[ExI] The Big Black Hole Question

[BillK]

On Thu, 10 Jul 2025 at 04:24, Rafal Smigrodzki via extropy-chat
<extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:
>
> ### So I know next to nothing about physics, especially in the arcane area of black hole theories but one thing really bugs me - the notion of the singularity at the center of a black hole. It just doesn't make sense. In this model the Hawking radiation that carries information is created at the horizon but the mass of the hole is located potentially millions of miles away (in the quasar-sized holes) in the center. How are they connected? Really? I don't like it.
>
> What about the following idea - there is no singularity because there is no "inside" the bole. All that exists is the event horizon. Infalling matter settles on the horizon as some Planck-scale energy-matter composite, approaching a 2D state of existence as time slows down to the lowest clock rate possible in this universe, as needed to accommodate the highest possible density of bits that can be handled by our physics. The black hole is a 2D manifold immersed in our 3D world that creates weird distortions which we, with our 3D intuitions, perceive as a 3D sphere.
>
> Is this possible? Is it something related to the black brane or M-brane theory, and the firewall and other such high-faluting stuff?
> Let's get rid of singularities!
>
> Rafal
> _______________________________________________


There are alternative speculative theories about black holes.
But speculative is the operative word.
<https://phys.org/news/2025-05-alternative-black-hole-quantum-effects.html>

Nonsingular black hole models -
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nonsingular_black_hole_models>
And then there is string theory as well.

Current standard theory is that the black hole horizon is not a
physical surface. It is the mathematical boundary beyond which
nothing, not even light, can escape from the black hole.
Hawking radiation and black hole evaporation are *really* complicated.
Attempts at a simple explanation may confuse the unwary.
See: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawking_radiation>

The singularity inside black holes is probably a placeholder for
"Sorry, we don't know".  :)


BillK