[Note: This was posted at 3:40pm, CST, on 2/27/09. Please see my 2/26/09 "Bentham" posting, too....]
FARADAY'S TRAVELS:
PAGING DR. FARADAY....
I'LL TAKE A PHILLY CHEESESTEAK WITH THAT MANHATTAN
So where's Faraday? After a brief hiatus following the upcoming LaFleur episode (5.8), the series will resume and at some point in the second half of the season we'll learn the answer to the more apropos temporal framing of that question- When has Faraday been? Of course, Darlton have been setting us up for an answer that reveals a range of relevant and fascinating 'actualbacks' as Faraday travels in time, perhaps using the Orchid hatch not to 'record skip' in a helter skelter fashion, but instead to travel back to important temporal waypoints in the island's past. We've already observed Faraday mixed in with the DHARMA drill team, heading toward the FDW, but 'mission aborted' due to drill bit overheating and a sonogram eerily reminiscent of one ot those early 'antikythera' x-rays....
In Episode 5.7/Bentham, we saw Caeser hailed by Ilana, after he found a page from Faraday's notebook while leafing through a stack of materials, including a colorful copy of the April 19th, 1954 issue of Life magazine, complete with the heading "Color Pictures of Hydrogen Test", referring of course to the H-bomb testing occurring during this time period. 1 And how cool it was to catch that fleeting, flashing glimpse of the Creature From The Black Lagoon...! 2
What was Faraday doing at the island in 1954? In addition to Faraday's 'record-skipping' presence and activities disclosed to us in the Jughead episode, we may ultimately learn that this was not Faraday's only visit to the island in 1954. Will we learn that during another trip to the island that year (9/23/54?), this time an intentional and Orchid hatch enabled trip, Faraday was observing (helping?) the military unload and store a cache of H-bombs, as the military quite correctly perceived the value of the island as a prime place to store H-bombs and spent nuclear fuel, since the island was constantly moving and it was 'invisible' to detection.... the perfect covert site to keep things hidden from the collective mind's eye of the Soviets!
How interesting to consider the potential (and portential!) ramifications of storing bombs, spent nuclear fuel, and atomic materials in the underground catacombs of the island... What would Smokey think, with the military invading its turf in this manner? I wonder what the effects of storing radioative materials on the island might be, especially if those materials were of sufficient quantity and in close proximity to the island's sentience.... Would this help take the island's powers to the next level? Would this alter the island's sentience in nontrivial ways, resulting in a split(atom) personality... a binary rift of good and evil dualistic tensions inherent in us all (and potentially in all forms of sentient beings)? And, per my 2/26/09 "Bentham" posting, might this potentially help power a 'collective hive-based' JAC'B mind?
And how's this for a kicker.... I strongly suspect that Faraday's visits to the island in the 1970s (with DHARMA) and the 1950s (military/H-bomb) are only the veritiable tip of the spacetime iceberg.... Others have previously riffed on the connections between the Philadelphia Experiment and the island, especially the pronounced role of electromagnetism in effecting the purported disappearance (temporary cloaking) of an entire ship....
What I'm proposing here is that in a future Lost episode we may also find that Faraday was present at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard in 1943-- present for what has come to be known as the Philadelphia Experiment-- and that he may have helped the military apply the same stealth and spacetime traveling/teleportation powers observed on the island, to effect a temporary but nonetheless impressive cloaking of the destoyer escort USS Eldridge...3
And per my prior postings this year, I would not be surprised to learn that Faraday has been playing a key role throughout history, learning about the nature and source of 'Manhattanesque' spacetime powers through observing the island, and applying them to use on smaller scales/replicas, including the USS Eldridge and Jacob's cabin.... All of this with the potential goal of building and installing equipment/devices at the various energy pockets/vortices located around the world, helping to scale the island's powers up to the entire globe, enabling Faraday to course correct this island Earth, moving it through spacetime to avoid an impending, apocalyptic collision, or perhaps even to temporarily cloak/shield the Earth from the eyes of some who would do us no small measure of harm....
