Why can't default methods override equals, hashCode, and toString of Object class?

An interface cannot provide a default implementation for any of the methods of the Object class. In particular, this means one cannot provide a default implementation for equals, hashCode, or toString from within an interface.

This seems odd at first, given that some interfaces actually define their equals behavior in documentation. The List interface is an example. So, why not allow this?

Brian Goetz gave four reasons in a lengthy response on the Project Lambda mailing list. I'll only describe one here, because that one was enough to convince me:

It would become more difficult to reason about when a default method is invoked. Right now it's simple: if a class implements a method, that always wins over a default implementation. Since all instances of interfaces are Objects, all instances of interfaces have non-default implementations of equals/hashCode/toString already. Therefore, a default version of these on an interface is always useless, and it may as well not compile.