Discussions about perception and reality are always good, even if this article seems a little tame compared to what philosophers have argued about for centuries

Discussions about perception and reality are always good, even if this article seems a little tame compared to what philosophers have argued about for centuries. But it's nice to see such a discussion coming from scientists, and not just philosophers. Physicists have especially given new life to these ideas though. You can go down an existential wormhole if you want to, where the implications of spacetime readily suggest the passage of time itself is an illusion (brief intro of one idea: https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/blog/2015/04/03/the-reality-of-time/ https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/blog/2015/04/03/the-rea...). One implication of a timeless universe (there are many labels/forms: Laplace's Demon, eternalism, block universe) is that there are no privileged moments in time. So why do we find ourselves localized and perceiving this coordinate in the 4D spacetime block and not any other? Conceivably, in an infinte universe which ends in maximum entropy, there are many more observers where entropy is higher than it is now or was near the big bang. (Assuming observers can't form in the extreme densities of the initial singularity, there is an infinite time in comparison for Botlzmann brains to fluctuate into existence in the high entropy, low density "future" - ours in an in between point, but infinitely tiny when compared to an eternal heat death). About the only solution from physicists to avoid such Boltzmann brain problems is to invoke the multiverse (where some verses recollapse and can never form observers). Disclaimer: only a layman but I believe what I've said is an accurate synopsis of the debate