Last week I was reading Hawking's "A Brief History of Time" while waiting in the ER after my car got got rear-ended (I figured that it would be a very long wait so I brought the big guns with me) and as I got to chapter 10 (chapter 7 is the one that the kid was reading on the steps of the Room23 bunker) things in the Orchid film started to come together. Please note that I was reading the new copy that is profusely illustrated, making it a sort of "A Brief History of Time For Dummies". But when reading about the wormholes and the Casimir effect, the whole thing kind of began to penetrate my thick skull and make some sense. Bigmouth explained it to us in his great blog "Eye M Sick", but it didn't really sink in until I saw the illustrations in the book. See: http://eyemsick.blogspot.com/ , for a much better scientific explanation than mine that follows.Since Desmond's little trip, part of what we've been guessing about his possible wormhole time travel has been bugging me. Wormhole travel is supposed to happen with a warping of space (so that you can take a shortcut between points A and B) that brings time points together like two places on a folded piece of paper, as illustrated above. But I've wondered how did the Dharmas create this necessary bending? Well it seems that this is where the Casimir Effect might come in handy. That negative space between the plates caused by the smaller particles in there, that we've been reading and talking about since ComicCon, seems to create the curved space necessary for the wormhole. Supposedly a negative space curvature is needed for time travel, and this Casimir state can help with that.
Another possible clue regarding the Orchid film is in this chapter also. Apparently, a traveler could ride a wormhole that is stationary to earth, to a future point. And if he comes back to his present on a moving wormhole, then he could come back to a place in time before where he took off the first time. So, maybe that's what happened to Bunny15. They planned to send him to the future and maybe return him to the present, but he somehow came back on a different wormhole and surprised them in the lab by returning before he left. Thus, there ended up being two bunnies there at the same time. If they had some kind of specific transport platform or chamber where Bunny15 was supposed to disappear and reappear, they would have expected to keep the experiment contained. But what if he (as Bunny15-b) came back on a different wormhole, and into the room at a place that he had been sitting before, on the shelf...which just happened to be where Dr.Candle was holding him (as Bunny15-a) in the lab in the film. This theory is a bit different than Bigmouth's, but here is how it looks applied to the illustration in Hawking's book:
How they would manage to accidentally cross two wormholes is beyond me, so Bigmouth's theory is better than mine, and surely TPTB will follow the K.I.S.S. principle to make it easier for them and us! Hopefully the answers to that will also reveal if Dr.Candle lost his arm when the two anti-bunnies leaped together, and touched, and blew off his arm. And also, how a big clunky Island could have natural finely tuned laboratory-grade Casimir properties, that could be used to create a wormhole. To that I chant the Lost viewers' usual mantra, "I hope that we find out soon!" It will be fun to watch how TPTB will be able to write this in an entertaining way without a visit to the island from Mr. Hawking himself.
19 comments:
Capcom,
I'm so sorry about the car wreck, hope you're okay now. Please keep us informed.
Love the visual of Candlewax/Hollowax losing his arm during a tale of two bunnies. That may be the incident they speak of in the orientation film.
I have not made it to chapter 7, actually, I'm still on 1 - such as it may be. I like your theory, and I remember from one of TLE videos that there were all sorts of big machines on the island when they were prepping it. The island itself has some sort of magnetic properties needed for the Casimir effect, so being a lay person, I just assume they were able to harness it somehow. Keep this line of thinking going!!!
If this were to come into play in an explanation..it would be through one of the main characters. I have a feeling that if anyone does time traveling, it may be Jack or Kate....
The future kate runs into the island kate and..WHHAAA LAA!
Ok..so I really doubt that..but you never know. =]
CF
Thanks PGT. Well, I'm doing OK despite back injuries, a totalled car, and the fact that I'm 100% the victim of the accident but I will be the only one who's left in serious debt after the dust has settled. :-( I guess that God thought I needed a "Trust Me Completely" reminder. :-)
It was funny when I was in the ER reading and I almost wanted to shout "Eurkea!" when I began to grasp the concept! My problem with understanding how the island is used, is in terms of thinking of the Casimir qualties of the island needing to somehow be the same as the "two plates" thing in a lab, but that the island is just a bunch of rock. Albeit magnetic rock or whatever. I think I need to sing the MST3K song for that:
"If you wonder how they eat and sleep, and other science facts,
Repeat to yourself 'It's just a show, I should really just relax.'"
That would be extremely interesting if someone else on the island besides Dez went for a time trip CF. From your typing fingers to TPTBs ears! :-)
You were in a wreck and went home to get a book before going to the ER? Now that's forethought Capcom.
Seriously, take care of that back.
I like the idea as far as my feeble ability to understand time travel goes. I would guess given the Island's inherent ability to produce Casismir-type effects that wormholes could spring up anywhere on the Island thus producing the magic box effect Ben describes to Locke. I'm still pretty convinced that the "real" way to get to the Island involves this sort of travel rather than that little sub. As you say, I hope we'll see soon.
