Yes, if given a choice to believe one or the other, we’d all probably choose the speed one. But the person in 1901 is not being given the color option as a counterpoint, they’re just being told “if you go really, really fast, reality turns into an Escher painting.” I don’t know about you, but had I been born in 1901, I’m pretty sure I’d sooner believe in Scientology.
(Of course, someone in 1901 would answer “Who the hell is Escher?” :-))
ETA: And “What the hell is Scientology?”, too. Jokes aside, I would probably agree if I was a randomly chosen person in 1901, but I’m not sure I would if I was a randomly chosen physics graduate student in 1901. I mean, If there’s a reason why only four years later the Annalen der Physik published an article proposing special relativity but none proposing Scientology. (I’d probably still consider quantum mechanics less plausible than Scientology, though.)
Yes, if given a choice to believe one or the other, we’d all probably choose the speed one. But the person in 1901 is not being given the color option as a counterpoint, they’re just being told “if you go really, really fast, reality turns into an Escher painting.” I don’t know about you, but had I been born in 1901, I’m pretty sure I’d sooner believe in Scientology.
(Of course, someone in 1901 would answer “Who the hell is Escher?” :-))
ETA: And “What the hell is Scientology?”, too. Jokes aside, I would probably agree if I was a randomly chosen person in 1901, but I’m not sure I would if I was a randomly chosen physics graduate student in 1901. I mean, If there’s a reason why only four years later the Annalen der Physik published an article proposing special relativity but none proposing Scientology. (I’d probably still consider quantum mechanics less plausible than Scientology, though.)