The primary reason that these analogies were developed within the general relativity community was to help in the understanding of general relativity by providing very down-to-earth models of otherwise subtle behaviour in general relativity. Secondary reasons include the rather speculative suggestion that there may be more going on than just analogy - it is conceivable (though perhaps unlikely) that one or more of these analogue models could suggest a relatively simple and useful way of quantizing gravity that side-steps much of the technical machinery currently employed in such efforts. A tertiary concern (at least as far as the general relativity community is concerned) is the use of relativity and differential geometric techniques to improve understanding of various aspects of condensed matter physics.
The authors expect interest in analogue models to continue unabated, and suspect that there are several key but unexpected issues whose resolution would be greatly aided by the analysis of appropriate analogue models
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