The black holes are leaking

I love this bit from Quanta magazine’s article on the latest breakthroughs in the black hole information paradox:

But almost everyone appears to agree on one thing. In some way or other, space-time itself seems to fall apart at a black hole, implying that space-time is not the root level of reality but an emergent structure from something deeper.

It’s not even about the breakthrough, but about why we keep looking for them in the first place: we’re not sure what reality even is. I try to remember that when I get worked up about the state of American democracy, or issues at work, or whatever it might be, to put things in perspective. And then I wish that other people would join me in having a little perspective.

At the same time some of us are finally starting to get to the bottom of what, exactly, reality is, others of us are busy arguing about who should be able to afford to eat and live in peace. I dream of a Network moment that will never come to pass where someone finally breaks through the chaos and noise and says, “damn all this petty nonsense, the real conspiracy is happening inside the black holes,” and Q drops are replaced with furious arguments over the latest preprint drops on arxiv.

Of course, the far more likely scenario is the one Stewart Lee envisioned in his brilliant, bizarre reductio ad absurdum meditation that on the surface is about immigration, but really tackles conservative thought as a whole. “Reality is too full,” he begins, arguing that life was better when there was an infinite void and you didn’t have to lock your house (because it didn’t exist).

But now we actually know who to blame for reality being too full. The damn black holes are leaking!