LT114: It All Depends On How You Look At It

WE’RE THE GOOD GUYS

For fun, let’s assume to facts to be true:

1 – Ben is one of the good guys
2 – Ben really means it when he says he isn’t lying

Now let’s think about one line from Benjamin Linus. He claims it wasn’t his decision to purge the island of the Dharma Initiative. Yet, everything we have seen makes us think, “Yeah, right and I’ve got bridge to sell you if you believe that.” But hold on. If Charlotte, Claire, Aaron, and Daniel zapped back to 1970-ish, then why not everyone on the island?

This means Locke could have jumped back as well. This time around he is a much wiser man. He orders the purge and Ben is technically telling the truth. To make the two facts true, we just add a time loop. While this gets a bit confusing to us, imagine being Ben and knowing the events of past loops…it would seem like he is lying, but he isn’t. What he could really be doing is making his best guess at which past event really took place on the current time thread.

It also means that Ben is one of the good guys as Locke finally realizes and it seems Jack and Sayid might be reaching that same conclusion recently.

This could go a long way in explaining Ben’s casual reply to causing the Freighter to blow up, “So?” If you knew that in another time loop that everything could change, then why really care? Live for the moment! And let’s not forget, Jin told Hurly a while back that “Everything’s going to change”. Oh, so true!


MAILBAG

From time to time I’ll get an email from a reader of LOST TIDBITS. It is nice to hear from you and see where the ripples of influence can sometimes reach. But this email was different, they asked for a LOST TIDBITS logo to use as a link from his LOST blog. How cool. I’ve never thought of making a logo. So, I headed to Paint and came up with this:

Yeah, pretty weak. There is the black and white theme, but surely one of you guys can do better. If you want to give it a go and submit it as the “official” logo, please do so. Might be kind of fun if you have a talent for this sort of stuff.

Anyway, thanks to Izi for writing and be sure to check out his blog at: http://ncjl.wordpress.com/
The blog is described as “over-analyzing Lost”, so you know it is going to be weird. Enjoy the other ACTIVE Lost blog this summer and thanks again for writing Izi.


ERGOSPHERE

The immediate area outside the edge of a rotating black hole is called the ergosphere. The theory of black holes says that it will force all objects, including light, to follow its rotation. But in the ergosphere some claim we can energy and mass from the black hole in this region.

There is rotation of objects in the ergosphere but at speeds slower than within the rotating black hole. The further out an object is from the center of a black hole, the slower it will rotate. However, the rotation is not due to any force being applied on objects in the ergosphere. Instead, they rotate because of the curvature of the spacetime according to Einstein.

The Kerr Metric proposes that the impact on time in the ergosphere is different than within the black hole. It is called frame-dragging.

Dr. Cheng says in the 1970’s video that he is able to transmit to the future because of the Kerr Metric. He also mentions the means is a “pin hole” or a “worm hole”, but it sounds like PIN to me. That is an interesting term to use as it implies just a tiny glimpse.


GET YOUR BEARINGS?

Ben tells Michael to take heading of 325 to be rescued and it seems he gets rescued.

Daniel says to use a bearing of 305 to Frank. Which is right?

While the answer is elusive, let’s consider what happens when we get it wrong. First, time is changed. We’ve seen this with the rocket, with Desmond and with the Doc Ray whose throat was slit before his time.

I’m pointing this out because what if the Dharma food drop came in on the wrong heading? Could a drop in 1995 actually not drop until 2004?

Could this also mean that since Daniel is on the small boat that he will eventually wash up on shore at a later/earlier time?

Did Daniel remove a crying baby from the island at one time named Charlotte?

Can Daniel physically move and mentally move through time?

Does this explain why Daniel cries when he sees the TV footage of the discovery of the plane wreckage? He knows things.

**

Now, let’s add Jack into this discussion. Recall how we noticed that Jack appears on the island slightly ahead of the crash. No, that isn’t describing it properly. He arrives during the aftermath, so he is actually late. But when he arrives the crash isn’t visible or audible to him yet.

