[equaviator]

IF you could use just one sheet of cosmic toilet paper to wipe the event horizon of a black hole, what would the collected matter look like underneath a powerful microscope?

[faithhopecharity]

What amuses me is the apparent lack of explanation of whether any saved “bits” of information can ever contain or be reconstituted to contain any useful information — as the bits appear to at least get badly scrambled. Consider a book — if all the letters get scrambled what useful information remains? It seems the physicists are satisfied with mere conservation of scrambled bits rather than any conservation of any actually useful recognizable informational
Content. Maybe just saving the individual letters suffices for their theories but at least to my limited way of thinking a big pile or stream of emitted scrambled letters is not genuinely informative ( and thus no longer really information). I don’t see this as mere semantical quibbling but rather as a serious distinction. ( ps: the physicists
just this last month proposed a complex new path for their conservation at black holes, albeit they don’t appear to say how it can actually happen)

[OrioleFan]

I’m sure that renowned scientist, Algore, can come up with some meaningless “consensus” solution for which he can obtain the big bucks.

[SunTzuWu]

Bookmark.

[a fool in paradise]

"It is the past that tells us who we are. Without it, we lose our identity," said Stephen Hawking.

"Barack knows that we are going to have to make sacrifices; we are going to have to change our conversation; we're going to have to change our traditions, our history; we're going to have to move into a different place as a nation." - Michelle Obama

[NonValueAdded]

Black holes, white Dwarfs, Red giants ... seems to me there would be aggrieved groups that would take exception to such racis nomenclature ...

I'd think massless particles would be immune to the massive (infinite?) gravitational forces that is the black hole. Is not a black hole the ultimate non-linear accelerator? Bosons and luxons and neutrinos ... oh my. But what do I know?

[2nd Amendment]

I saw a black hole once! I’m telling you it’s not a pretty sight!

[ChinaGotTheGoodsOnClinton]

He should team up with Neil Tyson and compete for the title of the most overrated scientists ever.

Both are NOT scientists who are atheists but atheists who are scientists.

[samtheman]

“If determinism — the predictability of the universe — breaks down in black holes, it could break down in other situations. Even worse, if determinism breaks down, we can’t be sure of our past history either. The history books and our memories could just be illusions. It is the past that tells us who we are. Without it, we lose our identity,” said Stephen Hawking.

---

Things are no doubt weird when you cross the event horizon of a black hole.

But, please let’s not get carried away, Professor Hawking.

Obama won the election in 2008 and again in 2012. These are historical facts we can be sure of, every day. Unfortunately, there’s no illusion there (unless you are talking about the motivations of the people who voted for him, and the illusions inside what passes for their minds... but that’s a different story). The fact is, those two miserable elections are unalterably miserable historical facts and will remain so until the universe whispers away into nothingness.

To say “all history is illusion” just because things are weird around black holes... well, that’s just plain silly.

And I know I am no physicist, but I am sure there are plenty of physicists out there who will say (or are saying) that’s just plain silly.