[Note: This was posted at 1:54pm CST, with final edits completed from 4:30pm to 5:20pm CST, on 4/23/09.]
FARADAY'S VARIABLE:
RECURRING DADDY ISSUES,
HIDDEN VARIABLE THEORY,
AND THE INCIDENT AT SPACETIME CREEK BRIDGE
Faraday's Search For Constancy In A Variable Universe: O Daddy, Where Art Thou?
Next week's episode-- 5.14, "The Variable"-- looks to be another crackerjack Faraday-centric, Desmond-guest-shot, thrill ride of heady delights.... If it is indeed true that Eloise Hawking is Faraday's mother, and Charles Widmore is Faraday's father, then I strongly suspect we'll see the constant--variable theme play out in a distinctly familial sense, along the following lines....
ELOISE will, of course, exemplify the strong, supportive, and ever-present mother figure.... the corporeal CONSTANT in his formative years, as young Faraday grows and matures into the skin of his admittedly gifted life.... On the other hand, CHARLES will play the volatile and domineering father, the VARIABLE on whom Faraday could never count for love, guidance, reassurance, and more.... How ironic that such a brilliant physicist/mathematician as Faraday gained no small measure of his drive to count and plumb the depths of the cosmos for constancy, out of a profound lack of being able to count on his FATHER to be there, physically and emotionally, when he needed him....!
Yes, WIDMORE exemplifies that material/corporeal urge within us all, to want more and more stuff, chasing that 'rabbit' of sybaritic satiation, always ahead of us and just out of our reach. Like Charles, how easily we too may fall prey to that elusive and illusive dream of achieving NIRVANA through having MORE, but how quickly we forget that like Charles, we will never be happy WIDMORE.... Yes, this is yet another example of what I called "the black iron prison of our modernist Empire-dulled/fettered sensibilities", in my 3/13/09 "Time Passages" riff on Philip K. Dick's notion of Empire. And yes, that form of Empire does strike back at us in some particularly insidious and surprising ways....
Hmmm.... Charles the strict, cold, uncaring, volatile (absentee?) father, banished from the island to the mainland of the material world, playing empire-builder to assuage his feelings of inadequacy at having his island-throne kicked out from underneath him, humiliated in the knowledge that it was Ben who has succeeded him as leader of the Others. And poor young Faraday, looking for love and CONSTANCY in all the wrong places... Well, at least he found it in his Mum, Eloise the Earth-Mother, and GAIA figure....
As DESMOND is Faraday's Constant ACROSS Spacetime, I suspect we will witness the crucial role of ELOISE as Faraday's Constant IN Spacetime, always there for him in his formative years, while Father Charles was off chasing his 'Material Boy' dream.... How ironic it is, that WIDMORE'S inconstancy/variability as a father to Faraday has, in no small measure, fueled a fervent drive in his son to divine the secrets of our apparently chaotic, unpredictable, and indeterminate world....
Like you, I would not at all be surprised to learn that Faraday has played a significant role in the DHARMA Initiative's drive to divine the secrets of the fabled Valenzetti Equation, thereby unleashing the power to predict and control the future. Who knows? Faraday may yet be revealed as the source of the very equations used to predict the probabilistic future position of the island, with the help of the Foucault Pendulum device, at the Lamppost Station.
Yes, the recurring theme of Daddy Issues on Lost mirrors the deeper archetypal and metaphorical underpinnings of our own desire for greater constancy and reassurance from a higher, Supreme being, buffeted about as we are by the waves of indeterminate uncertainty on the sea of change, scanning the horizon for a green paradisical island of certainty and constancy.... And so we can see that Faraday's search for the 'Holy Grail' of heuristic, algorithmic, equation-based mathematical prediction is more than just a deep desire by Faraday to fill the void created by his variable father Charles by embracing the comfort of getting ever-so-closer to an omniscient, omnipresent God/Fate/Father figure; no, Faraday's search also symbolizes our own desire to embrace a comforting Father figure in these trying times, a figure that, like Charles Widmore, can at times appear to us to be an uncaring, absent, and highly variable force in our lives....
