Non-Infinite Symmetry

I have to confess I just flat-out do not understand all that stuff. E8? 248 dimensions? What?

* * *
Also it would seem that an economy such as the UK's could absorb an extra 1 million printed GBP without too much of a devaluation of the currency, I don't think anyone would notice - so her idea is probably sound, but not repeatable (much).

It could. What makes it more complex is that the amount it can absorb is not based on the number itself, but rather based on people's perception of the quantity of money. It's when we reach a point where people start sensing that more money is floating around that the inflation cycle starts. It's a very macro thing ... not a specific formula.

* * *
Then I was thinking, if you could attach a rigid steel rod from the Earth to The Moon and pushed the Earth end slightly towards The Moon, would The Moon end move immediately?

I understand what you're getting at here ... but let me fall into a pragmatic role here for a moment. If I have a lever with a rigid rod 1 meter long that pushed another lever, does the other lever truly move "immediately?" Or is there an imperceptible time lag as the force on one end results in molecular and atomic compression and the transfer of that energy through the bar to the other? Extend that out to 93M miles ... might the transference of energy travel along the bar at some rate perhaps slower than the speed of light?

I'm just wondering if your scenario is like our "assumed axioms" -- "assume a rigid steel bar that transfers energy immediately ..." Sure, if that were true, then the earth would "move" before the light reached it. But is our axiom true?