>>14231042there is a sad reality to be stated: Hawking was actually a good physicist. but he was saddled by certain ideological connections (like the fact that cripples tend to hate to hate god for obvious reasons)
Hawking had a major influence on physicists including Susskind, ‘t Hooft, and Strominger. his legacy is well-entrenched by now, given that all those guys by now have matriculated high-status physicists of the millennial generation who now occupy the seats of power in the field of physics
at the end of the day, one point remains. despite the drama Susskind has reveled on on his popsci book (the Black Hole Wars or whatever) it is a shame how Hawking’s ideas on black hole information are now universally dismissed. as a relativist he just gave up. he was the last bastion of top-rate guys who believed in Einstein and General Relativity to the end, as opposed to succumbing to the QFT/string theory consensus (except for maybe Penrose, and even a Nobel for him has been moot in face of the Consensus(=String) crowd)