Will future episodes reveal that Faraday's Travels have spanned more than mere decades, but centuries and even millennia? Will we witness Faraday as a deckhand (or better yet, as a mining expert) on the Black Rock, assisting in the assaying and exploration of the vast, dark magnetite deposits comprising the island's bedrock, the material substrate playing no small role in generating the unique electromagnetic properties (and sentience) of the island?
Will we witness Faraday playing an Archimedean role, accompanying some ancient exploration party to the island, eons ago, flying under the flag of Atlantis or lost Lemuria? Will we see Faraday and crew building the temple and installing the FDW and other ancient devices/technologies on the island? And will Hurley still be in charge of distributing rations, even in the island's distant past?
And finally, how interesting it would be to see Faraday travel engaged in a series 
of actualforwards, moving intentionally through spacetime to some future temporal waypoints in the island's worldline.... What kinds of knowledge and/or devices might Faraday bring back (carefully and covertly, of course), to help further his agenda....?
Hmmmm.... In theory, if the island's worldline is not tightly coupled with the Earth's worldline, or if it is possible to decouple these worldlines, Faraday might be able to travel along the island's past or future worldlines appearing at some point in the past or future on the island, floating by itself in spacetime, temporarily decoupled (spacetime 'record skipped') from Earth.... Consider the range of benefits flowing from that possibility, especially in the context of averting planetary doom-- one potential method for deflecting asteroids before the Earth arrived at where/when it will be, on its worldline, or as a means of temporarily decoupling the island from the Earth, while the latter experienced some disaster, then later recoupling the island's and the Earth's worldlines.... 4
Time will tell....
Dr. Todd J. Hostager
P.S. The Ajira flight to Guam hints at a Mariana Trench connection, of course.... One possibility is that Faraday may attempt to devise and install devices at various terran energy pockets in an attempt to dampen the movements of tectonic plates, helping to avert a world-altering disaster resulting from an impending, cataclysmic undersea earthquake. 5
P.P.S. Others have pointed to the 9/23/54 date as marking 50 years since the visit by the military to the island, and the arrival of the castaways on Oceanic Flight 815.... How interesting that these dates also mark the Autumnal Equinox, a time of the year at which we experience strange and powerful energy effects, including Sun Outages:
"One effect of equinoctial periods is the temporary disruption of communications satellites. For all geostationary satellites, there are a few days near the equinox when the sun goes directly behind the satellite relative to Earth (ie, within the beamwidth of the groundstation antenna) for a short period each day. The Sun's immense power and broad radiation spectrum overload the Earth station's reception circuits with noise and, depending on antenna size and other factors, temporarily disrupt or degrade the circuit. The duration of those effects varies but can range from a few minutes to an hour. (For a given frequency band, a larger antenna has a narrower beamwidth, hence experience shorter duration "Sun outage" windows)." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autumnal_Equinox
How do the physical/energetic properties associated with the autumnal equinox affect the island's powers in general, and its invisibility in particular? Is it easier to see/find the island at that time, or not? Maybe a Sun Outage actually generates an electromagnetic moire interference pattern, enabling us to more readily detect the island's presence, including where it will be. Hmmmm....
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ENDNOTES:
1. How interesting to note the connections among the H-bomb testing and the siesmographic detection of underwater earthquakes. Extensive mapping of the ocean floor, under the guidance of Dr. Harry H. Hess, revealed the extent of the Mariana Trench (near Guam, nod to the Ajira flight!) Work by Hess and others led to the development of our current understanding of the surface of the globe as comprising a series of contiguous and moving tectonic plates. Of particular interest to Lost aficionados will be Dr. Hess' interest in SEAFLOOR GRAVITY ANOMALIES:
2. Yes, this movie was indeed released in 1954, on March 5th, 1954, to be precise:
3. For a fascinating look at the Philadelphia Experiment, please see:
4. For more information on worldlines, please see:
5. Please see the following for more information on the Mariana Trench: