NO MAN IS AN ISLAND
Just for fun, a website estimated the cost of Widmore’s attempted takeover of the island. Not counting fuel or artillery the price tag came out to $7.1 million. Now rich people don’t get rich by throwing money away, so there must be a return on an investment that size to make it worth it.
CODE 14J
Remember when Locke’s game of Risk was interrupted by the phone ringing and it said, “Code 14J”. That seems to be a military job classification entitled, “Early Warning System Operator”. Personally, it sounded like a recording to me, but if that was your job you might sound a little synthesized by the time this call needed to be made!
HANSO FOUNDATION RESURFACES
You can’t keep a good man down…or a good foundation it seems. www.thehansofoundation.org is up and running again. Check it out and look around for clues. One thing that caught my eye was under Executive Bios where Mr. Thompson claims to have been cured of cancer. Bet Juliet’s sister would like to talk to this guy. Or did he talk to her already???
FRANK TALKS
The helicopter pilot, Frank, was interviewed recently and the question was “Why does your character seemed a little bit too laid back?” His answer: “This might not be his first island.”
Hmmm…he didn’t say “not his first visit to THIS island”, but “not his first island”. Has then guy been chasing a moving island before? This sort of leads to a theory that I’ve ignored, but now sounds a bit more plausible…there are multiple islands below the surface that rise and fall as needed.
PLAY IT AGAIN, SAWYER
After countless replays of the Sawyer’s whisper in the ear of Kate, I have concluded he said this:
“I have a daughter in Alabama...I need you to find her...tell her I'm sorry.”
Maybe.
I ALWAYS HAVE A PLAN
Ben’s words. And a plan he might have involving Jack who Ben will use to lead him to Penny. While many think the Desmond-Penny story arc is over, I think it may have just begun. And as a side note, what guy wouldn’t be proud of a girlfriend who tells you, “I own a monitoring station”?
POSITIONING
I’ve watched and re-watched the finale and still can’t make out exactly where the helicopter was in relation to the island. In one shot it seems the ship is horizontal to the coast line and the next shot it appears perpendicular to it. And of course, in some shots, I can’t see it at all. HA!
I’ll keep digging for the details.
Enjoy,
KC
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Sunday, June 8, 2008
LT95: It's Good To Be Back Home Again
Well, the trip didn't yield a lot of LOST clues, but did discover the bus line that ran outside our assigned hotel was route number 42. And one of those buses on that route was number 815. I always waited for the next bus.
CALLER ID
Recall the strange phone call that Kate received? It was in reverse. Straightened out, the voice told her, “The island needs you. You have to go back before it is too late.”
My guess is the voice belongs to Sawyer.
And after the phone call she goes to check on Aaron and finds Claire in the bedroom. But did you catch the picture on the wall?
Yeah, same drawing as from the illustrated “Alice in Wonderland” book.
COMMERCIALS
Late in the finale we have Octagon Global Recruiting commercial. Check out the website here: http://octagonglobalrecruiting.com/
If you are going to be in San Diego in July, be sure to fill out an application. At least enter your email to get creepy emails this summer.
Does this mean the Dharma Initiative is starting back up again? Or could this just be the original sign-up in 2008? Yeah, think of the possibilities.
Be sure to notice the designs on the edge of the logo – it stands for “fixing that which has been spoiled” and “duration or longevity”. It seems Dharma may have learned its lesson and it going for a sequel. They are hiring after all.
TIME TO VOTE
Had Richard not intervened, who would have won: Keamy or Sayid?
CHECKMATE
Other than the obvious themes in this scene (games, Hurley seeing dead people, black and white pieces, etc.)…
A closer look at Hurley’s snack food reveals a fictional product, “Molly Fisher Fruit Rolls”.
However, Molly Fisher is the name of a mysterious rock monolith in Kent, Connecticut. It sits near Hatch Pond. The rock has inscriptions similar to hieroglyphics we have seen on LOST and have yet to be interpreted.
GOOD TO BE BACK
LOST TIDBITS should be back to twice per week. I aim for Wednesdays and Sundays. With the Octagon recruiting and lots of other topics, we should be able to pass the time together this summer.
The next edition will take a closer look at the positions of the freighter and helicopter – heck, even Sawyer and Jin (yeah, even Jin), so see what possibilities might exist on who is where.
Enjoy,
KC
CALLER ID
Recall the strange phone call that Kate received? It was in reverse. Straightened out, the voice told her, “The island needs you. You have to go back before it is too late.”
My guess is the voice belongs to Sawyer.
And after the phone call she goes to check on Aaron and finds Claire in the bedroom. But did you catch the picture on the wall?
Yeah, same drawing as from the illustrated “Alice in Wonderland” book.
COMMERCIALS
Late in the finale we have Octagon Global Recruiting commercial. Check out the website here: http://octagonglobalrecruiting.com/
If you are going to be in San Diego in July, be sure to fill out an application. At least enter your email to get creepy emails this summer.
Does this mean the Dharma Initiative is starting back up again? Or could this just be the original sign-up in 2008? Yeah, think of the possibilities.
Be sure to notice the designs on the edge of the logo – it stands for “fixing that which has been spoiled” and “duration or longevity”. It seems Dharma may have learned its lesson and it going for a sequel. They are hiring after all.
TIME TO VOTE
Had Richard not intervened, who would have won: Keamy or Sayid?
CHECKMATE
Other than the obvious themes in this scene (games, Hurley seeing dead people, black and white pieces, etc.)…
…it was nice to hear a reference to Ecko.
JJ STRIKES AGAIN
You might have caught the previews for the new show on FOX this August called “Fringe”. I can’t make up my mind if Abrams is building on LOST concepts or what exactly. I can tell you the preview includes these odd similarities: cows, strange medicine shots, teleportation, plane incidents, reanimation, time references and…Abaddon!
There is an extended trailer out there (3:25) if you are interested. Sounds like it has some possibilities.
