzmann brain probably.

But then you think, wait,

Boltzmann brains should not trust their apparent memories.

Boltzmann brains never went to school.

They never read a textbook.