teamlost23!
03-06-2008, 07:54 PM
This is also another email my friend Andrew sent me!! You guys tell me what you think!! Enjoy!
Good morning fellow "Losties." I-I don't know how to explain this, but I've been contacted by what I can only assume is a possible future me who said that if I did not write an analysis of last night's episode, everybody would die! With that in mind, and considering what is at stake, here goes.... Well, at least we know why Daniel Farraday is a whack job; he lost his mind trying to figure out time paradoxes! Now considering that I flipped out years ago, trying to explain these things won't affect me at all. We have now entered the world of not only time distortions and perceptual changes but also the realm of philosophy and mysticism by examining the concepts of pre-destination and free will. At first this looks like it might be what is known as the "Grandfather Paradox." This is the classic time travel paradox that supposes that a man traveling back in time accidentally kills his grandfather before the later meets the traveller's granddmother. As a result one of the traveller's parents ( and by extension, the traveller himself) would never have been conceived. This would imply that he could not have travelled back in time, which in turn also implies that the grandfather is still alive and the traveller would have been conceived, thus allowing him to travel back in time and kill his grandfather. Each possibility seems to imply its own negation, which is a type of logical paradox. Clear on this are we? (Good. Now tell me what the Hell I just said) Because Desmond is travelling back and forth through time at an accelerated pace it would at first appear that he is, in actuality, killing himself. (At least that's the way it appeared to me. Ahh! But appearances and perceptions can be deceiving when dealing with things related to the Island) And yet we know that Desmond is alive and well in the present. Some other principle must be at work here. The key lies in two places; first, when Desmond meets Farraday at Oxford in 1996 and tells Desmond that we "can't change the future." The second is contained in Desmond's flashback/flashforward from last season when he met the mysterious Mrs. Hawking. (Which in itself should have been a self evident clue as to how "Lost" was going to progress because it's a reference to Stephen Hawking who has done a lot of work on the nature of time) In that episode we learned something about the nature of time on the Island. Both free will and predestination are at work. Recall that he was talking with her when they witness a man's death. Despite knowing his fate, Mrs. Hawking was powerless to stop it because the universe would have found a different way to kill him. Now this brings us to a physicist named David Lewis (coincidentally the name of Charlotte Staples Lewis' father) who, during the 1970's, gave a series of lectures about the topic of time travel. One of his main contributions was a response to "The Grandfather Paradox." Lewis resolved the paradox by simply suggesting that in a world where time travel was possible, creating paradoxes would be impossible because the cosmos would basically work against you. As Farraday said; "You can't change the future." Everything is fixed and predestined. "But, Herr Doktor Professor Gavin, where does the concept of free will fit into your argument?" It involves what Desmond would call a "course correction." This comes into play with Charlie's death. Consider that Fate technically did not kill Charlie. Desmond flashed on one possible future where Charlie's death was beneficial to our intrepid Surivors. Charlie, a hero at last, embraced his fate. He exercised his free will and sacrificed himself for the benefit of everyone. But regardless, Fate got what it demanded. As foretold, Charlie did die. Oddly, this also brings up another point; how were Locke, Desmond and Mr. Eko able to survive the destruction of the Swan? Consider the question Farraday asked Jack about Desmond; was Desmond recently exposed to high levels of radiation? Jack couldn't think of an answer to that question. I seem to recall that when Desmond turned the failsafe key to blow up the Swan he experienced something like time travel where his Island present consciousness may have downloaded into his flashback- past self. When Desmond returned to the Island in the present time, he came back with "flashes" of the future. Was Desmond suddenly bathed in radiation and supernagnatized to the point where his consciousness can simultaneously expand forward and backward in time and then reverse course and contract back into his head? Does Desmond have the ability to experience his existence all at once, but chooses not to, or at least in some manageable "flashes"? It all comes down to the mysterious magnetic properties of the Island. And this, mein students, leads into something called the Novikov Self-Consitency Principle. Similarly to Lewis, Dr. Igor Novikov advocated "course corrections." According to his hypothesis, the only possible timelines are those that are entirely self-consistent. This means that anything a time traveller did in the past must have been part of history all along and the time traveller could never do anything