> Einstein predicted things that were later observed
Absolutely true, and a lot of people who dis on him sweep this part under the rug. But most of his really useful work was on Special Relativity, and General Relativity is more just "cute math".
Lorenz argued that light is a wave which travels in a medium. That was famously impossible to measure, but Lorenz countered that you can't measure it because whatever you're trying to measure it with is likewise effected.
Einstein eschewed this, saying if you can't directly measure it then it's not real and you shouldn't spend your time talking about it.
Generally speaking this is good rule, but in this case, assuming:
1. There IS an aether which we're traveling through at some speed
2. Light cannot exceed C in that aether
3. Atomic orbits are likewise bound to C in the aether, and
4. Every physical process you can imagine building a clock from is likewise linked to the speed of atomic orbit, and therefore C
Then we can have a Classical Physics explanation for both Time Dilation and Lorenz Contraction. Time dilation is simply the effect of atomic orbits (and therefore, clocks) slowing down as you travel faster in the aether, and Lorenz Contraction is just the effect of atomic orbits becoming squeezed for the same reason.