And how might this play out as the current season continues to set the stage for what Darlton has promised to be a character-driven Season 6? In addition to a LUKE/VADER Empire Strikes Back exchange between MILES and CANDLE-- with Candle dying and Miles uttering a variation on that iconic line "Dr. Candle, you are my Father!"-- I would not be surprised to see a second similar exchange between FARADAY and WIDMORE, only this time it may be Faraday (the son) doing the dying, as he enacts his fated story of saving the island (and the world?) through helping to contain an 'Incidental' reactor issue at the Swan Hatch.
In the second incarnation of the Luke/Vader exchange, involving Faraday and Widmore, the emotional and thematic force will NOT reside in a disclosure of previously hidden family ties, but instead will arise from the other key theme resonating in the classic Luke/Vader exchange: Redemptive rebirth through recapturing one's LOST soul..... In this case, look for Widmore to be quite visibly and unexpectedly shaken to the core of his very being by the loss of his son, right before his very eyes and his powerless hands....
Hmmm.... will we serve witness to Widmore as the one who will experience this 'redemptive rebirth' in the Season 5 finale, heading into Season 6 as a new man, Born Again into the Island Faith, working on the side of Locke to ensure the island's continued survival....? Or will this grave loss push Widmore ever further to the dark side, ablating and obliterating what little vestiges of goodness are remaining within, tracing the lines of a 'downward spiral soul arc' to a Fallen Angel, Nephilimic, Brotherhood of the Snake-infested... Hell....!
Hide And Seek In A (Seemingly?) Variable Universe: Hidden Variable Theory-
Interestingly enough, the dualistic CONSTANT vs. VARIABLE dialectic yields heuristic insight not only when mapped to familial relations among fathers and children.... No, this central existential distinction maps equally well to that good 'ol recurring Lost dualism of FATE vs. FREE WILL.... And mapping these dualisms onto the realm of SCIENCE ramps up the yield even further....
The search for constancy, constants, and laws governing the universe is a fundamental urge of the species, reflected in a myriad of concepts and theories spanning from the dawn of humanity to the present. Some of the more recent incarnations of this approach include EINSTEIN's General and Special theories of RELATIVITY and the continuing search for causal relationships, elementary particles, the fundamental building blocks of the universe. In contrast to these and other Deterministic/Fate-ful approaches to divining the underlying predictability/constancy of the universe, QUANTUM MECHANICS provides one of the more notable recent examples of a perspective aimed at understanding our universe through exploring its fundamentally variable, indeterminate, and probabilistic nature.
Indeed, it is the dualistic debates and experimental examinations emerging from SCIENCE that ultimately produced a superordinate, inclusive, unifying view which reconciles the dualisms -- Constant vs. Variable, Fate vs. Free Will, etc.-- as aspects of a larger reality. And it is this larger reality that the Lost creative combine appears to be pointing us toward on the island, in the show, and in our everyday lives.... Yes, it all goes back to Einstein's famous quote, eerily echoed/mirrored in the dice-throwing prowess of Walt during the sun-washed BACKGAMMON games on the beach:
"Historically, in
physics,
hidden variable theories were espoused by a minority of
physicists who argued that the statistical nature of
quantum mechanics indicated that
quantum mechanics is "incomplete".
Albert Einstein, the most famous proponent of hidden variables, insisted that, "I am convinced God does not play dice"
[— meaning that he believed that physical theories must be deterministic to be complete."
So in one corner of the 'ring' of dualistic debate, we have Einstein and others who are championing Fate, Determinism, Constancy, and Constants, all in the name of reducing the universe to a set of causal, lawful, predictable relationships.... And in the other corner of the ring, weighing in at an indeterminate number of pounds/kilos, depending on who is doing the weighing, are the proponents of Quantum Mechanics, championing Chance, Free Will, Indeterminism, and Variability, all in the name of apprehending a universe comprised of nondeterministic, probabilistic outcomes....
The early rounds of this debate involved Einstein's 'right hook' challenge to the Quantum Mechanical crowd in the form of the EPR Paradox:
"The EPR paradox draws on a phenomenon predicted by quantum mechanics, known as
quantum entanglement, to show that measurements performed on spatially separated parts of a quantum system can apparently have an instantaneous influence on one another. This effect is now known as "
nonlocal behavior" (or colloquially as "quantum weirdness" or "
spooky action at a distance")."
