I suppose her reason to assume we can't observe this is that evaporation takes extremely long time. For example, a solar mass black hole will take about 10^64 years to evaporate [1] (this is approximately 7 * 10^54 times the age of the universe). Note that astronomical black holes are heavier than the Sun, so take even longer to evaporate.
I suppose the micro black holes [2] might offer a glimmer of hope, but these objects are entirely hypothetical.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawking_radiation#Black_hole_e... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micro_black_hole
Ancient philosophers debated the existence of atoms for centuries; then Boltzmann took the theory up to second gear by discovering the implications on temperature and entropy, and then Einstein proved their existence beyond a shadow of a doubt through his work on Brownian motion.
It might take centuries of mathematical work to discover an artifact of quantum gravity that's observable within our macroscopic world, but the work must be done.
No. She said there isn't any data. I know the word falsify has become prominent in the last 15 years or so, but a "theory" that doesn't agree with some real world data is just a hypothesis. In other words a theory needs confirmation in addition to not being falsified. This is where the divide should exist between physics and mathematics. You can have a bunch of cool math, but that's not physics. It's not scientific theory by itself. You can hypothesize that it describes the real world, but until there is confirming evidence that assertion is just mental self-gratification.
I'd say this is a bit overly negative. There's value in developing theories and frameworks which aren't yet provable but should be as soon as technology or other theoretical frameworks catch up.
I said "You can have a bunch of cool math, but that's not physics. It's not scientific theory by itself. You can hypothesize that it describes the real world, but until there is confirming evidence that assertion is just mental self-gratification."
The math can be cool - and often is. It's the unsubstantiated claim that it underpins reality that is whackin' ones brain.