Re: Aether is the empty space in which the Universe sits

From: Ole D. Rughede (ole.rughede_at_privat.dk)
Date: 08/30/04 

Date: Mon, 30 Aug 2004 14:53:18 +0200

"Ilja Schmelzer" <q6867901@mailstore.fernuni-hagen.de> skrev i en
meddelelse news:cgv061$3tp$1@beech.fernuni-hagen.de...
>
> "robert j. kolker" <nowhere@nowhere.net> schrieb im Newsbeitrag
> news:2pgc7bFk2lniU1@uni-berlin.de...
> > Ilja Schmelzer wrote:
> > > This question is for me only secondary: It gives me a strong
> > > tool to rule out false theories. You are, of course, free to
> > > define questions which are relevant for you yourself.
> >
> > And that is -all- we can do. Rule out false theories by a
> > refuting experiment. Every general theory contains a
> > universally quantified postulate over an infinite domain.
> > Such a postulate cannot be empirically verified. It would
> > require an infinite number of operations.

You are absolutely wrong Bob!
Who told you such nonsense?
It probably would require an infinite number of arguments
to make you understand that your statement is false:

It would take an infinite number of counting operations to
count all numbers into infinity, why you would never stop.
Nevertheless, logic tells us that infinite large numbers exist,
and even may be handled mathematically. - You are not
acquainted with the classical paradoxes of philosophy,
such as the Cretan philosopher saying that all Cretans lie?

Which false theories of physics would you like to falsify?

Ole

> Agreement. But we can reject theories for other reasons too:
> Lower empirical content (Popper), unnecessary complexity,
> missing explanatory power, uglyness, all this relative to its
competitors.
>
> And if a given set of fields has a natural and simple interpretation
> as fields describing some sort of condensed matter, this is something
> with high explanatory power. Not all field theories allow an
> ether interpretation - but all ether theories define field theories,
> simply by forgetting their ether interpretation.
>
> Ilja
>