> physicsts don't want to give up the beautiful and geometric simplicity of 1/r^2
Eh, just like MOND proponents don't want to give up the beautiful simplicity of "If something is attracting me gravitationally I'd better see it!"
When you think about it, there's no a priori reason why a particle with mass should interact with any other force. We'd just like to assume it because it seems "simpler" that way.
Nor that there should be just one family of interconnected fields. We’ve got, what, two dozen or so?
Some affect each other, some don’t. You can create a graph from that, and you get one that’s dense in places but have some nearly disconnected regions. Why not a graph with actual disjoint subgraphs? We’d only be able to tell through gravity.
Eh, just like MOND proponents don't want to give up the beautiful simplicity of "If something is attracting me gravitationally I'd better see it!"
When you think about it, there's no a priori reason why a particle with mass should interact with any other force. We'd just like to assume it because it seems "simpler" that way.