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@3ammo

qoto.org/@3ammo/105963064680177147, the “isotropy” of the speed of light is also directly related to our notions of space symmetry (among other things). This a statement about the world.

two problems with this.

  1. space symmetry holds true for many things, but none of them in any way rely on a symmetry of speed of light. If light is antisymmetric then space can still be isotropic in all the ways we have observed it to be. you are referring to the cosmological principle and all it states is “When viewed at a large enough scale the universe will look the same to all observers”… this principle holds true even if c is asymmetric.

  2. we never defined how c is asymmetric, nor did I state it is just some arbitrary direction in space, the asymmetry could arise through all sorts of rules (none of which is testable mind you). For example it could be that light travels faster in the direction you are moving than the opposite. In relativity fashion therefore the direction of the asymmetry is opposite for each of the observers in a clock synchronization experiment, yet due to the reasons mentioned before once this is resolved by a full round trip to compare clocks the asymmetry cancels out and you get what looks like symmetric results. In fact this example is very much in line with what we see with time dilation and special relativity how the act of making a round trip resolves the twin paradox as the acceleration to reverse direction resolves the paradox.

The point your missing (I think) and that is so important to this is that if an asymmetry exists it can not be distinguished from a symmetry in part to the impossibility of measuring light one-way. It is of a similar nature as trying to know two complimentary properties in QM, not only is it impossible, that impossibility is fundamental.

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