papalex on Nostr: Along similar lines, I think Clifford and Sylvester were great thinkers of their ...

Along similar lines, I think Clifford and Sylvester were great thinkers of their time. The core difference however to Einsteins curvature is that they were thinking about curved space, not curved space-time. Which might very well be the reason why Cliffords program did not succeed. From the distance this might seem like a minor difference, and reading Cliffords letter is fascinating and displays his genius (essentially predicting relativity and quantum). Yet, they had missed one key point: relativity (which might be partially in Cl's thinking) and the constancy of c.