Some people do not realize that the physics of
relativity concerns the idea that if an object is
moving their is no difference between saying that
it is moving in relation to things and saying that
things are moving relative to it while it stands still.
The physicality of the unusual, or special, case
where relative velocities approach a speed that is
not possible to reach is almost senseless when
light is considered a *thing* that goes a certain
speed. Is it inaccurate to say that you see things
when they happen?



Imagine some of the strange features of physics if
one thought that the Sun we see is the Sun now
instead of an image of the Sun's past. Would it be
possible for something to arrive here before we saw
it leave the sun? Obviously one could not leave
somewhere now and get here before now.

What if one wanted to keep this idea even after
learning that it takes time for light to get here
from the Sun? One might consider the speed of
light to be instantaneous and the measured length
of time to be a feature of space-time geometry.
What ideas might one come up with then? One
might be that going the speed of light (c) would
be the same as getting somewhere in no time and
it would not be possible to go as fast as, much less
faster than, the speed of light. Would this mean that
you lose the ability to accelerate when one nears c
or would attaining c be like trying to accelerate to an
infinite speed? Pre-Special type Relativity would
seem to rule out the first possibility and the second
leads you to adjust things (SR) to fit the model.

As for the apparent speed of something approaching
the speed of light it would not look much faster when
it continues to accelerate. A way to think about the
time/mass dilation is to consider that a hundred pounds
that is coming at you at near the speed of light will have
been accelerated long and hard to make what seems
to you to be only a tiny increase in velocity as it
approaches you. When it hits you it will hit with the
accelerated force of something that is going near the
speed of light but weighs much more than one hundred
pounds, or something that weighs one hundred pounds
but is going much faster than its apparent speed, if you
do not consider SR.

It seems meaningful to say that things happen when
you see them happen. Is it accurate to say that what
we see is just an afterimage?

I am curious as to what others think of this view.

-Ed Keane III