ALTERNATE ENDINGS
My read on this is sort of unclear, but the director made three possible endings – which mean three different people were filmed in the coffin. Those three were Locke, as we know, and Sawyer and Desmond.
The lack of clarity comes from whether they were trying to keep spoilers from leaking or did they really have a choice to make up until the last minute? Somewhere, I hear the Swan hatch alarm beeping. Quick, somebody push that button.
Search for “Good Morning America Lost Alternate Endings”.
COVER STORY
The cover story deserves more scrutiny, but for now let’s point out that there is a bit of conflict with Oceanic going along with Jack’s story if it is Widmore who is pushing the buttons.
And we need to determine who the extra 3 survivors were. That’s right, THREE, no TWO. For now I can tell you that the three in the cover story all actually died on the island…Charlie…check back next week for the rest of this story as it unfolds.
MINOR OBSERVATION
Share your thoughts if this observation triggers something, but it started when a question was asked about Keamy’s detonator device. Why would there not be a delay like when Daniel was testing his rocket?
Answer: the delay only effect mass, not waves. This is why the phone calls were in “real time” between island and freighter, but the rockets red glare was late.
The exception to the “mass impact” theory is if said mass enters on a heading of 305.
Now that has always confused me and again if anyone can help…please leave a comment. (NOTE: Comments are reviewed before being posted…sorry, too much junk posts were being left. Still I will read them and post the related comments.) My confusion is heading 305. Imagine a clock. The center is the island. The freighter is sitting on the “4” and if you go 305 degrees you cross the island (center) and end up somewhere around the “10”.
So, if Point A began on any other number than “4” would a 305 heading cause the line between Point B to not cross the center point of the clock face? I guess the idea is that I’m suggesting an established “door” in the shield which means heading is not as critical as coordinates would be.
Or does it mean that do leave the clock face (island shield) you simply have to cross the outside border at an angle of 305 degrees? But even that would imply that the “cross-ee” would need to know where that outside border is, right?
Any help or thoughts?
YOU ARE WHAT YOU EAT
A closer look at Hurley’s snack food reveals a fictional product, “Molly Fisher Fruit Rolls”. However, Molly Fisher is the name of a mysterious rock monolith in Kent, Connecticut. It sits near Hatch Pond. The rock has inscriptions similar to hieroglyphics we have seen on LOST and have yet to be interpreted.
GOOD TO BE BACK
LOST TIDBITS should be back to twice per week. I aim for Wednesdays and Sundays. With the Octagon recruiting and lots of other topics, we should be able to pass the time together this summer.
The next edition will take a closer look at the positions of the freighter and helicopter – heck, even Sawyer and Jin (yeah, even Jin), so see what possibilities might exist on who is where.
Enjoy,
KC
Sunday, June 1, 2008
LT94: Where's My Island, Dude?
CLAIRE
In the dream Kate had, Claire tells her not to bring HIM back. The obvious interpretation was not to bring Aaron back to the island. But what if she meant Locke? Would this have something to do with the Orchid Orientation film which doesn’t want the two bunnies near each other? Would there be two Locke’s on the island then?
Or does Claire mean don’t bring Ben back? Is Ben trying to get the Oceanic 6 to go back and somehow hitch a ride through the portal?
CHARLOTTE’S WEB
Miles gets just a few lines of script, but he makes the most of them. He tells Charlotte she’s been on this island before and then Charlotte decides not to leave the island. Is it possible the people have been here before but just don’t remember? Or if they remember it is more of an impression or feeling instead of vivid memory.
She then tells Daniel that she was “still looking for where she was born”. Eh?
WHISPERS
Sawyer’s whisper to Kate: it sounded to me like the words “Albuquerque”, “Clementine”, and “find her”.
GOODBYE JIN
When the show began, Jin was an old-fashioned, Korean-traditionalist husband who couldn’t communicate with anyone…and that includes his own wife. But as time moved along (sorry, hard to avoid the pun), Jin helped with the raft building, volunteered to be on the raft, put up a fight with the Tailenders, fished for the survivors, and generally showed signs of being one of the good guys.
And then he is gone.
Notice the sign behind Ben reads “Magnetron Transmitter”.
THINGS THAT WERE MISSED
Just my personal observations, but I felt the director should have included a shot of some villager rushing out with a camera to take the picture that Oceanic displayed during the debriefing for reporters. Otherwise, I’m left with a bit of confusion as to where that picture came from.
And when Ben arrives to talk with Jack at the funeral home, I was hoping that when Jack said he didn’t know where Sayid was and Hurley was crazy that the two would have stepped around the corner and said something like, “That’s the fact, Jack.”
LOST KNOWS NO TIME OUT
LOST aired a commercial during the finale to have viewers go to a website and apply for jobs. It seems we have another summer game to follow!
And while LOST doesn’t take a break, I will…I’m heading to Florida to do a little personal research in Tallahassee. Specifically, I’m searching for information on Sawyer. Combining this with the Hawaii research, I’m getting close to a final solution to the madness we know as LOST! Seriously, it means that LOST TIDBITS will be off the air for about a week. And with so much to digest in this final and the summer game…well, TIDBITS will be back with its twice-per-week-minimum shortly.
In the meantime, may I suggest you review some fo the older posts.
Enjoy,
KC
In the dream Kate had, Claire tells her not to bring HIM back. The obvious interpretation was not to bring Aaron back to the island. But what if she meant Locke? Would this have something to do with the Orchid Orientation film which doesn’t want the two bunnies near each other? Would there be two Locke’s on the island then?
Or does Claire mean don’t bring Ben back? Is Ben trying to get the Oceanic 6 to go back and somehow hitch a ride through the portal?
CHARLOTTE’S WEB
Miles gets just a few lines of script, but he makes the most of them. He tells Charlotte she’s been on this island before and then Charlotte decides not to leave the island. Is it possible the people have been here before but just don’t remember? Or if they remember it is more of an impression or feeling instead of vivid memory.
She then tells Daniel that she was “still looking for where she was born”. Eh?
