> If a ''variable speed of light theory'' is confirmed by experiment, it is
> still a matter of convention to say that the light speed has
> changed and not
> some other dimensional constant. Only dimensionless combinations of
> constants can be said to have changed independent of conventions.
>
> This is the point that Duff made.
It's a correct point.
However, the argument the VSL advocates make is that the theories are much,
much SIMPLER if you assume it's the speed of light that's variant rather
than some other dimensional constant.
Our old friend Occam's Razor...
Of course, we may then ask "simpler with respect to what computational
model"? The answer seems to be, simpler with respect to the computational
model implicit in modern mathematical physics -- which is of course closely
tied to human psychology.... Rather than "a matter of convention" we thus
seem to have "a matter of human psychological naturalness".
-- Ben Goertzel
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Received on Mon Aug 02 2004 - 11:57:21 PDT