  Black holes have their own thermodynamics including notions of entropy and
temperature and versions of the three laws. After a light introduction to black
hole physics, I recollect how black hole thermodynamics evolved in the 1970's,
while at the same time stressing conceptual points which were given little
thought at that time, such as why the entropy should be linear in the black
hole's surface area. I also review a variety of attempts made over the years to
provide a statistical mechanics for black hole thermodynamics. Finally, I
discuss the origin of the information bounds for ordinary systems that have
arisen as applications of black hole thermodynamics.
