Agreed. Generally I don't refer to aether, I refer to space.
I don't think Einstein was trying to make peace, I think "space" was the winner because most people think Einstein did away with "aether" and it was an outmoded idea. Note though that space isn't a substance. It isn't made of anything. Instead substance is made of it. Or should I say, of waves in it. Substance is matter, and the wave nature of matter is beyond doubt.
I think he did mean that, but that he was wrong. When a seismic wave propagates through the Earth, the Earth waves. When a swell wave propagates through the ocean, the ocean waves. When a light wave propagates through space, space waves. Ditto for a gravitational wave. You might think
phooey, but take a look at
LIGO. OK it refers to spacetime instead of space, which is wrong, but nevermind. But note the length change. That's space waving.
Cheezle, where did all that come from? Like I said, I refer to space. I don't think of space and aether as two different things. Because I've read the original Einstein material, I don't go ape when some guy says aether.
Sorry Cheezle, but you're mistaken there. See
this:
"...but if you’ve heard Frank Close or John Ellis talk about the Higgs field as a kind of 'relativistic aether', you’d know that it’s anything but 'boring'..."
And just to muddy the waters more, check out the
Higgs substance.