Is it possible then that Jack was “inserted” into one of the time loops? After all, his father told Vincent that his son had some work to do. Christian understands what is happening – and maybe being dead helps with that – and knows that this particular loop that his son will play a vital role. After all, what would have been different had Jack not on the plane in an earlier loop? Rose would have died of her heart attack, at least based on the Boone being her next best hope with his “stick a pen in her throat” idea.

Who would have lived or died had Jack taken the left path to the crash site or the right path? Is this the clue the producers expected us to pick up and we all missed?

**

And where does Fate play into all this? Is Fate another word for Randomness? The loops are pretty much a repeat except for the ripple effect of Fact or Random? Recall Charlie nearly being killed off at the crash site a couple of times. He wrote “L-A-T-E” on his hand. Did he miss death’s calling or is he late for some other destination? Later Charlie changes his hand to “F-A-T-E” and sure enough, that is what kills him off in a few weeks.

Unless Fate and Random are two concepts we use to explain things we can’t explain. In reality, this is all pre-destined stuff…a very Biblical concept promoted by Calvin (close to Kelvin). Predestination versus Free Will.


SONG IN MY HEAD

I admit it. Sometimes I write stuff in a forced way. Some ideas grow out of my LOST research, but sometimes it is the other way around and I force a thing on my brain into LOST. I know, bad reasoning, but fun.

Well, I’ve got this song in my head and I have to get it out. That means a little public therapy as I used the blog. First, the lyrics…

“Yes there are two paths you can go by, but in the long, there’s still time to change the road your on.” - Stairway to Heaven, Led Zeppelin.

The philosophy of these lyrics is that there is a good and a bad path. Further, it says, down the road of time you have a chance to change your path. Interesting philosophy, but it is 100% opposed to the Bible’s philosophy of “now is the time”.

I take this point a bit further, but acknowledging that this particular section of the song when played backwards says stuff about “my sweet Satan”. It would seem then that Stairway to Heaven is “bad’ when compared to the book of faith.

Then I recall that Walt spoke backwards to Shannon and when reversed said “Don’t push the button, the button is bad.” Is Walt’s image on the “bad side”? A study is required to answer this if we were to examine how the ghosts who speak are telling us the wrong philosophy or giving us the “good news”…which means “gospel” in the Bible…which means Evangeline in Greek…which was the language of the New Testament…which was ushered in by John the Baptist…which is the name of John Locke who is on an island where a baby was baptized by Eko…which leads to the baby being named Aaron…which is a Bible character that leads the chosen people into the Promised Land.

See how a song gets stuck in my head and I just have to do a brain dump on LOST TIDBITS? Sorry, but if felt like I had little choice. At least that song can now pass out of my mind. It will probably get replaced by another one, however. Oh no, it’s happening. No, not that one. I can’t stop it! Yeah, “Having My Baby” by Paul Anka.

NEXT TIDBITS

Already working on another post that should be ready by the normal release date of Sundays (and Wednesdays). There is just so much happening right now, that it demanded more posts. Hope you don't mind. Be sure to scroll down to ensure you don't miss one.

The topic of Sunday's post will consider if the island is a sort of Holy Grail that mankind has been searching for since...(get ready, you KNOW it's coming)...the dawn of TIME.

Enjoy,
KC

LT113: Hippity Hop

Be sure to look over the recent posts in case you missed some…we’ve accelerated the rate of posting recently!


TIMELINE

1978: Warning video made (the Cheng Video)

1980: Swan Orientation film is made by Dr. Marvin Candle

1988: Danielle’s ship crashes on the island

Late 1992: Dharma Initiative is purged from the island by Ben and the island’s inhabitants

September 2004: Oceanic Flight 815 crashes

January 2005: Ben “teleports” to desert and ten months into the future


MAN OF ARMS

Dr. Cheng is seen in his video rubbing his left arm. It is obvious. So how did he come to lose that arm?

If you remember, Danielle said her crew included a man she named as Montana. Danielle said that this man lost his arm due to the sickness. Could it be? Pierre sounds awfully French to me and would fit on a crew of French scientists. Hmm…

It is worth noting that Cheng is speaking of the Purge when he looks down at his arm. One gets the feeling the two events are related, so maybe he was just a Dharma scientist and not with Danielle’s group.