WHISPERS
Sawyer’s whisper to Kate: it sounded to me like the words “Albuquerque”, “Clementine”, and “find her”.
GOODBYE JIN
When the show began, Jin was an old-fashioned, Korean-traditionalist husband who couldn’t communicate with anyone…and that includes his own wife. But as time moved along (sorry, hard to avoid the pun), Jin helped with the raft building, volunteered to be on the raft, put up a fight with the Tailenders, fished for the survivors, and generally showed signs of being one of the good guys.
And then he is gone.
But wait! A shot of the Freighter just prior to blowing up shows no one was on deck where Jin was standing. This being LOST, we can’t rule anything out, so maybe our favorite fisherman made it off the boat.
TURN THE WHEEL
Our frozen wheel that Ben turns is very similar to a shape known as the Dharmacakra – a Buddhist symbol which implies a new major era in time symbolized by the turning of the wheel. It also reminded me of a ships wheel for steering. This scene leaves lots of questions starting with why so cold on a tropical island?
UPDATE YOUR CALENDARS
When Ben prepares to turn the Dharma Wheel, we notice his injured his arm while wearing a Dharma parka. We have seen that his next location is on the desert. However, when he makes it to town we learn that his next time location is October 2005 – some 10 months after the turning of the wheel. My head is about to go “pop”.
IN CASED YOU MISSED IT
Notice the painting in the background behind Walt’s grandmother: an island, a sailboat? Oh, and those letters work out to an anagram of “Met You”.
**
Notice the sign behind Ben reads “Magnetron Transmitter”.
THINGS THAT WERE MISSED
Just my personal observations, but I felt the director should have included a shot of some villager rushing out with a camera to take the picture that Oceanic displayed during the debriefing for reporters. Otherwise, I’m left with a bit of confusion as to where that picture came from.
And when Ben arrives to talk with Jack at the funeral home, I was hoping that when Jack said he didn’t know where Sayid was and Hurley was crazy that the two would have stepped around the corner and said something like, “That’s the fact, Jack.”
LOST KNOWS NO TIME OUT
LOST aired a commercial during the finale to have viewers go to a website and apply for jobs. It seems we have another summer game to follow!
And while LOST doesn’t take a break, I will…I’m heading to Florida to do a little personal research in Tallahassee. Specifically, I’m searching for information on Sawyer. Combining this with the Hawaii research, I’m getting close to a final solution to the madness we know as LOST! Seriously, it means that LOST TIDBITS will be off the air for about a week. And with so much to digest in this final and the summer game…well, TIDBITS will be back with its twice-per-week-minimum shortly.
In the meantime, may I suggest you review some fo the older posts.
Enjoy,
KC
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
LT93: Time Is An Illusion
DOUGLAS ADAMS
Adams wrote something along the lines of "Time is an illusion, lunchtime, doubly so." That got me to thinking...why does the work day drag so slow and the weekends fly by? That led to further questions like:
Is time a perception?
And of course, what is time? We can't see it, touch it, but we see its effects on buildings that crumble and people who age.
This then lead to a couple of my evenings lost completely to researching time.
RESEARCH
It seems as if Albert's theory of special relativity is what got this whole time thing started. He concluded that the faster a person came to the speed of light, the slower time moved. Moved? Eh?
We have proven this on a small scale where astronauts travelling much faster than the Earth-bound humans will return with a 5 o'clock shadow while the person on Earth have full beards. Strange, but true. The theory continues by saying if we reach the speed of light, time stops. Would this mean that motion/movement stops too? Would we become a statue of sorts?
This research suggests that travelling FORWARD in time is possible but only from the vantage point of the observer. If we were the watchers, then yes it appears we age and the time traveller doesn't. Then when we "wake him up" he perceives to have time travelled, but really was just sleeping for an extended period of time. Nothing here suggests that we can travel BACK in time.
TWINS
This whole time travelling things has one major obstacle known as the twin paradox. Yeah, Bad Twins - the LOST book, came to my mind, too! This paradox goes like this: if we could travel back in time and found our grandfather and killed him, could we exist in the future?
The answer most commonly provided to this twin paradox is: yes, if we had multiple universes. The concept is that if I changed history by shooting my grandfather, then instantly a new universe would spring into existence to play out that scenario (in which I wouldn't be born) while my current and known universe I just came from would continue to play out. That means the "historical me" is no longer the "2008 me" and that "historical me" has split off and is travelling a new path. Of course, that path I don't exist in, so not sure why the "historical me" wouldn't die on the spot too. Wait, not DIE, but just vanish, right? Of course that breaks some laws on thermodynamics or something like that, but hey...we are just brainstorming here!
TIME TEASERS
If we then could find a way to speed up the planet's rotation to twice as fast as we spin now, would we double our average lifespan?
Or would we still live the average of 75 years but the days would just last 48 hours? Would we then expect to see two sunrises every "day"?
LOOKING BACK
I'm going on the record to say that we can't really even time travel. We can suspend time and wake a person up 100 of years later without running into that nasty twin paradox obstacle, but that isn't quite what I had in mind.
When science lets us down, what can we do? Turn to religion, of course! The Bible has a few interesting refences to time:
* God says that to Him (not humans) that a day is a thousand years and a thousand years is as a day
* God has no time boundary, which allows Him to always have been here and always to be here - no beginning and no end
* The sun stood still for one day
* The day is defined as "one morning and one evening"
* Now is the time
Alrighty then, how does this help us? Well, God is given many names in the Bible, but the one that catches my eye is "I am Light". If God is Light and time stops at the speed of light, then this would help explain how God has no time boundary. It provides an explanation to how He can have no beginning and no end since those terms are time-related only.
So let's imagine we are God...or light if you prefer. If time stops instead of "freezing in place" maybe instead we are hyperactive in place. Imagine if we were one of those paddles with a ball tied to an elastic string. The length of the string is time...it grows longer and longer as time tick along for humans who are bound in time. The ball is God/light which is rapidly moving along the length of time so fast that in essence it is in all places at one time, and in all points of time at one time.
