LT144: History of LOST - The Beginning

ARISTOTLE

Aristotle was one of the founding fathers of Western philosophy and he said once, “If you would understand anything, observe its beginning and its development.”

With those words in mind, and a couple of months before LOST returns, it seemed like a good time to take Aristotle’s advice. In our quest to understand LOST, we should observe its beginning and its development.

So where to begin?


THE ISLAND

The story of LOST really does start here. The properties of the island seem unique in that nothing related to LOST could have happened, had not the island existed. As we have observed, the island itself appears to possess many unique characteristics. However, we can’t be sure which characteristics were original and which were brought about by external forces.

What we can safely assume is the island once was home to an active volcano and that we find an odd form of naturally occurring electromagnetism.


ELECTROMAGNETISM

I can hear what some readers might be thinking, “Hey, we’ve been down this path before.” I agree. So my intent is not to rehash what has been discussed at length, but to share any new observations.

If I’m guessing right about the readers of LOST TIDBITS then most of us can probably stumble through a basic explanation of what electromagnetism is. But in search for NEW things, can you tell me who the “father” of electromagnetism is? I didn’t know this before now.

His middle name is Christian. After four years of LOST TIDBITS, things can still make me go “Wow, I didn’t know that.” This got me wondering if we missed something during the prior trips down memory lane.

Recall that our and the Survivors big revelation about this island was when they entered the Swan hatch. They had clues prior to this, but the understanding didn’t really come until Jack walks by a wall in the hatch and the key around his neck showed a strong attraction to something behind that wall.

Then the hints and clues starting come fast. We heard about the Dharma Group and Alvar Hanso and their appreciation about the uniqueness of this island.

So imagine my surprise when I discover the father of electromagnetism had a middle name of Christian, like Jack’s father. More surprise to learn he was from Denmark. As I review this history it makes me wonder just how many clues were left for us? Alvar Hanso was earlier identified as Danish. With the clues of electromagnetism, Danish foundations, and the name Christian it seems that the father of electromagnetism should have been fore front on my Google searches. Oh well.

Did I mention the father of electromagnetism’s first name is Hans? Is that close enough to Hanso to convince you a stronger link should have been made to this guy?

When my child was in day care he shared a first name with a handful of other boys. To help keep their things straight, my son had to write “Kyle C” on just about everything to it didn’t get mixed up with “Kyle W” or “Kyle A”. If we apply this same naming convention to the father of electromagnetism then we get:

Hans O.

Hans Christian Orsted.

He discovered electromagnetism by accident. Hans O. was preparing a test using a battery and a circuit. By a stroke of fate, there was a compass sitting nearby and each time he would turn on the circuit, the needle would move. The compass is another strong link to LOST.

It is also interesting to note that Hans was responsible for describing the “thought experiment”.


THOUGHT EXPERIMENT

Scientific method requires a hypothesis or theory is stated and then tested. When those tests would prove to be impractical, Hans O. proposed they turn to thought experiments.

The most famous example of a thought experiment is something known as “Shrodinger’s Cat”. I almost fell off my chair! That cat thing was mentioned in an early post of mine but was arrived at a completely different approach.

With this idea to revisit the beginning and observe its development as Aristotle suggested, you can see a fanatic might get a little excited. The piece that seems to have been overlooked is that Hans Christian Orsted was being pointed out loud and clear and I just missed the chap.

The second most famous example of a thought experiment is known as “Maxwell’s Demon”. This is another new factoid for me. But it caught my eye because of Maxwell. That is the name of the mysterious character behind the same-name group who was manipulating Sam in the Find 815 game from the creators of LOST. The logo for this Maxwell Group was…guess…a compass. Hmmm…

SECOND LAW OF THERMODYNAMICS

This law deals with temperature (thermo). To use an example, the law states that if two objects of equal temperatures were placed next to each other in an isolated universe that the temperature would remain equal. Two differing temperatures would invoke dispersion in order to reach and equal temperature.

There is an interesting observation made about temperature. If a jar is filled with a gas, we can take a temperature reading, but that reading is actually the average of all the molecules in that jar. We know that the faster a molecule moves, the hotter it gets as the more collisions that take place. Yet, we have noticed that in a jar of gas the individual molecules travel at varying speeds.

Yet, when the sample size is large enough and random, the mean of velocity is always predictable…while the individual molecule speeds vary. This reminds me of a popular theme in LOST: order out of randomness. This is the butterfly effect, fate, the Chaos theory all wrapped into one idea and given to us if we simply had stumbled on Hans O a lot earlier.