The best way to reconcile this conflict is to consider the possibility that Danielle was with Dharma as well. She could have fled the Purge and has been in perpetual hiding ever since and that alone could explain her oddity. It also would mean that when she warned the Survivors of the “Others”, she meant the attacking group of Ben and Company, not DI. And we would have Dr. Cheng losing his arm somehow during the Purge.

And finally, we have been told that we would get more of the back story on Danielle. I think the two are connected somehow.

MULTIVERSE

I'm sitting in the waiting room of my dentist waiting to voluntarily place myself in harm's way. Boy, do I feel like a Dharma volunteer at that point. While waiting, I check out the magazine rack and as fate would have it, there is a Discover magazine with a story about parallel universes.

The stuff gets pretty complicated for me, but the highlights were this concept of a multiverse. In level 1, the idea is that the universe is very big and constantly expanding. We know of only a portion of our universe because light has reached only a small fraction of space - yeah, it takes time even for light to get places. The conclusion is that with an infinite amount of space the odds are another planet like ours must eventually be created. Sort of like playing the lottery - eventually you have to win...eventually.

Due to the mathematics of infinity, we must have twins out there. It is pointed out that nothing discussed so far is even strange. It all follows known laws of physics which is that if you go far enough out without limit, eventually you'll find your other self.

In the second level of a multiverse, we turn to the theory of inflationary cosmology - the current most popular theory. The idea here is that the Big Bang provided the first chunk of matter that eventually became our known galaxy, so why not other chunks of matter breaking off that formed parallel universes. The laws of physics remain the same in level 1 and 2, but the history is different. Both universes exist in the same space, but are inflating at the speed of light (or faster) so communication between them would be impossible in the conventional sense.

Level 3 is where the concept of infinity demands another you and me to exist because of quantum physics. The idea behind quantum physics is that atoms spin in all directions possible until measured by an outside observer. It is described as you looking at page 4 in a book while I'm looking at page 8 in the same book. Different pages, lying next to each other, all existing, but we just aren't on the same page. Once a measurement is taken of a condition, a new universe exists. This fits nicely with some popular theories as well as avoids that nasty time travel question about running into yourself.

The fourth and final multiverse is based in mathematics. The concept here is that everything is just a mathematic structure. Plato suggested this idea and since we have shown how nature is based on math, computers, music, everything it seems. Where this gets interesting is that entities are just structures, concepts, objects. The intergers of 15, 16, and 23 are just numbers (a "class" in object oriented programming for an example). Not until we instantiate a class into an object do they actually exist...and then are bound by time. Prior to that point, structures, integers, classes, and equations are real, but not found within the dimension of time.

Obviously the topic matter is interesting, but it applies to LOST as a possible explanation of multiple universes, twins, time, and our Valenzetti Equation. More on this when my brain stops hurting.

TIME KEEPS ON TICKING, TICKING INTO THE FUTURE

I don't wear a watch and am thankful that I'm free from arranging my day into a neat order of minute by minute. Yet, our brain still keeps time in order to perceive what is happening around me and how to respond to it.

A study was done wear flowers are refilled with nectar after a bird or bee drains the flower. We discovered that animals learn to adapt to time and would return to the same flower sooner than what nature refills the nectar. In short, animals learn time and adjust accordingly. It didn't take long for cavement to learn that at a certain time of day is when the antelope would cross a plain.

We have all noticed how time goes slow at work and flies each evening at home. Or how time slows down in a car accident. Yet, notice how poor we are at guessing what time it is to the exact minute without a watch or clock.

So it has become clear that our brains don't measure time like the tick, tick of a clock. In fact, one study had subjects stare straight ahead with a ticking clock off to the side. When they felt one minute had passed they were told to look at the clock and measure the time. The wired up brains of the subjects actually SAW the clock FOUR one-hundredths of a second sooner with their brain before their eyes saw the clock. Woah!

