&quot;Schooled&quot; is in fact, just ancient click-bait for wrong.
I heard Hawking&#x27;s exact explanation in the late 80s (a copy of the bet was on display in Bridge Hall as I remember), but there is also documentation from Hawking himself in &#x27;97 long before this article was written. I suspect Kip would be annoyed by the implication, since they are pretty good friends. It&#x27;s even more sad that they don&#x27;t mention the girly-magazine part of the wager since that adds a human and salacious twist to it... although out of Discover&#x27;s G-rated range.<p><i>Hawking&#x27;s explanation for his position was that if black holes didn&#x27;t actually exist much of his research would be incorrect, but at least he&#x27;d have the consolation of winning the bet.</i>
Stephen Hawking (1997). Black Holes (VHS). New River Media