That fact that God "stops" along the string of time and creates a universe or talks with Moses as a burning bush seems time-oriented, but keep in mind that while these events are happening years apart for humans, they are happening at the same time for God. This sort of explains how God knows everyone's future and how He knows about us before we are born (paraphrasing a couple of passages).
So, going back (or foward) in time is nothing to God...in fact, it is the standard of everyday existence for Him. Ben and Widmore want to be like gods. A very common theme in the Bible from the first chapters of Genesis until the last chapter in Revelations.
TO BE LIKE GODS
Throughout my research I stumbled on an interesting concept. It seems as if the universe has these threads running through it. Let's compare this to the beams and studs in a building...the framework of the universe. These threads are connected by means of a series of atoms that are somehow bound together.
My research suggested that atoms spin in all directions at once until measured, where it then picks a single direction. Yeah, atoms spin in all possible directions. Let your mind ponder that for a minute. After you grab some aspirin, do take comfort that when we measure them (take a snapshot in time) that they assume but one direction.
What was also discovered is that when the atom at the end of these cosmic strings is measured the atom on the opposite end of the strand also picks but one direction to spin. That's convenient. And that direction on the opposite end is always the mirror image of the other end's atom. Woah.
This means predictability. That's step one in controlling what then happens at the end of the cosmic strand possibly millions of miles distant. This feeds nicely into teleportation which has already been accomplished in the labs.
BRINGING IT ALL TOGETHER
If we were to become like gods and have no time barrier then we too could drop out of light-speed anywhere along the timeline of existence! We could then travel back in time. If we can grasp the idea that Noah's flood, King David's rule, Christ's death and Jason winning American Idol are all happening right now...then we can begin to see that time traveling is really "time selection".
In the end, it means the same thing...sort of.
Using our paddle and ball example, while the ball is travelling at the speed of light along the string of time, the ball does not follow the exact same path each time it leaves the paddle's surface and extends out into space. (Wouldn't it be funny if this simple child's toy was the key to unlocking the mystery of time?)
This 'different path' the ball takes away from and back to the paddle is a lot like alternative universes. But you don't need multiple universes, just one...one that constantly changes as God streaks up and down history's timeline at the speed of light. Or in the words of Mrs. Hawkings, this is just time course correcting itself.
In a very real sense then we are all repeating history constantly. How often? That answer is 186,000 miles per second. Every time the ball snaps out and back is a "time loop". And in a real sense we are playing this out over and over and over again...with slight adjustments each time.
LOST YET?
Using the concept of gods where time has no impact, then time travel backwards becomes possible. As I tried to explain above, yesterday and tomorrow are today. Imagine then that Ben's mother was a Dharma scientist. She worked on the island but came to hate the ethics of the Dharma Initiative. For revenge she used the time machine and went back to when she is young enough to marry and have Ben in Portland.
But she took something back in time with her...the curse on pregnant woman from being on this island. So she dies.
Here is the important piece: Ben is his mother.
What Dharma and perhaps the viewers have overlooked is that history can't be changed, only adjusted. Here's a time line:
1960: Ben's mother travels back in time.
1970: Has a child named Ben in Portland and she dies
1980: Arrives on the island to work for Dharma Initiative
To keep Einstein happy we can't have matter or energy created or destroyed, so Ben is the new form of mass made from his mother's "energy" and "mass". He takes his mother's place because history has already been written for 1980. The slight adjustment is that instead of Mrs. Ben taking Dharma down, Ben does it in her place. This is our course correction, if you will.
This is supported by LOST showing us Ben interacting with his mother at the sonar fence. Why bring her into the story line other than to die along the side of the road. And it isn't coincidence that she was assited in child birth by Horace Godspeed - Locke's dream angel. Why not? Because in the eyes of gods, this is all happening at the same time. To word it another way: history is already written. This is likely why we have the cliche, "History is bound to repeat itself." See, we have noticed this phenom, but haven't quite grasped its meaning!
HOW CAN BEN SEE HIS MOTHER?
Because in the first ball bounce from the paddle surface, she was alive in 1980 (that year is just a reference point). So when Ben is a young teen, he can "see" her since she is/was there. This explains a lot of things like the dead people who are alive and the Whispers of those dead. And how Miles can see things. And how Daniel knows things and Desmond can dream the future.
RICHARD IS A GOD
Richard is the god we all wish we could be. He is the "time traveller" at the speed of light where all points in history and the future are now. This is why he tells Ben "now is not the time" and how he determines "John isn't ready" when he tests him with the objects that "belong to him already".
How did Richard become a god? He used the time machine in the Orchid.
SIDENOTE: Remember the guy in the Orientation films? Two of three he had one arm missing. In all three he had a different name. It is the same guy, only different. I guess I'm suggesting reincarnation with a twist.
Richard goes back in time to a point after the time machine was first built in his 30-something aged body. He will not age until he catches back up with his time jump. Perhaps the body does show some wear and tear since Juliet noticed that one 20-something woman had a 70-year old womb.
Could Richard then have a child? No. If we wish to uphold the laws of science, then matter can't be created. Since this is "re-visit", no one is able to produce, remove or alter matter, energy or anything else that would upset that balance in the future.
If Richard jumped back three days and re-lived that time, when he woke up in the fourth day, would there be two of him? No. Again, we can't instantly have double the mass of Richard. Although, some days I swear my mass has doubled, but that's another topic! Richards clone would vanish at the instance he time jumped. Where does that mass go then? No where, it's lying in bed across town stepping into a time machine. This is how Ben is a continuation of Ben's mother - it is required in fact because in one time loop she was alive in 1980.
CHARLIE and CLAIRE
Hurley is now and sees Charlie.
Desmond has a flashBACK and saw Charlie but Charlie didn't recognize Dez.
Now consider Claire. Desmond sees here in a FUTURE vision getting on the helicopter for rescue. We now can safely assume she is dead and won't be boarding any helicopter anytime soon. What happened?