Ever wake up a 4 am instead of your normal time? Yeah, we learn to adjust. But recent studies have shown that we don't adjust time, we instead use time as a tool. Our brains stretch out time or shrink time as needed for proper measurement. Better yet, the brain can take several minutes of events and compress it down to a small package for memory storage. This starts to explain why sometimes you feel like Christmas was celebrated just a week ago even though the calendar reads July.

I believe some of these concepts are being explored on LOST. And better yet, it gives a chance to explore the possibility of time not being a measurement as much as it is a method to order events as we see fit. I have often felt that the best definition of retirement would be the removal of all timing devices from my life. Work until I was tired, sleep when I needed to, eat when I was hungry...ignore the schedule of life. We've all experienced being on an extended vacation and forgetting what day of the week it is.

Yeah, society pushes us into neat little segments of time. But reality does not. And reality is really just what we perceive it to be. When we combine multiverse with the brain's method of keeping time (very flexible), we can then explore the possibility that Ben THINKS he is in October 2005 while at the very same TIME, Jack thinks it is January 2005. And both would be correct.

Well, just something to think about when you get a minute to ponder. Now go back and look at the first section of today's blog - the timeline. Think how different that timeline might really be. For the observer is really what determines time, not reality. Time is a mathematical structure that lies dormant and useless until applied. One then begins to wonder why any Survivors wear watches - which several do. Only the guy pushing the button every 108 minutes really NEEDS a watch. Now imagine for a second (wow, it is hard to explain something without using a time related term) that Dharma actually speed up the Countdown clock so each second slowly became a half-second to "outside" observers! Then even faster. In "reality", whatever that really is, Desmond was waking every 108 seconds to push the button...his 300+ days were just 300+ hours.

To use a related LOST concept, the Bible, a day is as a thousand years and a thousand years is as a day.

Or to use my favorite sci-fi book, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, time is an illusion, doubly so at lunchtime.

POSTINGS

Which brings this post to full circle as we began by saying we have accelerated the timing of our posts this week. Have I really accelerated the rate or does it just get measured that way? HA!

You can expect a new post about every two days. Set your watches!

Enjoy,

KC

LT112: The Dr. Cheng Video

IS IT COLD IN HERE? HO-HO-HO

LOST has thrown a lot of cold-related references at us including the Santa catchphrase, “Ho-ho-ho”. Guess what? They’re back!

In the summer game, on the Octagon Recruiting website we see this:

Can you make out the H and O?


WILL THE REAL DR. MARVIN CANDLE PLEASE STAND UP?

Really old fans of LOST might recall the TV game show where three contestants claimed to be the same person. A panel would ask questions in an attempt to discover the real claimant. Well, it seems we have been playing a version of that game with Dr. Marvin Candle, Dr. Edgar Halliwax and Dr. Mark Wickman. As you will see, the good doctor’s real name is Dr. Pierre Cheng.

First, you must watch the video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dn_dNsaz-AA

Dr. Cheng was a professor of astrophysics in Lansing, Michigan. This is where the DeGroots were studying.


VIDEO ANALYSIS and THEORY

FACT: There are at least two people in the room with Dr. Cheng. A baby we hear crying. Dr. Cheng mentions the baby is a boy.

THEORY: The baby is Aaron and Claire is also present.

CONFLICT: It sounds as if Cheng uses the name “Jennifer” when asking that the baby be removed from the room.

REBUTTAL: There is a Jennifer in LOST…it is Henry Gale’s wife’s name.

**

Same facts as above.

THEORY: The baby is Miles and belongs to Dr. Cheng and his wife “Jennifer”. Miles is on the island to try and contact his dead father, Dr. Cheng/Candle. Miles gift is present in all of us, but studies by Dharma brought his out.

CONFLICT: None really.

REBUTTAL: Is this the Children of the Island? Miles born here. Charlotte born here. Daniel born here or just the nutty professor? Locke was born here. And Rose – anyone that heals, which would include Mr. Patchy, were all here.

**

FACT: We hear a man speaking. The voice of the man sounds a lot like Daniel Faraday. He is running the camera.

THEORY: Daniel was off the coast of the island in a raft when the island moved. Perhaps being on the edge of the event horizon he was thrown back to 1974.

