The Speculist

"We've been forced into a profound paradox that comes from the fact that every conceivable outcome we can imagine from black hole evaporation contradicts some important aspect of physics."

I think that paradox exists because physicists have strayed away from science and into mystical philosophy.

Maybe the reason Susskind's elephant is both in and out of the black hole is that it both ran and didn't run from a mouse that Schrödinger's cat both failed to catch and caught because the cat was both dead and alive.

Or maybe I need to leave cosmotology to the professionals. :-)

Jake,

There have been criticisms of string theory and quantum gravity to that effect. But you don't need to dabble in mysticism in order for black holes to generate paradoxes -- the singularity of the black hole is, quite literally, where our understanding of time and space break down. Just applying standard equations to the singularity will give you paradoxes.

Stephen,

I don't know, try this one out:

STEPHEN GORDON, SEMI-PROFESSIONAL COSMOLOGIST

Has a pretty good ring, doesn't it? I thought you would like this last bit:

Cosmologists study this radiation because its variations tell us about the infant moments of time, but Susskind speculates that it could be a kind of Hawking radiation coming from our universe's edge. If that's the case, it might tell us something about the elephants on the other side of the universe.

Sure, that's all well and good.We do want to know about those elephants. But more importantly, we want to know about the turtles those elephants are standing on!

Hmmm... "semi-professional cosmotologist."

That's like both being a cosmotologist and not being a cosmotologist at the same time.

Now that's appropriate!