Maxwell’s Demon experiment then tries to disprove the second law of thermodynamics. He thought experiment was to fill a container with gas. The container would have a divider with a door that could allow diffusion. The experiment was to imagine a creature which had the ability to see each and every molecule. Then, like a video game of Asteroids when a fast travelling molecule was headed straight for the door, he would open it and let the fast molecules enter the left side of the container. When a slow and pokey molecule was headed towards the right side, he would quickly open the door and let it enter the right side.

The left then would be gaining the faster traveling molecules and the right side over time was gaining the slow moving molecules of gas. This in turn would mean the average temperature would climb in the left side and drop in the right side…thus disproving the second law of thermodynamics that two bodies next to each other would find an equilibrium of temperature.

The connection to the show is the use of thought experiments as we have observed in each hatch. It ties in to other scientific suggestions from the show including quantum physics, nanotechnology and time-space continuum. While possible to have deduced these things as early as Season 2, I’m not sure anyone would have believed us if we suggested that time travel was possible back when Henry/Ben was asking if they had any milk for his cereal.

MAXWELL’S DEMON

In literature we find the use of the term in several examples. One stands out. It is called “The Demon Box”. Yeah, the word “box’ caught my eye. In this story, a scientist creates a Maxwell Demon that is able to reverse the aging process.

Man, I love this show!


BUILDING UPON A THEORY

While Hanso, er, Hans Orsted, could be called the father of electromagnetism, many others after him built upon his basic theories. The most famous of those is Michael Faraday. Another name connection…perhaps the great-great-great grandfather of Daniel Faraday!

Faraday took the ideas of the relationship between electricity and magnetism and applied to mathematical physics. I quickly hit Wikipedia and while I don’t understand the work described, you can probably see why Faraday’s work seems related:

“It had far-reaching consequences, one of which was the understanding of the nature of LIGHT. As it turns out, what is thought of as "light" is actually a propagating OSCILLATORY disturbance in the ELECTROMAGNETIC field, i.e., an electromagnetic wave. Different frequencies of oscillation give rise to the different forms of electromagnetic RADIATION, from RADIO WAVES at the lowest frequencies, to visible light at intermediate frequencies, to gamma rays at the highest frequencies.” Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electromagnetism

Daniel said the light on the island “looked different”. I just spent the last post on oscillation. Could the radiation be the sickness we’ve heard so much about? And notice on the show how the radio waves from the Freighter did not seem to be impacted by time like physcial mass was. And let’s not forget that Faraday is depicted on some foreign currency that was observed in Ben’s secret room.


SUMMARY

In this review of the beginning of LOST we began with the island. We conclude that the only original property of note is the naturally occurring levels of electromagnetism. In hindsight, we can surmise that the writers were pointing us towards Hans Christian Orsted, the father of magnetism. As early as season 2 we could have deduced Hanso, Faraday, radiation, and oscillation.

Next on LOST TIDBITS we follow the known chronological path which will take us to the Hostiles.

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KC

LT143: Oscillation

DANIEL’S INSTRUCTIONS

Not sure why this never crossed my mind before, but here goes. We start with Daniel’s instructions to Desmond about going back in 1996 and finding him at the college. He gave Daniel information that would convince the 1996-version of Daniel to believe Desmond. That advice was a setting of 2.342, an oscillation of 11 Hertz and a mouse named Eloise.

The 2.342 is use of the LOST numbers and we aren’t quite sure what this setting is applied to.


GOOGLE 11 HERTZ

The 11 Hertz has some interesting finds on a Google search. Recent studies have revealed that a repetitive beat at 11 Hertz will relieve stress on the human body. More studies with muscle twitch also seem to have an important threshold of 11 Hz. For the most part this seems to be audio related which in turn impacts the human nervous and muscular systems.


GOOGLE ELOISE

I found literary references to a character in some children’s books. It also is the name a character in a move falls in love with and the actor is the same that plays Daniel Faraday.

Probably not related, but another fairly popular reference is that Eloise is the name of a mental hospital in Detroit, Michigan – same state as the DeGroots were studying. The name, the type of hospital and the state gave me three reference points to LOST but not much else. On a side note, the most famous patient of the hospital was Elijah McCoy. Again, the first name had a Bible connection, so I kept reading. I didn’t find much other than he was an inventor who owned 57 patents. His most famous invention was a device that allowed factory machines to be oiled while running – creating a major savings by avoiding lost production for machine shut-down time. It became so popular that buyers of factory machines would begin to ask, “Does it contain the real McCoy” and that is where we get our phrase “the real McCoy” today. Who knew LOST could be so educational?

