[orblivion]

I'm not the best to answer this, but I'll briefly say that if Einstein's theories don't hold, it will be in the same sense that Newton's theories didn't hold post-Einstein. Newton's theories still apply, for all practical purposes, to all every-day life situations, and Einstein's theories will still apply, for all practical purposes, to every fringe case seen so far ("every-day" nuclear physics, etc) until this experiment. Einstein's theories will just break down in even more fringe situations, which we would have to start to understand the nature of now.

[lutorm]

We sort of already know that "Einstein is wrong" in this strong sense, since GR is incompatible with quantum field theory. It still works just as well within its realm of applicability, though.

[Florin_Andrei]

Exactly. Even if the Opera experiment turns out correct, your GPS will not cease to function all of a sudden.

[mortenjorck]

The half-century after Einstein's pioneering work saw the world's basic conceptions of energy resources and of armed conflict transformed. One can only imagine the prospect of living in a post-FTL world.