The Necessary Structure of the All-pervading Aether: Discrete or Continuous? Simple or Symmetric?

This book investigates the necessary structure of the aether—the material that fills the whole universe—and comes to a variety of conclusions: 1. There is an enormous variety of structures that the aether might have. 2. Probably, the aether is point-free. 3. In that case, it should be distinguished from space-time, which is either a fiction or a construct. 4. Even if the aether has points, we should reject the orthodoxy that all regions are grounded in points by summation. 5. If the aether is point-free but not continuous, its most likely structure has extended atoms that are not simples. 6. Space-time is symmetrical if and only if the aether is continuous. 7. If the aether is continuous, we should reject the standard interpretation of General Relativity, in which geometry determines gravity. 8. Contemporary physics undermines an objection to discrete aether based on scale invariance, but does not offer much positive support.