to prevent the trip back in time since this would represent an inconsistency. Thus, Desmond and Farraday's "constants." Desmond and Farraday were supposed to meet all along so that they could both converge into a single timeline where Desmond calls Penny on Christmas Eve, 2004 and Farraday can look back through his notebooks to find a note he made to himself 8 years earlier; "If anything goes wrong, Desmond Hume will be my constant." Simple, jah? (Okay, so I'm developing a severe brain anuerysm doing research trying to figure this out. Have pity on me!) Oh, I also liked the auction for the log of the Black Rock. It's now been in Charles Widmore's possession for 8 years now. It not only establishes a connection between the Widmore Corporation and the Hanso Foundation, but we now know it also explains how Penny was able to locate Desmond and the Island; she probably read about it from the Black Rock's logs and has been "doing research on the Island." She may have been able to deduce the probable location of the Island and has been waiting for a chance to prove her theories. That chance came, of course, when Desmond destroyed the Swan thus making the Island momentarily visible to the outside world. (Fate intervening again? The timelines unfolding as they were meant to?) On the other hand, it does beg the question; how did the log get off the Island and who found it? Ah, just one of the many imponderables of "Lost." (Hmmm... I'm also wondering if the Hanso Foundation/ DHARMA Initiative were also bidding for the logbook. Widmore and Hanso in competition to exploit the properties of the Island?) But you will notice one other thing about last week's episode; Fate and true love won out in the end. Desmond and Penny are destined for each other. And, at long last, they were able to tell one another how much they love each other. But remember Mrs. Hawking's warning to Desmond; if he proposed to Penny, "every single one of us will die." (implying that their marriage would result in the timelines desolving into random, chaotic events that will inexorably lead to the destruction of mankind. Desmond as a living Valenzetti equation? I'll have to consider that possibility sometime....) Anyway, I hope some of this made some kind of sense. Now, it's time for me to take my meds and go take a long nap. Well, at least my doctor's are advising me that's what I should do anyway. And one should always listen to one's doctors. Besides, if you don't, they do "things" to you here. I always have to be subtle and vigilent. Anyway, as always, stay "Lost" and consider all possible plot line outcomes. The future may depend on it!
- Andrew, In Deep Conversations With His Future Self
Good morning fellow "Losties." I-I don't know how to explain this, but I've been contacted by what I can only assume is a possible future me who said that if I did not write an analysis of last night's episode, everybody would die! With that in mind, and considering what is at stake, here goes.... Well, at least we know why Daniel Farraday is a whack job; he lost his mind trying to figure out time paradoxes! Now considering that I flipped out years ago, trying to explain these things won't affect me at all. We have now entered the world of not only time distortions and perceptual changes but also the realm of philosophy and mysticism by examining the concepts of pre-destination and free will. At first this looks like it might be what is known as the "Grandfather Paradox." This is the classic time travel paradox that supposes that a man traveling back in time accidentally kills his grandfather before the later meets the traveller's granddmother. As a result one of the traveller's parents ( and by extension, the traveller himself) would never have been conceived. This would imply that he could not have travelled back in time, which in turn also implies that the grandfather is still alive and the traveller would have been conceived, thus allowing him to travel back in time and kill his grandfather. Each possibility seems to imply its own negation, which is a type of logical paradox. Clear on this are we? (Good. Now tell me what the Hell I just said) Because Desmond is travelling back and forth through time at an accelerated pace it would at first appear that he is, in actuality, killing himself. (At least that's the way it appeared to me. Ahh! But appearances and perceptions can be deceiving when dealing with things related to the Island) And yet we know that Desmond is alive and well in the present. Some other principle must be at work here. The key lies in two places; first, when Desmond meets Farraday at Oxford in 1996 and tells Desmond that we "can't change the future." The second is contained in Desmond's flashback/flashforward from last season when he met the mysterious Mrs. Hawking. (Which in itself should have been a self evident clue as to how "Lost" was going to progress because it's a reference to Stephen Hawking who has done a lot of work on the nature of time) In that episode we learned something about the nature of time on the Island. Both free will and predestination are at work. Recall that he was talking with her when they witness a man's death. Despite knowing his fate, Mrs. Hawking was powerless to stop it because