Black Hole Physics and the Near-Death Experience

In the 1970s, Stephen Hawking put forward a theory of black holes which appeared to violate a major principle of physics - the law of the conservation of information - because it implied that quantum information can permanently disappear within a black hole with the exception of "Hawking radiation." Hawking's inconsistent theory led to what was called the "Black Hole Information Paradox." Physicist Leonard Susskind (pictured on the left) later solved this paradox with his development of M-theory using the holographic principle to show how information entering the edge of a black hole is not lost, but can entirely be contained on the surface of the horizon in a holographic manner. Susskind's theory solved the paradox because the nature of a hologram's two-dimensional information structure can be "painted" on the edge of the black hole thereby giving a three-dimensional black hole where quantum information is not lost. Susskind's solution to the information paradox led to wide-spread acceptance of the holographic principle.