To resolve this paradox, Einstein, Podolsky, and Rosen (EPR) proposed that quantum mechanics is a correct but incomplete theory:
"In other words, there is some yet undiscovered theory of nature to which quantum mechanics acts as a kind of statistical approximation (albeit an exceedingly successful one). Unlike quantum mechanics, the more complete theory contains variables corresponding to all the "elements of reality". There must be some unknown mechanism acting on these variables to give rise to the observed effects of "non-commuting quantum observables", i.e. the
Heisenberg uncertainty principle. Such a theory is called a
hidden variable theory." [
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EPR_paradox]
Non-local effects are of huge interest to Lost fans, as we have witnessed some very intriguing phenomena such as the multiple gun-jamming/misfire incidents on the freighter and the mainland, with Fate seemingly lending a hand to stay the scythe of the Grim Reaper, until MICHAEL fulfilled his 'predestined' role....
Nearly 30 years would pass from the publication of the EPR Paradox in 1935 to JOHN BELL's famous 1964 paper, ruling out LOCAL Hidden Variables as guiding the behavior of non-local phenomena. But in the interim, important work was emerging from the mind of one DAVID BOHM....1 Five years prior to the publication of Bell's paper, Bohm and Yakir Aharonov 'rocked' the world of science by demonstrating a weirdly fascinating aspect of fundamental interconnectedness in the universe. Lost fans will note the prominent role of magnetism in this phenomenon, and the attendant strong and intriguing implications for insights into the island, its powers, and its profound effects on mind, energy, and the material world:
"In 1959 Bohm and a young research student Yakir Aharonov discovered an important example of quantum interconnectedness. They found that in certain circumstances electrons are able to "feel" the presence of a nearby magnetic field even though they are traveling in regions of space where the field strength is zero. This phenomenon is now known as the Aharonov-Bohm (AB) effect, and when the discovery was first announced many physicists reacted with disbelief. Even today, despite confirmation of the effect in numerous experiments, papers still occasionally appear arguing that it does not exist.
In 1982 a remarkable experiment to test quantum interconnectedness was performed by a research team led by physicist Alain Aspect in Paris. The original idea was contained in a thought experiment (also known as the "EPR paradox") proposed in 1935 by Albert Einstein, Boris Podolsky, and Nathan Rosen, but much of the later theoretical groundwork was laid by David Bohm and one of his enthusiastic supporters, John Bell of CERN, the physics research center near Geneva. The results of the experiment clearly showed that subatomic particles that are far apart are able to communicate in ways that cannot be explained by the transfer of physical signals traveling at or slower than the speed of light. Many physicists, including Bohm, regard these "nonlocal" connections as absolutely instantaneous." [http://www.theosophy-nw.org/theosnw/science/prat-boh.htm]
More recently, a team from CAL TECH has succeeded in demonstrating a form of QUANTUM TELEPORTATION involving instantaneous non-local effects across space, in time.... And one intriguing implication of this finding is that it may help to explain how ROSE and other psychics can 'know' what is happening elsewhere (e.g., Rose 'knowing' that Bernard was o.k., following the crash of Flight 815.) 2
Back to the dualistic debate.... Against the backdrop of a growing body of experimental evidence confirming Bell's theorem-- effectively ruling out LOCAL Hidden Variables as accomplices in understanding weird non-local behavior--
Bohm was hard at work developing a NON-LOCAL HIDDEN VARIABLE THEORY that would account for quantum weirdness in such a way that it would reconcile the seemingly immutable dualisms thought to operate at the very core of the foundation of our known universe: FATE vs. FREE WILL, DETERMINISM vs. INDETERMINISM, CONSTANCY vs. VARIABILITY, PARTICLES vs. PROBABILITIES, etc....
