Quantum spacetime and quantum statistics

Modern physics is built upon two pillars:  general relativity (a theory of dynamical spacetime) and quantum mechanics. But their combination has long been a source of puzzles, most famously when attempting to model quantum black holes. I will describe a novel perspective on the quantum theory of spacetime that provides a consistent account of quantum black holes, with a crucial role played by so-called spacetime wormholes. The description which emerges is statistical, giving us information not about a unique microscopic theory of black holes, but instead about a probability distribution over many possibilities.