Another side note to the hospital was that it sat on a very large property and tunnels existed to connect the various buildings.


OSCILLATING TIME?

Then it hit me: what if time is oscillating? What if sometimes time is ahead and sometimes behind the present?

First, let’s define oscillation – most use a pendulum to describe it as it swings back and forth. At any given point the pendulum is left of center or right of center. Compared to time, this means time can shift from ahead of schedule to behind schedule. It should be noted that the oscillation will be constant and predictable in most cases.

So now we can explain why the rocket payload arrived late from the Freighter and the doc with a throat problem arrived early. If we can figure out the oscillation pattern (every 108 minutes?) then we can know if time is ahead or behind with more precision. From what we know it can trail a few minutes (the rocket) or advance ten months (Ben in the desert).

This could also explain why people can only leave the island at a certain point in time – when the pendulum is at center point (when time is at the present with the off the island). Ben suggests this as well when he states, “The island is ready for you to leave.”

We need to add the unconsciousness to the equation. Daniel states that it is only the mind that travels back in time for Desmond. His body remained even though his mind was back in 1996. On the island the time oscillation might also explain then how Desmond can “see the future” for it is after all being shown to his unconscious mind.

Have you noticed how Locke says things like “It’s not supposed to happen this way” or “You’re not supposed to do this or that”? 99% of the time he looks confused as to what even what he is hearing come out of his mouth. This could be because his sub-conscious mind knows these events and it overlapping with his conscious mind – sort of like what happens when we dream.
Most of these visions we have observed happened while sleeping: Charlie’s religious dream with Aaron out in the ocean in a piano, Claire seeing Christian in the woods while sleeping or when she wakes screaming about a “dream”, Even Eloise, the mouse, looks dead while time travelling as did Desmond and that radio operator on the Freighter.

This might also explain the dead people on the island like Horace. Since the time is shifting, there are periods when the dead are “present” – like when Locke has a dream of the lumberjack building a shack.

If the mind is aware of time while the conscious portion is not, then it could help to explain healing on the island as the mind in a future state knows conflicts with knowledge that a wound continues to exist in the present. The result could be the body over-produces platelets to speed up healing. (Now if we could only make our bodies do this consciously!)

This might also explain the pregnancy problem. Imagine a fetus suddenly being thrust into the future where it expects to be free of its mother’s protection and care. All sorts of biological things happen differently after birth and if the baby’s mind thinks it should be breathing and tries…well, you get the idea. Combine this with the mother’s mind thinking it should be free from the caring of the baby and begins to reject the fetus.


OSCILLATING WORMHOLE?

If we are on to something then it could start to explain how something called a World Line is involved. Using Einstein’s theories we can begin to see the pattern of oscillation in time and space. If this theory holds true, then by monitoring the behavior of the island, one could begin to predict when things will happen – such as when the island is approachable or where it will be eligible to jump to next.

One theory floating out there focuses on the ledger from the Black Rock – the one purchased at the auction. With a little help from a compass (seen in the off-screen game) it seems as if the owner of the Black Rock was recording the island’s wormhole positions and trying to determine the pattern. Keep an eye on that book if it shows up again.

So how does one notate space and time? Well, we could safely guess that it would be coordinate of four numbers: three for width, depth and height and a fourth for time. 2.342, for example. 2 being a time reference, and 3, 4, and 2 being points of the three dimensions.

When we consider the possible ramifications of this, then everything turns into a mathematical equation. See back a few posts about the theorists who states the same thing in his multi-universe theory. Each constant then can be represented by a formula – think the Valenzetti Equation.

I’m not sure where this research leaves us, so if you notice ways to apply it, please drop a comment. But one thing is for sure, it seems to be getting closer to the answers we so desperately look for!



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KC

LT142: I Always Feel Like Somebody's Watching Me

SOME THEORIES WORTH MENTIONING

This posting will explore a couple of theories I’ve discovered in my weekly monitoring of LOST web sites.


VALENZETTI THEORY

Recall in a flashback a daughter brought her dying father to Jack to try and save. No one would attempt the surgery but Jack gave it a try and failed. He later kisses the daughter in the parking lot and goes home to tell Sarah of his indiscretion.

So what if the old man was Enzo Valenzetti? He would have been using an alias since that was not the game provided on the show. The name was Angelo. The daughter was Gabriella. Together we could twist this to a translation of the angel Gabriel. In the Bible he is known as the angel of death as performed messenger duties for God.

Gabriella was the “messenger” for her father who could only speak Italian.

Recent rumors suggest Enzo did not die in a plane crash – that it was staged. That rings a bell.

