Great observation. One inaccuracy is that velocity in special relativity isn’t quite the same as acceleration in GR—since we can actually locally measure acceleration, and therefore know if we’re accelerating or the rest of the universe is. This is unless you also count spacetime itself in the rest of the universe, in which case it’s best to specify it or avoid the issue more decisively.
The actual equivalence is accelerating vs. staying in constant velocity/still in a gravitational field.
Another interesting point is that this chain of “character of law” reasoning in the absence of experimental possibilities is the MO of the field of theoretical high energy physics, and many scientists are trained on ways to make progress anyway under these conditions. Most aren’t doing as well as Einstein, but arguably things have gotten much more difficult to reason through at these levels of physics.
Great observation. One inaccuracy is that velocity in special relativity isn’t quite the same as acceleration in GR—since we can actually locally measure acceleration, and therefore know if we’re accelerating or the rest of the universe is. This is unless you also count spacetime itself in the rest of the universe, in which case it’s best to specify it or avoid the issue more decisively. The actual equivalence is accelerating vs. staying in constant velocity/still in a gravitational field.
Another interesting point is that this chain of “character of law” reasoning in the absence of experimental possibilities is the MO of the field of theoretical high energy physics, and many scientists are trained on ways to make progress anyway under these conditions. Most aren’t doing as well as Einstein, but arguably things have gotten much more difficult to reason through at these levels of physics.