[richardjordan]

...also regarding his final point about the speed of light - of course special relativity which explains this is similarly a generalization of older theories such as Galilean relativity.

If you look at the work of Feigenbaum - e.g. http://arxiv.org/abs/0806.1234 - you'll see how similar to Hardy deriving QM purely by continuing older lines of thought, the fact the universe has a maximum possible speed that anything can travel - the speed of light (though it's not strictly about light) can be derived from postulates as old as Galilean relativity. The speed of light cannot be infinite - it must have some value.

[lohankin]

Much simpler derivation of Lorentz transform: http://www.jackpenkethman.com/speedoflight/speedoflight.html

[theoh]

Is this the same argument that Minkowksi came up with in 1908, describing it as "staircase wit" (as it would have been impressive had it been thought of before Einstein's theory)?