Gabriel literally means “of God” or “who is of someone”. With Valenzetti’s equation computing the Doomsday we begin to form a definition that suggests Enzo is of God in terms of knowing when all of creation is destroyed.

Enzo is the Italian variant of Henry…could Ben be Enzo – a younger version?

If on the mark, then Jack kissed the daughter of death. Creepy or just Halloween still on my brain?


THE WATCHMAN THEORY

Producer Damon Lindelof has stated several times that “The Watchmen” is his favorite book.

So, let’s dive into the story and see how it mirrors LOST.

The story line involves six main characters where one of them is killed in a mysterious fashion. The book is basically a murder investigation. The plot switches between the present day investigation and flashbacks of the main characters…sound familiar? The back stories begin to intersect as it shows different perspectives of the same events – sort of like the movie Vantage Point.

Each chapter is named after a song or literary quote.

The use of devices is heavy including mirrors, but mostly clocks. One such technique is that a smiley face drawn in blood is observed…was the smiley face on Henry Gale’s balloon a nod to this reference? In “The Watchmen”, these devices have not direct bearing on the storyline, but serve as a reinforcement of the overall theme that if one would step outside of time, the past, present and future would all exist as the same time. A main character summarizes this in the book with the line, “Nothing ends, Adrian, nothing ever ends.”

Each chapter in the book ends with a reference to a historical event. Those events aren’t connected directly to the story but serve as a reinforcement…just like the Hanso Foundation and Oceanic Airlines.

The six Watchmen match up to the Oceanic Six. The characters in the book are superheroes whose abilities are often gained by some exposure to powerful phenomena of nature (think Fantastic Four’s exposure to radiation). On the island we have the electromagnetic exposure.
One particular character is named Ozymandias – super-rich with a god complex. Who does that remind you of? His money supports a foundation that conducts research projects. One such project is creating a false but credible threat against the world’s super powers nations in order to create world peace by providing a common enemy. His name is of Egyptian origin (think the symbols on the Countdown Clock). The project is worked on by recruits of Ozymandias where he gathers them on an island in the Pacific to perform research.

Another Watchmen character is named Dr. Manhattan. Any follower of LOST TIDBITS knows that last season the logo for LOST showed a reflection of the island in the water, but instead of tree-line we see a cityscape. Some say the cityscape is Manhattan…an island in NYC.

The Watchmen ends by not solving the mystery but as a wrap-up of each of the main character’s lives. This resembles the LOST approach of being a study of human ego, group dynamics, philosophy and eventual redemption. The murder of Watchmen and the storyline of LOST are merely to used to advance a plot, not the sum of the story. When we stop and consider all the taglines of LOST like “Everything happens for a reason”, “Who would you become”, “Redemption”, etc., it starts to fit.

The book was written two decades ago and fans have waited and waited for a sequel. Well, they got it courtesy of LOST.

I’m thinking his this book is required reading before the show begins next year!


TIDBITS

-- Fans of “24” will see the actress who played Michelle Dessler on LOST this next season

-- The Season 5 start date has been announced: January 21, 2009. The first show will be a two-hour premier!



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KC

LT141: Whose That Man?

ODDITIES

Yes, I keep finding these. Ok, the following picture is when Sun is kidnapped from behind by Charlie to make it appear the Others are still a threat.

But that’s not Charlie!


JUST POINTING SOMETHING OUT

As we struggle to figure out the rules of time on LOST, let me share something that came to mind. When Ben turns the wheel the island’s calendar is late December 2004. He then jumps to October 2005.

How do we know he jumped forward? Because he asked the hotel clerk to confirm it was 2005. This means Ben knew he was jumping ahead in time.

Meanwhile, Sayid has aged about 300 days which includes time enough to get married and see his new bride get killed.

Let’s get this straight…late December 2004 and on this day the island disappears, Ben is in the desert and Sayid is on his way back to the mainland. Yet, Ben is now ten months ahead. Huh? But his arm is still cut and bleeding from an accident just minutes earlier. His body is thus Dec 04, but his environment is not Oct 05.

If that helps you put two and two together, please…let me know!


JACOB TALK

I see the two producers chatting during an interview where they have been asked, “Who is Jacob?” Cuse is shaking his head saying, “Stop, say no more”, while Lindelof is mumbling a bunch of worthless things like, “He is some mysterious force”. But then I re-watch it and hear something new. Lindelof says, “…in the center of the island…”

If you think back to the Blast Door Map, the question mark was in the center. Someone needs to get back to the Pearl station and have another look around. Find out who was smoking those cigarettes.