"Bohm’s paradigm is inherently antithetical to reductionism, in most forms, and accordingly can be regarded as a form of ontological holism. On this, Bohm noted of prevailing views among physicists: "the world is assumed to be constituted of a set of separately existent, indivisible and unchangeable 'elementary particles', which are the fundamental 'building blocks' of the entire universe … there seems to be an unshakable faith among physicists that either such particles, or some other kind yet to be discovered, will eventually make possible a complete and coherent explanation of everything" (Bohm, 1980, p. 173).... In Bohm’s conception of order, then, primacy is given to the undivided whole, and the implicate order inherent within the whole, rather than to parts of the whole, such as particles, quantum states, and continua. For Bohm, the whole encompasses all things, structures, abstractions and processes, including processes that result in (relatively) stable structures as well as those that involve metamorphosis of structures or things. In this view, parts may be entities normally regarded as physical, such as atoms or subatomic particles, but they may also be abstract entities, such as quantum states. Whatever their nature and character, according to Bohm, these parts are considered in terms of the whole, and in such terms, they constitute relatively autonomous and independent "sub-totalities". The implication of the view is, therefore, that nothing is entirely separate or autonomous....Bohm (1980, p. 11) said: "The new form of insight can perhaps best be called Undivided Wholeness in Flowing Movement. This view implies that flow is, in some sense, prior to that of the ‘things’ that can be seen to form and dissolve in this flow". According to Bohm, a vivid image of this sense of analysis of the whole is afforded by vortex structures in a flowing stream. Such vortices can be relatively stable patterns within a continuous flow, but such an analysis does not imply that the flow patterns have any sharp division, or that they are literally separate and independently existent entities; rather, they are most fundamentally undivided. Thus, according to Bohm’s view, the whole is in continuous flux, and hence is referred to as the holomovement (movement of the whole)."
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Implicate_and_Explicate_Order]
While at first glance this might appear as rooted in some 'New Age' wand-waving, incense-burning, neological constructs devoid of any ontological verity and empirical validity, Bohm's paradigm-shaking perspective incorporates and reconciles BOTH the Quantum Mechanical and the Classical/Relativistic views of the universe, revealing these perspectives as aspects of a broder, interconnected, holistic reality known as the IMPLICATE ORDER. Structures, particles, causal relationships, laws, non-local quantum weirdness, uncertainty, probabilities-- indeed, our own existence as sentient beings-- are all forms of extracted or EXPLICATED 'reality', abstracted from and generated out of a deeper flow of the holomovement, the IMPLICATE ORDER:
"A key motivation for Bohm in proposing a new notion of order was what he saw as the incompatibility of quantum theory with relativity theory, with respect to certain features of the theories as observed in relevant experimental contexts. Bohm (1980, p. xv) summarised the state of affairs he perceived to exist: …in relativity, movement is continuous, causally determinate and well defined, while in quantum mechanics it is discontinuous, not causally determinate and not well-defined. Each theory is committed to its own notions of essentially static and fragmentary modes of existence (relativity to that of separate events connectible by signals, and quantum mechanics to a well-defined quantum state). One thus sees that a new kind of theory is needed which drops these basic commitments and at most recovers some essential features of the older theories as abstract forms derived from a deeper reality in which what prevails is unbroken wholeness... Bohm maintained that relativity and quantum theory are in basic contradiction in these essential respects, and that a new concept of order should begin with that towards which both theories point: undivided wholeness. This should not be taken to mean that he advocated such powerful theories be discarded. He argued that each was relevant in a certain context—i.e. a set of interrelated conditions within the explicate order—rather than having unlimited scope, and that apparent contradictions stem from attempts to overgeneralize by superposing the theories on one another, implying greater generality or broader relevance than is ultimately warranted.