the universe would have found a different way to kill him. Now this brings us to a physicist named David Lewis (coincidentally the name of Charlotte Staples Lewis' father) who, during the 1970's, gave a series of lectures about the topic of time travel. One of his main contributions was a response to "The Grandfather Paradox." Lewis resolved the paradox by simply suggesting that in a world where time travel was possible, creating paradoxes would be impossible because the cosmos would basically work against you. As Farraday said; "You can't change the future." Everything is fixed and predestined. "But, Herr Doktor Professor Gavin, where does the concept of free will fit into your argument?" It involves what Desmond would call a "course correction." This comes into play with Charlie's death. Consider that Fate technically did not kill Charlie. Desmond flashed on one possible future where Charlie's death was beneficial to our intrepid Surivors. Charlie, a hero at last, embraced his fate. He exercised his free will and sacrificed himself for the benefit of everyone. But regardless, Fate got what it demanded. As foretold, Charlie did die. Oddly, this also brings up another point; how were Locke, Desmond and Mr. Eko able to survive the destruction of the Swan? Consider the question Farraday asked Jack about Desmond; was Desmond recently exposed to high levels of radiation? Jack couldn't think of an answer to that question. I seem to recall that when Desmond turned the failsafe key to blow up the Swan he experienced something like time travel where his Island present consciousness may have downloaded into his flashback- past self. When Desmond returned to the Island in the present time, he came back with "flashes" of the future. Was Desmond suddenly bathed in radiation and supernagnatized to the point where his consciousness can simultaneously expand forward and backward in time and then reverse course and contract back into his head? Does Desmond have the ability to experience his existence all at once, but chooses not to, or at least in some manageable "flashes"? It all comes down to the mysterious magnetic properties of the Island. And this, mein students, leads into something called the Novikov Self-Consitency Principle. Similarly to Lewis, Dr. Igor Novikov advocated "course corrections." According to his hypothesis, the only possible timelines are those that are entirely self-consistent. This means that anything a time traveller did in the past must have been part of history all along and the time traveller could never do anything to prevent the trip back in time since this would represent an inconsistency. Thus, Desmond and Farraday's "constants." Desmond and Farraday were supposed to meet all along so that they could both converge into a single timeline where Desmond calls Penny on Christmas Eve, 2004 and Farraday can look back through his notebooks to find a note he made to himself 8 years earlier; "If anything goes wrong, Desmond Hume will be my constant." Simple, jah? (Okay, so I'm developing a severe brain anuerysm doing research trying to figure this out. Have pity on me!) Oh, I also liked the auction for the log of the Black Rock. It's now been in Charles Widmore's possession for 8 years now. It not only establishes a connection between the Widmore Corporation and the Hanso Foundation, but we now know it also explains how Penny was able to locate Desmond and the Island; she probably read about it from the Black Rock's logs and has been "doing research on the Island." She may have been able to deduce the probable location of the Island and has been waiting for a chance to prove her theories. That chance came, of course, when Desmond destroyed the Swan thus making the Island momentarily visible to the outside world. (Fate intervening again? The timelines unfolding as they were meant to?) On the other hand, it does beg the question; how did the log get off the Island and who found it? Ah, just one of the many imponderables of "Lost." (Hmmm... I'm also wondering if the Hanso Foundation/ DHARMA Initiative were also bidding for the logbook. Widmore and Hanso in competition to exploit the properties of the Island?) But you will notice one other thing about last week's episode; Fate and true love won out in the end. Desmond and Penny are destined for each other. And, at long last, they were able to tell one another how much they love each other. But remember Mrs. Hawking's warning to Desmond; if he proposed to Penny, "every single one of us will die." (implying that their marriage would result in the timelines desolving into random, chaotic events that will inexorably lead to the destruction of mankind. Desmond as a living Valenzetti equation? I'll have to consider that possibility sometime....) Anyway, I hope some of this made some kind of sense. Now, it's time for me to take my meds and go take a long nap. Well, at least my doctor's are advising me that's what I should do anyway. And one should always listen to one's doctors. Besides, if you don't, they do "things" to you here. I always have to be subtle and vigilent. Anyway, as always, stay "Lost" and consider all possible plot line outcomes. The future may depend on it!
- Andrew, In Deep Conversations With His Future Self