[ExI] The Big Black Hole Question

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> Il 20/07/2025 13:33 CEST BillK via extropy-chat <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> ha scritto:
> 
>  
> On Thu, 10 Jul 2025 at 16:37, <spike at rainier66.com> wrote:
> >
> > Regarding the astronomy use of the term, it is fun to think about.  Under
> > sufficient pressure, gravity overpowers everything and electrons are pushed
> > into the protons, which form neutrons, kerBOOM, supernova, result, huge ball
> > of neutrons.  COOL!  But... what if that neutron star is so big, it crushes
> > the neutrons?  What do neutrons crush into?  We don't know.  Our equations
> > fail us.  It's all a big virtual reality, I tells ye.  Wicked, evil it is.
> > The devil invented the whole system.  Rage against it.
> >
> > spike
> > ----------------------------
> 
> Interesting (long) article about the latest theories of black holes
> and singularities.
> BillK
> 
> <https://www.quantamagazine.org/singularities-in-space-time-prove-hard-to-kill-20250527/>
> Quote:
> Singularities in Space-Time Prove Hard to Kill
> Black hole and Big Bang singularities break our best theory of
> gravity. A trilogy of theorems hints that physicists must go to the
> ends of space and time to find a fix.
> At the singular point in a black hole, time seems to grind to a halt,
> and predictions become impossible.

“But you have correctly grasped the drawback that the continuum brings. If the molecular view of matter is the correct (appropriate) one, i.e., if a part of the universe is to be represented by a finite number of moving points, then the continuum of the present theory contains too great a manifold of possibilities. I also believe that this too great is responsible for the fact that our present means of description miscarry with the quantum theory. The problem seems to me how one can formulate statements about a discontinuum without calling upon a continuum (space-time) as an aid; the latter should be banned from the theory as a supplementary construction not justified by the essence of the problem, which corresponds to nothing “real”. But we still lack the mathematical structure unfortunately. How much have I already plagued myself in this way!”
Einstein in a 1916 letter to Hans Walter Dällenbach