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Implicate_and_Explicate_Order]
The Bohm revolution is not limited to understanding the material and energetic aspects of the physical realm, as within Bohm's view, distinctions among mind, energy, and matter collapse with the understanding of these classes of phenomena as aspects of the EXPLICATE ORDER, namely those structures, processes, particles, relationships, etc. that have been made manifest to us, through our existence in the universe..... The bottom line is that what we know about the universe is not only a function of how we go about knowing it (EPISTEMOLOGY), but it is also a function of a deeper reality disclosed to us through Bohm's revolutionary and inclusive ONTOLOGY, namely that what we know and how we go about knowing it involves an active, generative process of mapping our sentience into and onto the Explicate Order, which reveals true yet incomplete views of inherently transient and partial aspects of a deeper Implicate Order:
"Bohm employed the
hologram as a means of characterising implicate order, noting that each
region of a
photographic plate in which a hologram is observable contains within it the whole three-dimensional image, which can be viewed from a range of perspectives. That is, each region contains a whole and undivided image. In Bohm’s words: "There is the germ of a new notion of order here. This order is not to be understood solely in terms of a regular arrangement of objects (eg., in rows) or as a regular arrangement of events (e.g. in a series). Rather, a total order is contained, in some implicit sense, in each region of space and time. Now, the word 'implicit' is based on the verb 'to implicate'. This means 'to fold inward' ... so we may be led to explore the notion that in some sense each region contains a total structure 'enfolded' within it". (Bohm, 1980, p. 149). Bohm noted that although the hologram conveys undivided wholeness, it is nevertheless static.
In this view of order, laws represent invariant relationships between explicate entities and structures, and thus Bohm maintained that in physics, the explicate order generally reveals itself within well-constructed experimental contexts as, for example, in the sensibly observable results of instruments. With respect to implicate order, however, Bohm (1980, p. 147) asked us to consider the possibility instead "that physical law should refer primarily to an order of undivided wholeness of the content of description similar to that indicated by the hologram rather than to an order of analysis of such content into separate parts … The implicate order represents the proposal of a general metaphysical concept in terms of which it is claimed that matter and consciousness might both be understood, in the sense that it is proposed that both matter and consciousness: (i) enfold the structure of the whole within each region, and (ii) involve continuous processes of enfoldment and unfoldment. For example, in the case of matter, entities such as atoms may represent continuous enfoldment and unfoldment which manifests as a relatively stable and autonomous entity that can be observed to follow a relatively well-defined path in space-time. In the case of consciousness, Bohm pointed toward evidence presented by Karl Pribram that memories may be enfolded within every region of the brain rather than being localized (for example in particular regions of the brain, cells, or atoms)." [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Implicate_and_Explicate_Order]
And here it is that we can more clearly begin to see how Bohm's revolutionary framework can lend a wealth of intriguing insights into Lost... On an ONTOLOGICAL level, I would propose that the ISLAND itself is a uniquely- equipped, anomalous mechanism-- a type of BOHM GENERATOR, as it were-- for UNFOLDING the EXPLICATE ORDER of the universe right before our very startled eyes, in ways we are most definitely not used to seeing in the 'mainlands' of our everyday lives....
Bohm uses the example of making a cut in a folded piece of paper, and unfolding that paper, to show how our perceived realities of seemingly 'non-local' phenomena are really artifacts of our perception of the unfolded paper, with the 'unfolding' of the paper here representing the distinct way we have chosen to unfold and apprehend an inherently folded, undivided, and hologrammatic universe of Implicate Order, i.e., a vast expanse of potential or implicate ways in which we can manifest reality, making it explicate in the process.
As we unfold/unpack Implicate Order in the course of our everyday perceptions and actions, the explicit/explicate reality we are enacting is not entirely random, even at quantum levels, according to Bohm. In his interpretation of the famous Two-Slit Experiment, Bohm employs what in my view is a 'Fate Equivalent' wave that guides the behavior of particles which exist even when they are not measured, in contrast to what the Quantum Mechanics believe. Here I would propose that Bohm's interpretation of the experiment is the proper paradigm for understanding how what we perceive as free will/choice (and probabilistic indeterminacy) in 'reality' is behavior guided by a fate-ful, deterministic waveform. 3
So when those guns jammed/misfired on the freighter and the mainland, sparing Michael's life for the time being, such apparently 'magical' and unconnected (to the island) phenomena may now be understood as non-local effects achieved through Bohm's notion of the waveform (Quantum Potential) guiding the position and behavior of objects/'particulate' matter.
From this view, we can see FATE as a Bohmian wave function guiding the behavior of what appears to us as discrete particulate matter, including persons appearing to make 'free will-driven' choices, EXPLICATING Order/Reality out of a deeper, hidden Implicate Order. What Bohm has done is to not only figure out how Quantum Mechanics and Classical/Relativistic Theory fit together in a larger context; Bohm has also identified how our perceptions of FATE and FREE WILL, DETERMINISM and PROBABILITY/CHANCE, CONSTANCY and VARIABILITY, and more are related as acts of apprehending the Explicate Order, affording us with fleeting glimpses or FLASHES of Ontological Insight in to the deeper hologrammatic flux of the Implicately Ordered Universe....
