Einstein Embraced Bizarreness and Killed Physics

Robert Scherrer, Professor and Chair of Physics and Astronomy at Vanderbilt University: "When scientists developed the theory of light back in the 19th century, it came with a special puzzle: their theory seemed to show that every observer should measure the same speed for light, about 186,000 miles per second. But that means if you try to chase a beam of light, no matter how fast you move, the light beam will still fly away from you at 186,000 miles per second. [...] Instead of trying to explain away this bizarreness, Albert Einstein embraced it." http://theconversation.com/faster-th...here-yet-41112

No theory of light in the 19th century had said that "every observer should measure the same speed for light"; rather, existing theories - Maxwell's, Newton's - had established that differently moving observers measure different speeds of light. And the Michelson-Morley experiment had unequivocally proved that the speed of light is variable, not constant. The "bizarreness" (more precisely, idiocy) was Einstein's own fabrication, and he wrestled with his conscience "over a lengthy period of time, to the point of despair" before introducing it. In the end Einstein embraced the "bizarreness" and killed physics:

John Stachel: "But this seems to be nonsense. How can it happen that the speed of light relative to an observer cannot be increased or decreased if that observer moves towards or away from a light beam? Einstein states that he wrestled with this problem over a lengthy period of time, to the point of despair." http://www.aip.org/history/exhibits/...relativity.htm

"The speaker Joao Magueijo, is a Reader in Theoretical Physics at Imperial College, London and author of Faster Than the Speed of Light: The Story of a Scientific Speculation. He opened by explaining how Einstein's theory of relativity is the foundation of every other theory in modern physics and that the assumption that the speed of light is constant is the foundation of that theory. Thus a constant speed of light is embedded in all of modern physics and to propose a varying speed of light (VSL) is worse than swearing! It is like proposing a language without vowels." http://www.thegreatdebate.org.uk/VSLRevPrnt.html

Pentcho Valev

Joao Magueijo wants to free science from the false constancy of the speed of light but ... there is a problem:

Joao Magueijo, Faster Than the Speed of Light, p. 250: "Lee [Smolin] and I discussed these paradoxes at great length for many months, starting in January 2001. We would meet in cafés in South Kensington or Holland Park to mull over the problem. THE ROOT OF ALL THE EVIL WAS CLEARLY SPECIAL RELATIVITY. All these paradoxes resulted from well known effects such as length contraction, time dilation, or E=mc^2, all basic predictions of special relativity. And all denied the possibility of establishing a well-defined border, common to all observers, capable of containing new quantum gravitational effects." http://www.amazon.com/Faster-Than-Sp.../dp/0738205257

"...Dr. Magueijo said. "We need to drop a postulate, perhaps the constancy of the speed of light." http://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/31/sc...-relative.html

"But the researchers said they spent a lot of time working on a theory that wouldn't destabilise our understanding of physics. "The whole of physics is predicated on the constancy of the speed of light," Joao Magueijo told Motherboard. "So we had to find ways to change the speed of light without wrecking the whole thing too much."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technolog...ht-discovered/

Pentcho Valev