That might not have mattered – except that black holes are real physical objects. It would deprive us of the ability to predict anything about the future of a black hole. However, this kind of uncertainty seemed to be completely unacceptable in that it resulted in many of the laws of physics appearing to break down. What Hawking discovered was that in black hole physics, there seemed to be even greater uncertainty than in quantum mechanics. In the case of a ball being thrown, one would not know its precise trajectory, but only the probability that it would be in some particular place given its initial conditions. In quantum mechanics, instead of describing precise outcomes, one finds that one can only calculate the probabilities for various things to happen. That kind of reasoning is fine for what we call classical physics but for small things, like atoms and electrons, the rules need some modifications, as described by quantum mechanics. For example, if you throw a ball, once you know its initial position and velocity, then you can figure out where it will be in the future. Physics is really about being able to predict the future given how things are now.
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