Thorne–Hawking–Preskill Bet

The Thorne–Hawking–Preskill Bet explores whether information that falls into a black hole is lost forever. Stephen Hawking suggested black holes might destroy information, contradicting quantum theory, which says information cannot be lost. Kip Thorne and John Preskill argued that information must be preserved and could be recovered from the black hole's radiation over time. Their “bet” was a way to test this idea experimentally, with Thorne and Preskill betting on whether information escapes as detectable radiation. The discussion relates to fundamental questions about the nature of black holes, quantum mechanics, and whether the universe preserves information or allows it to vanish.