Black Hole Entropy as derived by Stephen Hawking

Some thirty years ago Stephen Hawking released an equation that described the behavior of a black hole. This equation shown above.

It relates such things as the speed of light and the gravitational constant to quantum mechanics. It relates entropy of the black hole to relativity and the quantum world. Entropy is a measure of the state of disorder in a system, so if you mix salt with water to create a solution the entropy increases. The second law of thermodynamics essentially states that the disorder in an isolated system such as the universe is always increasing (until it maximizes at the heat death of the universe). This was described classically, then, it was extended in a statistical fashion to the quantum world. This implies that, as the isolated system becomes more homogenous and completely mixed up, the entropy is increasing. This has created some paradoxes through the years. The problem is that on the surface this equation, when looked at, does not seem to provide a problem. This really is because of unfamiliarity with physics, as it does have some serious implications.

Conceptually, however, a black hole seems to be a spiraling vortex where objects enter an event horizon (a point of no return), when close enough. The equation seems to suggest that at the event horizon the particles were destroyed. The information carried by the particles seemed to be lost at the outer edge of the vortex. The black hole gobbles up all the matter in the universe until the universe itself has disappeared into a single infinitesimal invisible dot. In mathematics this is known as a singularity. If one goes with the big bang concept, the universe arose from just such a singularity. It would seem that it would make complete symmetrical sense that the universe arose from its original state in the same way that the black hole returns it to the same.

This provides a major problem for physicists, however. If information is not retained then order is lost. The pattern of subatomic particles which create form has a certain order. As more forms are manifest there is a decrease in entropy or an increase in negative entropy. It also means that when information is lost there can be no cause and effect. The effect that this has on thermodynamics in the black hole allows for immediate extreme temperatures within the black hole. The really serious issue for physicists is that they believe the subatomic particles have to be real and carry real information so that our reality and its accompanying measurements are real.

Recognition of these problems was immediate from physicists such as Leonard Susskind at Stanford University. For twenty years he searched for a solution to this problem looking for a flaw in Stephen Hawking’s logic. Eventually there was a paper that the mathematics could be applied in two ways, one with the destruction of the particles at the edge of the vortex and the second that seemed to suggest that the information could pass through the center of the black hole without destruction. The solution is based on Susskind’s consideration of seeing the universe as being really a three dimensional hologram, contained within a two dimensional surface which is able to record the information associated with holographic universe. This makes an infinite universe finite. Though it appears that the information is both lost and retained, it is not significantly different from the situation with the problem of Schrodinger’s cat.
Hawking himself later recanted suggesting a solution was possible by having multiple universes including one in which the black hole does not eat up the universe, which could ultimately retain the information.

Actually none of these conserve our universe, nor does it conserve the information of the universe within itself. So for all intents and purposes our universe will disappear, the same way it appeared out of a singularity into which it will return, according to that particular mathematical treatment. The information generated will be returned to awareness, if the quantum model used is a consciousness based reality. None of these solutions have a way to address where the information is stored. If it moves through the black hole to the other side and the information is conserved then the universe recreated will be identical to this one. If the information is shuffled then the information is lost though the informational system (subatomic particles) is retained.

The ultimate consequence of this is that without retention of information the reality that you observe only appears to have rules and there is not a reason why the chair sitting in front of you cannot pop in and out of sight. Without retention of information, it is not guaranteed to be there. Without these rules being hard and fast, the reality becomes much more malleable. You can, therefore, be the author of your reality if you wish or you can go by the rules that appear to be there which will allow your reality to be less manageable.

P.S. Recommended is to watch “What is reality?” on the science channel