The Recurrence Theorem

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"I mind the clock back my money's on the second law yeah no I don't know there is something called the recurrence theorem that if you wait long enough if you live in the universe where there's only a finite number of things that can happen then you will fluctuate back into a low entropy state" "That causes all sorts of problems with things like Boltzmann brains and things like that and it doesn't seem to very clearly not be the universe we actually live in so I don't think that that really ameliorates your problem" 'There isn't much room for talking to your future friends could we find?' he asks. "'It's just such a shame'

Our observable universe started out in a highly non-generic state, one of very low entropy, and disorderliness has been growing ever since. How, then, can we account for the appearance of complex systems such as organisms and biospheres? The answer is that very low-entropy states typically appear simple, and high-entropy states also appear simple, and complexity can emerge along the road in between. Today’s podcast is more of a discussion than an interview, in which behavioral neuroscientist Kate Jeffery and I discuss how complexity emerges through cosmological and biological evolution. As someone on the biological side of things, Kate is especially interested in how complexity can build up and then catastrophically disappear, as in mass extinction events.

There were some audio-quality issues with the remote recording of this episode, but loyal listeners David Gennaro and Ben Cordell were able to help repair it. I think it sounds pretty good!

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Kate Jeffery received her Ph.D. in behavioural neuroscience from the University of Edinburgh. She is currently a professor in the Department of Behavioural Neuroscience at University College, London. She is the founder and Director of the Institute of Behavioural Neuroscience at UCL.

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