Desmond was being a god. He moved along the timeline of the universe and dropped out of hyperspace (light speed) and observed Claire getting on board. But when she dies in 2004 if Desmond were to revisit that future, he wouldn't see Claire any longer. Course corrections. In other words time travel to the future can only happen within your own lifetime forward.
Imagine the Ben's mom quit Dharma but didn't travel back in time. (If you follow this post at least 10% you should understand that Ben's mom did not travel back while she did travel back!) She didn't marry, no children and died at the age of 85. In a time loop she died giving birth in 1980. Her spirit then can exist until her 85th birthday in the first time loop. Now consider that time loops are happening at the speed of light and we have lots of chances.
If course corrections are possible, then we no longer can use the excuse "what's the use" or "I'm destined to fail". Just the opposite is true. Oh, we can't go back and win a lottery ticket knowing the numbers, but we can improve our standing in life. Maybe we should live like we are in a loop, whether extremely fast like light or even the slower concept of re-incarmation. Wouldn't we like to give our next version a head start? So live for that reason alone and life will improve. Or did it improve already and we are just acting out our roles? Hmmm...
By the way, you can't go back and bet on a Boston Red Sox game you know the outcome of. Fate, science, God won't let you. There are constraints which might also mean the gun you used to go back in time and kill your grandfather might jam! Ah....now you get it?
Enjoy,
KC
Adams wrote something along the lines of "Time is an illusion, lunchtime, doubly so." That got me to thinking...why does the work day drag so slow and the weekends fly by? That led to further questions like:
Is time a perception?
And of course, what is time? We can't see it, touch it, but we see its effects on buildings that crumble and people who age.
This then lead to a couple of my evenings lost completely to researching time.
RESEARCH
It seems as if Albert's theory of special relativity is what got this whole time thing started. He concluded that the faster a person came to the speed of light, the slower time moved. Moved? Eh?
We have proven this on a small scale where astronauts travelling much faster than the Earth-bound humans will return with a 5 o'clock shadow while the person on Earth have full beards. Strange, but true. The theory continues by saying if we reach the speed of light, time stops. Would this mean that motion/movement stops too? Would we become a statue of sorts?
This research suggests that travelling FORWARD in time is possible but only from the vantage point of the observer. If we were the watchers, then yes it appears we age and the time traveller doesn't. Then when we "wake him up" he perceives to have time travelled, but really was just sleeping for an extended period of time. Nothing here suggests that we can travel BACK in time.
TWINS
This whole time travelling things has one major obstacle known as the twin paradox. Yeah, Bad Twins - the LOST book, came to my mind, too! This paradox goes like this: if we could travel back in time and found our grandfather and killed him, could we exist in the future?
The answer most commonly provided to this twin paradox is: yes, if we had multiple universes. The concept is that if I changed history by shooting my grandfather, then instantly a new universe would spring into existence to play out that scenario (in which I wouldn't be born) while my current and known universe I just came from would continue to play out. That means the "historical me" is no longer the "2008 me" and that "historical me" has split off and is travelling a new path. Of course, that path I don't exist in, so not sure why the "historical me" wouldn't die on the spot too. Wait, not DIE, but just vanish, right? Of course that breaks some laws on thermodynamics or something like that, but hey...we are just brainstorming here!
TIME TEASERS
If we then could find a way to speed up the planet's rotation to twice as fast as we spin now, would we double our average lifespan?
Or would we still live the average of 75 years but the days would just last 48 hours? Would we then expect to see two sunrises every "day"?
LOOKING BACK
I'm going on the record to say that we can't really even time travel. We can suspend time and wake a person up 100 of years later without running into that nasty twin paradox obstacle, but that isn't quite what I had in mind.
When science lets us down, what can we do? Turn to religion, of course! The Bible has a few interesting refences to time:
* God says that to Him (not humans) that a day is a thousand years and a thousand years is as a day
* God has no time boundary, which allows Him to always have been here and always to be here - no beginning and no end
* The sun stood still for one day
* The day is defined as "one morning and one evening"
* Now is the time
Alrighty then, how does this help us? Well, God is given many names in the Bible, but the one that catches my eye is "I am Light". If God is Light and time stops at the speed of light, then this would help explain how God has no time boundary. It provides an explanation to how He can have no beginning and no end since those terms are time-related only.
So let's imagine we are God...or light if you prefer. If time stops instead of "freezing in place" maybe instead we are hyperactive in place. Imagine if we were one of those paddles with a ball tied to an elastic string. The length of the string is time...it grows longer and longer as time tick along for humans who are bound in time. The ball is God/light which is rapidly moving along the length of time so fast that in essence it is in all places at one time, and in all points of time at one time.
That fact that God "stops" along the string of time and creates a universe or talks with Moses as a burning bush seems time-oriented, but keep in mind that while these events are happening years apart for humans, they are happening at the same time for God. This sort of explains how God knows everyone's future and how He knows about us before we are born (paraphrasing a couple of passages).
So, going back (or foward) in time is nothing to God...in fact, it is the standard of everyday existence for Him. Ben and Widmore want to be like gods. A very common theme in the Bible from the first chapters of Genesis until the last chapter in Revelations.
TO BE LIKE GODS
Throughout my research I stumbled on an interesting concept. It seems as if the universe has these threads running through it. Let's compare this to the beams and studs in a building...the framework of the universe. These threads are connected by means of a series of atoms that are somehow bound together.
My research suggested that atoms spin in all directions at once until measured, where it then picks a single direction. Yeah, atoms spin in all possible directions. Let your mind ponder that for a minute. After you grab some aspirin, do take comfort that when we measure them (take a snapshot in time) that they assume but one direction.
What was also discovered is that when the atom at the end of these cosmic strings is measured the atom on the opposite end of the strand also picks but one direction to spin. That's convenient. And that direction on the opposite end is always the mirror image of the other end's atom. Woah.
