Why did Hawking bet against the Higgs?

[g.lemaitre]

Seeing as it was so integral to the standard model and since the SM is so remarkably successful, aside from its inability to predict the correct amount of vacuum energy, and seeing as no experiment has proved it wrong, why did Hawking bet against it? It was only a 100 dollars so maybe he was just joking.

 

[atyy]

I think it was a joke. See 2 more famous bets of his http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_wager

 

[phinds]

Seeing as it was so integral to the standard model and since the SM is so remarkably successful, aside from its inability to predict the correct amount of vacuum energy, and seeing as no experiment has proved it wrong, why did Hawking bet against it? It was only a 100 dollars so maybe he was just joking.

I heard it was something like $1.98, not $100, which supports the idea that it was a joke.