Consistent with this view, as part of the Implicate Order the island exists as an enfolded hologram of the universe, and the unique energy properties of the island enable it to serve as a graphic showcase for Bohm's revolutionary view, through leveraging electromagnetism, the Casimir Effect, and yes perhaps even the Zero Point Field to UNFOLD/UNPACK aspects of the Implicate Order, ranging from unfolded (EXPLICATED) energy-based, discarnate Minds/Memories (JACOB), all the way to unfolded/explicated physical materializations, as in the cases of: CHRISTIAN SHEPHARD, ALEX ROUSSEAU, KATE'S HORSE, SAYID'S CAT (on the island), and CHARLIE PACE on the mainland (in his post-death visit to Hurley).
In a future Lost episode we may even learn that the island is leveraging its unique energy properties-- in a distinctly BOHMIAN fashion-- to unfold/unpack the Mind/Memories and the BODY of RA, explicating this person right in front of our viewing eyes, in the form we have come to know as RICHARD ALPERT, CEO of the ANKHST line of anti-aging creams and retro-Egyptian eyeliners....
Indeed, the BOHM view of bringing something into perceived reality-- namely, UNFOLDING Implicate Order into Explicate Order-- maps well to the notion of traveling along a downward path on the SEPHIROTHIC TREE OF LIFE (see my 4/21/09 "Sephirot" posting in this regard.) The example of using the island's energy/powers to 'recall' or unpack RA's Mind/Memories and Body from the Implicate Order, making RA manifest in the Explicate Order (to us as Richard Alpert) is an example of movement down the Sephirot, from the undivided, hologrammatic flux, the Unity/ONEness that Bohm calls the Implicate Order....
Movement in the opposite direction on the Sephirothic Tree of Life-- tracing a path up the trunk of the tree, from physical matter to energy to Unity/ONEness- corresponds to what Bohm calls ENFOLDMENT, namely ENFOLDING Explicate Order back into the Implicate Order. One prominent example of this now 'enfolding' on the island is LOCKE's death and subsequent resurrection, signaling he is now heading in an upward arc on the Tree of Life, toward a transmutation/transmigration from a physical/corporeal state to a stage of existence as a form of pure energy Mind/Soul (ala JACOB?), ultimately with the promise of achieving true and complete ENFOLDMENT back into the undivided, hologrammatic flux, merging back into the selfless Unity/ONEness of Bohmian Implicate Order....
In summary, the island anomaly, with its unique energy properties, may be serving as the functional equivalent of a JACOB'S LADDER to and from the Unity/ONEness of the Implicate Order. A veritable pathway up and down the Sephirothic Tree of Life, enabling movement between the Explicate Order of our perceived, manifest world, and the hidden, undivided, holographic Implicate Order....
LOCKE is involved in an ongoing process of 'enlightenment', moving up the JACOB'S LADDER/Tree of LIfe, moving from existence on the material plane, transmuting into pure energy Mind/Soul (in some future episode, ala Jacob), and finally enfolding back into the Unity/ONEness of GOD.... One can also move down this ladder, from God (Implicate Order) to the Material World/Applications (Explicate Order). As per my Brotherhood of the Snake theory, ALPERT and others may be FALLEN ANGELS who have been banished from the IMPLICATE ORDER of Unity/ONEness/God, the NEPHILIM who have fallen from Heaven to this ISLAND on Earth....