This means predictability. That's step one in controlling what then happens at the end of the cosmic strand possibly millions of miles distant. This feeds nicely into teleportation which has already been accomplished in the labs.
BRINGING IT ALL TOGETHER
If we were to become like gods and have no time barrier then we too could drop out of light-speed anywhere along the timeline of existence! We could then travel back in time. If we can grasp the idea that Noah's flood, King David's rule, Christ's death and Jason winning American Idol are all happening right now...then we can begin to see that time traveling is really "time selection".
In the end, it means the same thing...sort of.
Using our paddle and ball example, while the ball is travelling at the speed of light along the string of time, the ball does not follow the exact same path each time it leaves the paddle's surface and extends out into space. (Wouldn't it be funny if this simple child's toy was the key to unlocking the mystery of time?)
This 'different path' the ball takes away from and back to the paddle is a lot like alternative universes. But you don't need multiple universes, just one...one that constantly changes as God streaks up and down history's timeline at the speed of light. Or in the words of Mrs. Hawkings, this is just time course correcting itself.
In a very real sense then we are all repeating history constantly. How often? That answer is 186,000 miles per second. Every time the ball snaps out and back is a "time loop". And in a real sense we are playing this out over and over and over again...with slight adjustments each time.
LOST YET?
Using the concept of gods where time has no impact, then time travel backwards becomes possible. As I tried to explain above, yesterday and tomorrow are today. Imagine then that Ben's mother was a Dharma scientist. She worked on the island but came to hate the ethics of the Dharma Initiative. For revenge she used the time machine and went back to when she is young enough to marry and have Ben in Portland.
But she took something back in time with her...the curse on pregnant woman from being on this island. So she dies.
Here is the important piece: Ben is his mother.
What Dharma and perhaps the viewers have overlooked is that history can't be changed, only adjusted. Here's a time line:
1960: Ben's mother travels back in time.
1970: Has a child named Ben in Portland and she dies
1980: Arrives on the island to work for Dharma Initiative
To keep Einstein happy we can't have matter or energy created or destroyed, so Ben is the new form of mass made from his mother's "energy" and "mass". He takes his mother's place because history has already been written for 1980. The slight adjustment is that instead of Mrs. Ben taking Dharma down, Ben does it in her place. This is our course correction, if you will.
This is supported by LOST showing us Ben interacting with his mother at the sonar fence. Why bring her into the story line other than to die along the side of the road. And it isn't coincidence that she was assited in child birth by Horace Godspeed - Locke's dream angel. Why not? Because in the eyes of gods, this is all happening at the same time. To word it another way: history is already written. This is likely why we have the cliche, "History is bound to repeat itself." See, we have noticed this phenom, but haven't quite grasped its meaning!
HOW CAN BEN SEE HIS MOTHER?
Because in the first ball bounce from the paddle surface, she was alive in 1980 (that year is just a reference point). So when Ben is a young teen, he can "see" her since she is/was there. This explains a lot of things like the dead people who are alive and the Whispers of those dead. And how Miles can see things. And how Daniel knows things and Desmond can dream the future.
RICHARD IS A GOD
Richard is the god we all wish we could be. He is the "time traveller" at the speed of light where all points in history and the future are now. This is why he tells Ben "now is not the time" and how he determines "John isn't ready" when he tests him with the objects that "belong to him already".
How did Richard become a god? He used the time machine in the Orchid.
SIDENOTE: Remember the guy in the Orientation films? Two of three he had one arm missing. In all three he had a different name. It is the same guy, only different. I guess I'm suggesting reincarnation with a twist.
Richard goes back in time to a point after the time machine was first built in his 30-something aged body. He will not age until he catches back up with his time jump. Perhaps the body does show some wear and tear since Juliet noticed that one 20-something woman had a 70-year old womb.
Could Richard then have a child? No. If we wish to uphold the laws of science, then matter can't be created. Since this is "re-visit", no one is able to produce, remove or alter matter, energy or anything else that would upset that balance in the future.
If Richard jumped back three days and re-lived that time, when he woke up in the fourth day, would there be two of him? No. Again, we can't instantly have double the mass of Richard. Although, some days I swear my mass has doubled, but that's another topic! Richards clone would vanish at the instance he time jumped. Where does that mass go then? No where, it's lying in bed across town stepping into a time machine. This is how Ben is a continuation of Ben's mother - it is required in fact because in one time loop she was alive in 1980.
CHARLIE and CLAIRE
Hurley is now and sees Charlie.
Desmond has a flashBACK and saw Charlie but Charlie didn't recognize Dez.
Now consider Claire. Desmond sees here in a FUTURE vision getting on the helicopter for rescue. We now can safely assume she is dead and won't be boarding any helicopter anytime soon. What happened?
Desmond was being a god. He moved along the timeline of the universe and dropped out of hyperspace (light speed) and observed Claire getting on board. But when she dies in 2004 if Desmond were to revisit that future, he wouldn't see Claire any longer. Course corrections. In other words time travel to the future can only happen within your own lifetime forward.
Imagine the Ben's mom quit Dharma but didn't travel back in time. (If you follow this post at least 10% you should understand that Ben's mom did not travel back while she did travel back!) She didn't marry, no children and died at the age of 85. In a time loop she died giving birth in 1980. Her spirit then can exist until her 85th birthday in the first time loop. Now consider that time loops are happening at the speed of light and we have lots of chances.
If course corrections are possible, then we no longer can use the excuse "what's the use" or "I'm destined to fail". Just the opposite is true. Oh, we can't go back and win a lottery ticket knowing the numbers, but we can improve our standing in life. Maybe we should live like we are in a loop, whether extremely fast like light or even the slower concept of re-incarmation. Wouldn't we like to give our next version a head start? So live for that reason alone and life will improve. Or did it improve already and we are just acting out our roles? Hmmm...
By the way, you can't go back and bet on a Boston Red Sox game you know the outcome of. Fate, science, God won't let you. There are constraints which might also mean the gun you used to go back in time and kill your grandfather might jam! Ah....now you get it?
