no ordinary situation. Most saliently, the wildly different perspectives can never confront each other. You can’t climb out of the black hole and prove to the distant observer that you are alive. And, as it turns out, the distant observer can’t jump into the black hole and confront you with evidence that you’re not. When I said that the distant observer “sees” you immolated by the black hole’s Hawking radiation, that was a simplification. The distant observer, by closely examining the tired radiation that reaches her, can piece together the story of your fiery demise. But for the information
...more