Hmmm.... How interesting to note that it was a Man of Science-- BOHM-- who bridged the gap to achieve a superordinate, unified view of the universe reconciling Fate with Chance, Constancy with Variability and, indeed.... Faith with Science.... Locke and Faraday, brothers in ontological wholeness....4
Incident At 'Spacetime Creek Bridge': The Figurative Side Of The Season 5 Finale-
Like you, I'm anticipating that we'll witness some literal version of an explosive, incendiary, and life-threatening titular INCIDENT in the Season 5 two-part finale (episodes 5.15 and 5.16). Who will die? Will it be Faraday, and/or someone else? Lately I've been harboring a suspicion that the Lost creative combine may spring a second, more figurative take on 'The Incident', riffing on that classic AMBROSE BIERCE short story:
"
"An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" (sometimes called "An
Incident at Owl Creek Bridge") is a
short story by
Ambrose Bierce. It was originally published in 1890, and first collected in Bierce's 1891 book,
Tales of Soldiers and Civilians. The story is famous for its irregular time sequence and
twist ending... Set during the
American Civil War, "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" is the story of Peyton Farquhar, a
Confederate sympathizer condemned to die by
hanging upon the Owl Creek Bridge of the title. The main character finds himself already bound at the bridge's edge at the beginning of the story. It is later revealed that a disguised Union scout enlisted him to attempt to demolish the bridge, and subsequently he was caught in the act."
My thought is that Darlton and crew may choose to utilize the spacetime compression and irregular time sequencing plot devices as yet another, new structural/narrative approach, another novel 'riff' on the flashes, to reveal more about the true nature and origin of the island's original inhabitants, presented to us as one of the Others (Richard Alpert?) flashes through a veritable spacetime 'highlight reel' of their associations with key Lost characters on the mainland, at key points in their fate-ful lives, i.e., BREAKPOINTS of inflection, in the Worldlines of their lives, tracing through Minkowskian spacetime....
More specifically, this subplot would mirror the narrative structure of the 'Owl Creek Bridge' incident by playing Richard Alpert's (or even Jacob's?) highlight reel of their interaction with key Lost characters' lives on the mainland, and with the Others and the litany of Other leaders (including Widmore, Ben, and Locke).... all playing out for us in a compressed 'highlight reel' mode, with a twist ending in which the 'protagonist' (Alpert?) dies and ascends to a higher stage of enlightenment, a higher plane of energetic existence on the Sephirothic Tree of Life....
Of course, it would be fun to see the formative events in the lives of our cherished Lost characters play out in a 'highlight reel' format, through the eyes of an ageless wonder like Alpert, throughout the course of human history.... spanning from ancient times (Sawyer 'walking like an Egyptian'?!) to present, to even the future (will Aaron or Charlie H. marry Ji Yeon?)
And, per my prior musings in the 4/21/09 "Sephirot" posting, will we ever get to see JACOB incarnate as an Alpertian ageless wonder, walking among us in the land of the living?
Time will, indeed, tell....
Dr. Todd J. Hostager
P.S. Although we've been told the island has 'unique' energy properties-- at least in terms of what DHARMA had encountered up to the point at which the orientation film was made-- like you, I'm wondering if one of the Season 5 'reveals' will involve Faraday or someone else (Candle? Hawking?) disclosing to us that per the various Energy Grid/Vile Vortices Theories, there is MORE THAN ONE ISLAND, i.e., there is more than one island with profoundly magical powers, spacetime and otherwise, existing and operating on Earth. It will be interesting to see what the DHARMA station located at the ULURU/AYRES ROCK site looks like, how it functions, and what it can do....
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ENDNOTES:
1. Please see my 2/20/07 "Quantum Connections" posting for my initial applications of David' Bohm's fascinating theory to Lost.
2. For more information on the fascinating phenomenon of QUANTUM TELEPORTATION, please see:
3. For more information on Bohm's framework and his views on the Two Slit Experiment, please see:
4. As per my recent postings, I suspect that through the death and resurrection of Locke, we may be witnessing an ongoing transformation from Locke as knife-wielding, weather-linked god MAAHES, to Locke as an enlightened,, spell-casting magician and god of Island faith, THOTH.... Hmmm.... Now I'm wondering if it may be possible for the famous FOUR-TOED STATUE to actually be a MALE version of a Lion-based Egyptian god. In this case, MAAHES would certainly fit the bill... Although it is still true that the 'basket-like' head adornment and the ANKH-like hand-held symbols strongly mirror the female god TAWERET.... If Darlton and crew have gone with an amalgam of MAAHES and TAWERET, it will be interesting to see whose face is on the statue.... Is it LOCKE's chiseled visage? Or?