Enjoy,
KC
Sunday, May 25, 2008
LT92: A Little This and Little That
ODDS AND ENDS
When Mr. Paik learns his company has lost a majority share to someone using five banks, he tells the men to “get Yoon up here”. I’m not sure of the spelling, but I do know that for the same sound alike, it spelled “Yun”. The actress who plays Sun is named Yunjin. Funny writers.
Have you noticed the one constant in every episode? The camera seems to focus one shot on the water bottles. The one that jumps out in my mind is Karl’s water bottle getting shot. Christian led Jack to the water source.
Mirrors are an ongoing theme and the first reflective surface man used was water.
Most popular theory about the mystery man on the Oceanic 6 plane: the load master.
People that get better: Rose, John, Mr. Patchy (2 out of 3), and John.
People that get worse: Ben, Jack, everyone who is buried, drowned, has a stake through them, or sucked into a running jet engine.
Did you remember to add Sawyer to the “got worse” list? His eyes began to fail until he needed glasses.
When Goodwin brought Juliet a sandwich, he was surprised that Ben was present and stumbled some excuse like, “well, this sandwich was for Ethan but he called in sick today”. You don’t get sick in New Otherton.
Remember, Jesus Christ is not a weapon.
BEST THEORY OF THE WEEK: THE CIRCLE
Dedicated fans will know that the original name for this TV show was “The Circle”. Maybe this is why they changed the name since it gives us the answer. A fan tried to outline his theory and here is a recap of the Best of the Week:
We begin with the premise that the island is magical. “Magical” because we use that word when we don’t know how to explain things with science. If we added a god to the explanation, then I suppose get a religion. Mythology then is the collection of disproven god-based explanations. Bottom line: the island is magical. We can’t explain its abilities with science.
With that in mind, we are in a time loop or time circle. As pointed out by Mrs. Time (Hawking), the circles will make course corrections. In everyday life, this stuff is mind boggling…but if you happened to get close to Mystery Island, then you would experience things that would change your mind about what is and what is not possible. Let’s call our Gilligan’s Island, the Island of What is Possible. Or maybe Potential Island is even a better moniker.
We are now on a six-year season loop. Like the Star Trek: Next Generation episode, the survivors get a little bit smarter each loop. Sort of like the concept behind reincarnation and some religions.
How this theory gets validated is if the show ends with Jack on his back in the bamboo jungle…with the baton lying next to him. This time, he might pick it up and say, “Here we go again.” I’ll check back in three years and let you know how it turns out.
HOW TO CREATE A LOST THEORY
Develop your own theories in just a few easy steps! You too can claim to know the answer to the riddle known as LOST. Let’s create one now:
STEP 1: Find any interesting object on LOST
Let’s look at Mrs. Hawking, Mother Time, lady at the jewelry store helping Desmond select a ring. We observe she is wearing an interesting piece of jewelry. We will use that as our object.
STEP 2: Research the history, name, purpose of our object
A little Google time and we find the jewelry is in the same of something called an Ouroborous. This is the symbol of a snake eating its own tail. We begin to find support for our new theory with things like “circle”, “rings”, and “cycles”. Yeah, this will work nicely.
STEP 3: Find a second supporting feature
As we scan the articles on Ouroborous we find out that some scientists use this concept to explain the universe and all its workings. Hey, this is going to work out nice!
STEP 4: Repeat step 3 as many times as possible
Keep digging. We find that under the science theory of a closed-model that a guy used the concept to discover structure of benzene.
STEP 5: Discover two supporting features that cross-reference
This is key to getting a really good theory…it’s like have two bridges over a ravine of doubt and is critical to moving your theory from “decent” to “cool”. We got lucky in our example because the guy who discovered the structure of benzene claims to have done so from a dream! Oooh! Here is our sweet cross-reference. But wait, bonus points are coming: this guy claims he dreamed of an Ouroborous which provided him the circle concept to apply to his new structure.
STEP 6: Start making things up using your concepts and features
For example, the chemical structure was for BENzene. Ben. Get it?
We learn that two scientists were fore-runners to our benzene guy…they suggested multiple double-rings. This can be twisted to suggest multiple universes or timeline.
And of course, we prop this concept up since the two guys with the multiple ring theory were named Couper (or Cooper) and Loschmidt (Losch…Lost).
STEP 7: Write out your theory in a very commanding style.
The key is to not leave any room for doubt. For example, we can get the person to see LOST in Loschmidt by showing the transition: Loschmidt leads to Losch leads to Lost. But by adding a closing phrase like “which anyone can see” or “obviously” or “as most viewers concur”…you get that added little punch.
Hey wait, did we just come up with a new theory? The Ouroborous Theory?
Enjoy,
KC
When Mr. Paik learns his company has lost a majority share to someone using five banks, he tells the men to “get Yoon up here”. I’m not sure of the spelling, but I do know that for the same sound alike, it spelled “Yun”. The actress who plays Sun is named Yunjin. Funny writers.
Have you noticed the one constant in every episode? The camera seems to focus one shot on the water bottles. The one that jumps out in my mind is Karl’s water bottle getting shot. Christian led Jack to the water source.
Mirrors are an ongoing theme and the first reflective surface man used was water.
Most popular theory about the mystery man on the Oceanic 6 plane: the load master.
People that get better: Rose, John, Mr. Patchy (2 out of 3), and John.
People that get worse: Ben, Jack, everyone who is buried, drowned, has a stake through them, or sucked into a running jet engine.
Did you remember to add Sawyer to the “got worse” list? His eyes began to fail until he needed glasses.
When Goodwin brought Juliet a sandwich, he was surprised that Ben was present and stumbled some excuse like, “well, this sandwich was for Ethan but he called in sick today”. You don’t get sick in New Otherton.
Remember, Jesus Christ is not a weapon.