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KC

LT140: Another Oddity, Theory and Video

ODDITIES

Last post I offered an oddity in that Libby tried to direct Hurley’s nagging mental puzzle by saying he had stepped on her toe even though Hurley was the last to board and Libby was in the tail section.

This post my oddity is Sawyer’s real name. Remember back when Hurley was taking the census. It was soon after the crash and was great idea. The census taking ended up revealing Ethan as a mole. Why then weren’t we shown Hurley struggling with Sawyer’s name? It’s one thing to have a nickname, but with flight security he should have been forced to use his real name, James Ford, that matched his ID.

It’s possible Sawyer explained things to him and told him to keep it secret…but it is an oddity we weren’t shown that conversation as it has a lot of potential as a key component. But if Hurley was not told – and Sawyer was very private at that point of the LOST vacation – then Jack should have been alerted to two names not on the list: Ethan and Sawyer.

When Locke brings up Sawyer’s real name it is interesting that Sawyer didn’t ask, “Did Hugo tell you that?” That would allude to how the manifest and census were able to be completed accurately.


JACOB EXPOSED

Someone was watching past episodes including the one where named “Expose”. In it Hurley and Sawyer find the script to the episode and it reads:

Hurley: No way, Mr Lushard was the Cobra!Charlie: Is that supposed to mean something?Hurley: Dude, the Cobra's this big, bad guy who's identity has been shrouded in mystery for four seasons.

Knowing the writers of LOST like we do, this could be a hint to the identity of Jacob who has been a mystery for four seasons of LOST.

It is a bit of reach but we constantly reminded that there are tons of clues we haven’t picked up on. The missing clues may not be revelations as much as tiny nuggets, so this could be one of those clues.

We could reached a bit further and suggest that Cobra is sort of an acronym for Jacob. The “r” needs to be a “j” to fit, but we could stretch just a little more and note that an upside “r” is a “j” sort of.

Continued brainstorm includes the observation that Lushard might be suggesting a drunk…like Christian.

If this is being interpreted correctly then it might indicate Jacob will be exposed next season!


CATCH PHRASES

We know Locke is fond of saying “Don’t tell me what I can’t do”.

Hurley goes for the “Dude” thing.

So what’s Kate’s catch phrase? Kate tells the Australian Farmer, “My name’s not Annie”. In the episode, “Whatever the Case May Be”, she tells the bank robbers, “My name’s not Maggie”. In “I Do” she tells her husband, “My name’s not Monica”. Finally, when she meets Cassidy and helps her with a bit of revenge she say’s, “My name’s not Lucy”.


THREE MONTHS TO GO

ABC is floating some promos for LOST Season 5. Check them out here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8d06UMSX4Vk&feature=iv&annotation_id=event_991759

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ZwytBsv6tw



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Enjoy,
KC

LT139: I Was Thinking About Libby

LIBBY AND HURLEY

Recall when these two met on the island they were in the Swan Hatch doing laundry. Hurley asked something like, “Do I know you from somewhere?” Libby, quick on her feet answers, “Sure, you stepped on my foot when you boarded the plane.”

Yet, we know Hurley was mid-section and Libby was in the tail-end. And we know Hurley was last to board. How could he have stepped on her foot?

It seems she might have made a mistake with that quick answer and by doing so told us that she wanted to keep her prior identity hidden – as a patient in the hospital.

And then I start to wonder if she wasn’t there to keep an eye on Hurley. She could have faked the drugged-out look. And we surely have only a seen a tiny part of her back story.

Libby has always been strange and killing her off seemed to end the speculation, but one has to wonder how you get from psychologist, boat owner, widow, mental patient, crash survivor to murder victim without being a little strange.


SEASON 4 DVD

Lots of little tidbits in this and I’ll share some with you over the next few posts. The one being talked about is an interview with Lindelof. He says the island is like a Mr. Stretch reaching for a glass of water and Jack is the coffee cup.

Ok then. What did he just say? The island has a far reach? Jack is a substitute? If anyone has cream or sugar they would have a leg up on the other survivors?

Odd, but that’s LOST for you.


SCIENCE NEWS

It seems we have discovered evidence of a solar system around a nearby star. These articles always take my mind to LOST. SETI is involved which is the group that is monitoring for radio signals to prove the existence of ET. Imagine how our world would be turned upside down if we actually find other living beings...or other TYPES of living beings.

I figured most LOST-heads where science freaks, so if you want to read the article you can find it here: http://news.yahoo.com/s/mcclatchy/3082054;_ylt=Aqejd6abJgHDEbX7V6mHey0szJV4


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Enjoy,
KC