Re: OT: Helen Keller & Whorf-Sapir

Philippe Caquant said:
>
> I understood that nothing material can travel faster
> than light.
The equations seem to be saying that nothing material can be observed to
travel relative to the observer faster than the speed of light.

Many people think the equations say that there's some sense in which no
material object can have an *absolute* velocity faster than the speed of
light, but there's no such thing as absolute velocity in relativistic
physics.

There's an old concern about the implications for time and causality when
something moves faster than light. Feynman pretty much put an end to that
kind of concern in quantum theory (matter can move backwards through time,
and "causes" don't necessarily precede their "effects") but most of the
special relativity folks still have some metaphysical catching up to do.


-- Mark

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