BEST THEORY OF THE WEEK: THE CIRCLE
Dedicated fans will know that the original name for this TV show was “The Circle”. Maybe this is why they changed the name since it gives us the answer. A fan tried to outline his theory and here is a recap of the Best of the Week:
We begin with the premise that the island is magical. “Magical” because we use that word when we don’t know how to explain things with science. If we added a god to the explanation, then I suppose get a religion. Mythology then is the collection of disproven god-based explanations. Bottom line: the island is magical. We can’t explain its abilities with science.
With that in mind, we are in a time loop or time circle. As pointed out by Mrs. Time (Hawking), the circles will make course corrections. In everyday life, this stuff is mind boggling…but if you happened to get close to Mystery Island, then you would experience things that would change your mind about what is and what is not possible. Let’s call our Gilligan’s Island, the Island of What is Possible. Or maybe Potential Island is even a better moniker.
We are now on a six-year season loop. Like the Star Trek: Next Generation episode, the survivors get a little bit smarter each loop. Sort of like the concept behind reincarnation and some religions.
How this theory gets validated is if the show ends with Jack on his back in the bamboo jungle…with the baton lying next to him. This time, he might pick it up and say, “Here we go again.” I’ll check back in three years and let you know how it turns out.
HOW TO CREATE A LOST THEORY
Develop your own theories in just a few easy steps! You too can claim to know the answer to the riddle known as LOST. Let’s create one now:
STEP 1: Find any interesting object on LOST
Let’s look at Mrs. Hawking, Mother Time, lady at the jewelry store helping Desmond select a ring. We observe she is wearing an interesting piece of jewelry. We will use that as our object.
STEP 2: Research the history, name, purpose of our object
A little Google time and we find the jewelry is in the same of something called an Ouroborous. This is the symbol of a snake eating its own tail. We begin to find support for our new theory with things like “circle”, “rings”, and “cycles”. Yeah, this will work nicely.
STEP 3: Find a second supporting feature
As we scan the articles on Ouroborous we find out that some scientists use this concept to explain the universe and all its workings. Hey, this is going to work out nice!
STEP 4: Repeat step 3 as many times as possible
Keep digging. We find that under the science theory of a closed-model that a guy used the concept to discover structure of benzene.
STEP 5: Discover two supporting features that cross-reference
This is key to getting a really good theory…it’s like have two bridges over a ravine of doubt and is critical to moving your theory from “decent” to “cool”. We got lucky in our example because the guy who discovered the structure of benzene claims to have done so from a dream! Oooh! Here is our sweet cross-reference. But wait, bonus points are coming: this guy claims he dreamed of an Ouroborous which provided him the circle concept to apply to his new structure.
STEP 6: Start making things up using your concepts and features
For example, the chemical structure was for BENzene. Ben. Get it?
We learn that two scientists were fore-runners to our benzene guy…they suggested multiple double-rings. This can be twisted to suggest multiple universes or timeline.
And of course, we prop this concept up since the two guys with the multiple ring theory were named Couper (or Cooper) and Loschmidt (Losch…Lost).
STEP 7: Write out your theory in a very commanding style.
The key is to not leave any room for doubt. For example, we can get the person to see LOST in Loschmidt by showing the transition: Loschmidt leads to Losch leads to Lost. But by adding a closing phrase like “which anyone can see” or “obviously” or “as most viewers concur”…you get that added little punch.
Hey wait, did we just come up with a new theory? The Ouroborous Theory?
Enjoy,
KC
Thursday, May 22, 2008
LT91: Passing the Time
WAITING IS THE HARDEST PART
It’s a Thursday evening and it seems LOST should be on. That probably explains the reason for my post tonight. Some the thoughts may be as random as the Whispers, but I got to get lost…
PROGRAMMING NOTE
Next week in Central Standard Time, LOST will air at 7 p.m. a repeat of last week’s part 1 of “No Place Like Home”. It is said to include some extra footage. This is followed by the two-hour finale beginning at 8 p.m.
Don’t miss it!
TICKETS
Ever notice how many survivors had their plane tickets given to them?
Sawyer – Australian police
Claire – psychic
Kate – US Marshall
Sayid – US military
John – travel agency
Jin and Sun – business class by Paik Industries
Michael – David, the adoptive father of Walt
WHISPERS
When Hurley finds the cabin with Ben and Locke, the whispers are heard saying:
Man: "Come to me, I need you. You're an alchemist and uh..." Woman: "I need-" Man (Sounds like Christian Shephard): "Sarah, Is somebody coming?"Woman: "They must be coming, you-"Man: "Hush! One of these-"(Shushing- shhh, shht!) Woman: "Richard!"Man: "Come with us."Woman: "Here's the recipe."Man: "Oh thank you, I thought I'd lost-"
TEASER
In a week, we learn who is in that coffin that Jack visits.
Enjoy,
KC
It’s a Thursday evening and it seems LOST should be on. That probably explains the reason for my post tonight. Some the thoughts may be as random as the Whispers, but I got to get lost…
PROGRAMMING NOTE
Next week in Central Standard Time, LOST will air at 7 p.m. a repeat of last week’s part 1 of “No Place Like Home”. It is said to include some extra footage. This is followed by the two-hour finale beginning at 8 p.m.
Don’t miss it!
TICKETS
Ever notice how many survivors had their plane tickets given to them?
Sawyer – Australian police
Claire – psychic
Kate – US Marshall
Sayid – US military
John – travel agency
Jin and Sun – business class by Paik Industries
Michael – David, the adoptive father of Walt
WHISPERS
When Hurley finds the cabin with Ben and Locke, the whispers are heard saying:
Man: "Come to me, I need you. You're an alchemist and uh..." Woman: "I need-" Man (Sounds like Christian Shephard): "Sarah, Is somebody coming?"Woman: "They must be coming, you-"Man: "Hush! One of these-"(Shushing- shhh, shht!) Woman: "Richard!"Man: "Come with us."Woman: "Here's the recipe."Man: "Oh thank you, I thought I'd lost-"
TEASER
In a week, we learn who is in that coffin that Jack visits.
Enjoy,
KC
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