Originally posted by sir Mojo Loren
It simply does not contain causality. All it has is empty mathematics.
That's funny, because that last time I checked, string theory still included causality. Now granted, I'm not an expert on superstrings nor even QFT, but I have seen nothing that suggest either theories do away with causality, though "probability" replaces some classic notions of matter in motion.
Can you be a little more specific?
Einstein called it ether because he knew that it must be composed of a substance of some sort.
Since Einstein never made that claim, you have nothing to support it.
You got your history wrong. The classical ether was a solid. It was the motion wrt this solid that MM failed to detect. If it was a fluid then there should be no reason to assume any motion of the earth or the MM laboratory wrt the ether. The fluid ether satisfies the null results, but since it was assumed that transverse waves could only travel through a solid then the fluid ether was not a candidate so Einstein had to satisfy the null result via pure mathematical manipulations.
I would like to see a reference on that. I've read many things on the classic aether, but have never seen it called a solid. I've certainly read that is was believed to be a gas, and at other times a liquid, but not a solid. Cite something.
Because you are not using metaphysics. You are operating in the fantasyland of pure mathematics.
Like I said, if geometry is purely abstract then so is the physical universe. I have given a logical argument as to why space is fundemental. Since the argument is valid, it holds unless one of the premises are invalid.
To your own satisfaction not to mine. My arguments have gone unheeded this is why this discussion has reached an impasse.
The above covers that.
Define "size".
In philosophy, when something is defined we are relating it a concept from our experience, be it visual, emotional, touch, etc. Size (or volume, extension, whatever) is the structure that allows us the see objects in the first place. See those visual objects in your visual cortex? That area is space, and geometry is a description of that space.
If an object has zero volume, and takes up no space, it no longer fits the traditional definition of a physical object. I will leave it to theists to imagine entities that have no size.
Because the root-level matter-in-motion of substance is incompatible with a constant speed of light in all interial reference frames.
I don't see how. Be more specific.
Apparently you have not read the speech. Here is one such quote of the many spread throughout the talk.
http://www.geocities.com/antonioferrigno/ether.html
"To deny the ether is ultimately to assume that empty space has no physical qualities whatever. The fundamental facts of mechanics do not harmonize with this view. "
Note the term "physical properties" not purely mathematical properties.
Sorry, but nowhere did Einstein say anything about substance. The dynamic space of the field is a physical property, and the same contains other properties such as gravitational energy. If you want to claim Einstein supported the notion of a substance based aether, you're going to have to back it up with an actual quote. As I said, Einstein knew that the geometry of space is indeed a physical property that interacts with everything else in the universe.
Sorry but your argument was weak at best...and why on earth do you suppose I would ever give up a causal understanding of how the forces are unified at the core level?
A. GR nor field theories violate causality
B. My argument is based on logic, and if you can't challenge any of the premises, it holds true.
So again, I argue that space is fundemental for any field or aether, because you cannot define them without. That makes space more than abstract, and renders the argument for an aether impotent.