CONFLICT: Daniel would have to be near 70 years old if he relived his life again from 1974, assuming is age of 40 as we know him on the island. Which is the conflict: he sure looks good for 70.

REBUTTAL: If he can jump once, he can jump twice.

**

FACT: A red-headed woman is seen on the video.

THEORY: Charlotte is present at the taping.

CONFLICT: She was island-bound when it jumped to October 2005 (Ben’s jump date at least). It would seem strange that she jumped “with” Daniel who was on the raft.

REBUTTAL: Perhaps time jumping is more controllable than Ben suggested. At least when it doesn’t involve the Dharma Wheel.

Enjoy,

KC

LT111: Who Watches the Watcher?

DHARMA INITIATIVE AT COMIC CON

Are you thinking about a career change? Would you be interested in helping making the world a better place? How about working with her:

During the interview phase in San Diego one person was asked, “Who is your constant?”

To get an interview you needed an appointment and a security card:

Producers for LOST announced at the conference that Dharma was now a sponsor of the TV show.
TO THE MOON

Participants in the live testing were asked to pick a test best on eight names. The names are all names of Jupiter's moons. Jupiter is the 4th brightest star in the sky. The tests names were listed in their order by orbit except for the last one. Why only go out of order? That particular moon is named “Leda”.

Leda was named after the Greek goddess who was a lover of Zeus – who appeared to her as a swan.

Leda is also suburb of Perth, Western Australia.

SUMMER GAME UPDATE – The Project

After signing up at the Octagon Recruiting website, emails were sent to inform us that testing would begin online after Comic Con. I took the test and passed. Next it told me that weekly tests would be given and the highest scores for each job position they were filling would get a job offer. Wish me luck!

Some trivia regarding The Project:

* The first letter of each job position spells out Dharma Initiative
* It takes 16 letters to spell Dharma Initiative
* The first four job positions are the four areas of study from the Swan Orientation tape
* The spinning Octagon logo reveals the same markings as on the Dharma logo edges
* IVF Consultant position stands for In Vitro Fertilization – Juliet’s job
* The lead recruiter is named Hans Van Eeghen
* An editor on the show is name Henk Van Eeghen

WEBSITES

Take the Dharma exam here: http://www.dharmawantsyou.com/site/index.php
Take the weekly tests hers: http://www.dharmawantsyou.com/site/index.php

JEREMY BENTHAM

Also at Comic Con, the producers of LOST kept using a word over and over: panopticon. This the circular design of a prison where a central tower allows a single guard to keep watch over the greatest number of prisoners. The clever design meant that prisoners could never tell who or when someone was watching them.

So, who came up with this design? Jeremy Bentham. Here is his description of the place: “:A building circular. The prisoners in their cells, occupying the circumference; the officers in the centre. By blinds and other contrivances, the Inspectors concealed...from the observation of the prisoners: hence the sentiment of a sort of omnipresence--the whole circuit reviewable with little, or... without any, change of place. One station in the inspection part affording the most perfect view of every cell."

Is Ben Linus the watcher from that room with all the screens?

Were either Widmore Industries or Paik Heavy Industries involved in the design of the Dharma stations?

Were the passengers of Flight 815 all specifically pre-selected and brought to the island to undergo Panopticon-style observation as a group for their various crimes and behaviors?
Was the Santa Rosa Mental Institution, where Hurley, Libby and Locke's mother were all patients, a Panopticon?

QUESTIONS and COMMENTS

Use that comments link at the bottom of each post to “talk to me”. If you have a question you would like me to research, just ask. Have a theory you would like to be considered, just tell. Want to publish how many questions you got right from the quiz, just post. This will allow me to write to the specific interest you may have.

LOST TIDBITS

A lot happened recently in regard to LOST, so you can enjoy a few more than two posts in the coming weeks. Keep checking back! Already in the works are posts on topics like:

* More references to the cold temperature
* Review of the Q&A panel at Comic Con
* A timeline update based on new revelations
* A study on time and moving mass
* We reveal Dr. Marvin Candle’s true identity
* And we will explore some Dharma logos that change before your very eyes

Keep checking back and clicking on those ads!


Namaste,
KC