Spiritual Evidence Map
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BooksecondarycontextVerified

From Eternity to Here: The Quest for the Ultimate Theory of Time

Sean M. Carroll · 2010 · Dutton / Penguin

Spiritual Evidence Map/Last updated May 10, 2026/Claims v1.0.0-provisional/Sources v1.0.0/Scores provisional
Citation dossier

This source is used as context evidence across 1 linked claim and 3 related evidence hubs. Its citation record is marked verified; that verifies the source trail, not the truth of any linked claim.

Source type
Book
Map role
context
Claim links
1
Direct access
Recorded

Summary

Popular-but-rigorous treatment of the arrow of time, the past hypothesis, and the Boltzmann-brain problem in the context of long-term cosmology.

How this source is used on the map

The most accessible book-length introduction to why physicists worry about the Boltzmann-brain problem and how it interacts with the arrow of time.

Citation record

Authors
Sean M. Carroll
Year
2010
Publication
Dutton / Penguin
Source type
Book
Map role
context
Credibility level
secondary
Citation status
Verified
DOI
Not recorded
PubMed
Not recorded
PDF
Not recorded
Original source →

Linked claims

Evidence score 1/10
Boltzmann brains

In a long-lived, accelerating universe, random thermal fluctuations could spontaneously assemble a self-aware brain with false memories of a coherent life. Several modern cosmological models appear to predict such observers should statistically dominate — which is widely treated as a reason those models are wrong, not as evidence about you.

Related evidence hubs

Topic hub
Reality & Time

Physics-adjacent worldviews — block universe, many-worlds, simulation, free will.

Evidence pillar
Physics-adjacent worldview theories

Many-worlds, simulation, mathematical universe.

Evidence pillar
Skeptical frameworks

Cryptomnesia, anoxia models, cold reading. Counter-anchors.

Related sources

Philosophy reference · context
Many-Worlds Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics

The default scholarly reference for what Many-Worlds actually claims and where it is contested.

Journal article · context
On Certain Questions of the Theory of Gases

The historical origin of the entire fluctuation-cosmology line of reasoning.

Secondary summary · context
De Sitter space

Useful conceptual reference for any claim about long-term cosmology and the cosmological-horizon temperature.

Journal article · challenges
Why Boltzmann Brains Are Bad

The standard reference for the cognitive-instability resolution and the philosophical case against taking Boltzmann-brain dominance as a real prediction.

Book chapter · challenges
Why Boltzmann Brains Don't Fluctuate Into Existence From the De Sitter Vacuum

Major physical objection to Boltzmann-brain dominance: the static de Sitter vacuum is sterile, so the mathematical fluctuation probability does not translate into real observers.

Journal article · supports
Is our universe likely to decay within 20 billion years?

The clearest statement of how the Boltzmann-brain count is tamed by a finite vacuum lifetime; companion paper to 'Return of the Boltzmann brains'.