Thanks Memphish! Well, my little Nun-mobile Taurus (I bought it used from a "Cardinal Hayes Home for Children" Sister) was still able to hobble home, so I took it there and called my insurance co first. Then I grabbed the book and went to the ER in my parents' car. :-)
I like your idea about the sub being transported in that (or some) way. I have leaned towards that too, since Ethan and Richard made that mention of the rough trip (and also the LG station). I can't think of any other reason that they would need to drug people to keep the trip a secret. Who has got the directional instincts to figure out which way that they are going underwater in a sub? It's not like being taken in a car on a drive to some place.
I also like what you say about random wormholes springing up, wouldn't that be interesting! It could also explain why some wishes are fulfilled and some not. If it just happens to swing your way when you are thinking about a black horse, your dead dad, or whatever, poof! OK, we heard it here first from Memphish. :o)
Heh, I just realized! If Memphish's roaming island wormhole is the answer, that's Hawkings "moving wormhole"! :-D
I hope your back feels better, Capcom! I'm glad you came out relatively unharmed, though. Car accidents are scary things.
Great theory, by the way. Though I'm a little ticked . . . I've been fiddling with my own story for some months (yes, it's about an island; no, it's not inspired by LOST), and what you're describing here comes way too close to what I'm trying to write about. I'm wondering if I should just give up, haha.
Tx PAA!
Hey, I'm just copying what I read in Hawking's book and trying to gell that with what Bigmouth wrote too. You know, like King Solomon said, "Nothing is new under the sun", especially now in the 21st century. :-)
Keep writing your story! Do we get to read it too?
If I ever finish it or even get anywhere with it, I'll let you know. It's a large undertaking and I'm not sure if I want to continue. We'll see. In any case, thanks for the encouragement!
Capcom, this has nothing to do with your post, but I think you'll like it. It's a great article and interview about Mad Men.
Sweet Memphish, thanks! And thanks for thinking of me. :-)
Capcom,
I'm very sorry to hear of your accident and injury. I will pray for a speedy recovery and complete settlement in your favor.
Your explanation of Casimir and wormholes and bunnies makes sense to me. Thanks!
Yeah, I think we go into far too much detail sometimes, and the explanation is usually much simpler than we expect (and then we don't trust it to be true, and we don't believe the dead to really be dead, etc...) We should really just relax!
But I still want an explanation!
Thanks Amused for your thoughts and prayers!
I'm getting kind of worried about all the things in Lost that are not going to be discussed anymore, that were such a big part of the early stages of the story. If TPTB just give us a mention of the DI using blackholes or wormholes to their advantage without much explanation, that's OK with me. I would more like to know about the things that have been put out into the story all along, that were presented as significant and still haven't been justified yet. Such as, almost all the questions that Memphish has put forth on her blog! :-D Things like the quarantine and vaccines, Walt's messages, etc. The science/SciFi I can accept on face value, to make things simpler, but all these other oddities I hope will not be forgotten by TPTB by the end of the show.
Maybe this is where the LOST 2.0 is going to come in.
Oh yeah! And the game maybe too.
Bingo and bravo, my fellow Whovian -- very, very well explained! My one caveat would be that Desmond didn't appear to travel physically through time like Bunny 15.
PS: So sorry to hear about the accident and injury. You need to visit Isaac of Uluru!
Thanks Big! A big compliment from Big, now that's the best. :-)
Well, are we sure that Dez didn't? Lindelof said in his "Pearl's of Wisdom" section in the magazine (which I am writing a post about right now actually) that he did physically travel in time. If he did, so far it means that he returned (or was returned -- by Mrs.H.?) to the proper time where he should have landed after traveling thru it. Unlike Bunny15's adventure. Or, maybe like in the movie Contact, it was only a couple of seconds of travel in real-time for Dez. Heheh, obviously his clothes did not make the trip back tho. :o)
Which opens up all kinds of additional questions that we don't need though, like, was Mrs.H. able to snatch him from the ether when Dez turned the failsafe key and take him for a little time trip like Mr.Scrooge got from the ghosts of Christmas? And then plopped him back down again just at the right time? Or would/could the failsafe-shutdown-wormhole be more accurate or stable than the DI wormholes in their experiments? It doesn't seem likely, but...Oy!
Yes, I would visit Isaac as long as he didn't cop out on me like he did on Rose! :-)
Careful -- the questioner asks whether Des time traveled "in a conscious, physical, or in whatever way." Damon's answer ("yes") doesn't specify that Des traveled physically into the past, and the DVD extras I mentioned on my blog seem to cast doubt on that possibility. Plus, how do you explain the difference in his appearance if Des physically traveled from the Island to his past?
Well, cuz, like Hurley said, the implosion (and subsequent time trip) blew his underwear off! :o)
I know, the question in the mag was very ambiguous, a dumb move on the guy who asked it really, so actually the answer doesn't mean too much. :-(
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