The Black Hole Information Paradox

Left to us by Stephen Hawking

Asked of GROK AI: For the layman, how would describe or define  the term "information" in context with the physics of a black hole?

In the context of black holes and physics, "information" refers to the details that describe the state of matter and energy—basically, everything that makes a particle or system what it is, like its position, speed, spin, or other properties. Think of it as the complete "blueprint" of something, down to its tiniest details.

When it comes to black holes, there's a famous puzzle called the black hole information paradox. Here's the deal in simple terms: when stuff (like stars, gas, or light)  gets near a black hole its gravity draws them in. Everything, all matter space and time disappear because nothing, not even light, can escape a black hole's gravity to see where it went. But according to quantum physics, the information about that stuff—the blueprint of what it was—shouldn't be destroyed. It should be preserved somewhere, somehow.

The paradox arises because black holes can "evaporate" over time by releasing something called Hawking radiation (a process predicted by physicist Stephen Hawking). This radiation doesn’t seem to carry the original information about what fell into the black hole. So, the question is: where does that information go? Is it lost forever (which would break some fundamental rules of physics), or is it somehow encoded in the radiation or stored elsewhere, like on the black hole’s surface (its event horizon)?

For a layman, you can think of it like this: imagine you throw a book into a fire, and it burns up. The words and story (the "information") in the book seem gone, but in theory, if you could collect all the ash, smoke, and heat perfectly, you could reconstruct the book. With black holes, physicists are trying to figure out if the "story" of everything that falls in is still out there somehow, or if it’s truly lost, which would challenge how we understand the universe.

This is still a big mystery, but ideas like the holographic principle (where information is stored on the black hole’s surface like a cosmic hard drive) or weird quantum effects in Hawking radiation are being explored to solve it.

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Below we have attached short video discussion by podcast overlord, Joe Rogan and renowned physicist, Brian Cox who address this fascinating subject in layman’s language.