http://arxiv.org/pdf/quant-ph/0601182v1.pdf
Harvey Brown: "It is argued that the methodology of Einstein's 1905 theory represents a victory of pragmatism over explanatory depth; and that its adoption only made sense in the context of the chaotic state state of physics at the start of the 20th century - as Einstein well knew."

The state was chaotic because in 1887 scientists failed (or refused) to see that the only existing theory able to explain the null result of the Michelson-Morley experiment was Newton's emission theory of light stating that the speed of light does depend on the speed of the emitter. Lorentz and Fitzgerald started to Procrusteanize space and time to fit the ether theory's false tenet that the speed of light is independent of the speed of the emitter, and Einstein's special relativity was the final nail in the coffin of sane science.

Now it may be too late - "the true reality obscured by the spacetime mirage" is perhaps lost forever:

http://www.homevalley.co.za/index.ph...cles&Itemid=68
"Einstein introduced a new notion of time, more radical than even he at first realized. In fact, the view of time that Einstein adopted was first articulated by his onetime math teacher in a famous lecture delivered one century ago. That lecture, by the German mathematician Hermann Minkowski, established a new arena for the presentation of physics, a new vision of the nature of reality redefining the mathematics of existence. The lecture was titled Space and Time, and it introduced to the world the marriage of the two, now known as spacetime. It was a good marriage, but lately physicists passion for spacetime has begun to diminish. And some are starting to whisper about possible grounds for divorce. (...) Physicists of the 21st century therefore face the task of finding the true reality obscured by the spacetime mirage."

Pentcho Valev