| (Written text completed on 3/7/08 at 7:38pm, CST.) (Concluding portions of the wormhole/brane section, including thoughts about season six and the series finale, were added on 3/8/08 at 12:04pm, CST.) THE OTHER WOMAN: TEMPESTUOUS KRELL, WORMHOLES AND BRANE WARS, A TAIL OF TWO BUNNIES, AND QUANTUM COVERT OPS IN WIDMORE'S MILITARY-INDUSTRIAL-COMPLEX  We all knew it would be hard to follow on the heels of such a masterful, mind-flashing episode as "The Constant", but all in all, those of us whose interests lie more on the scientific side of things were able to scrounge a few choice morsels on which to chew.... Hmmm.... "Rabbit today? This didn't have a number on it, did it?" (More on the double-bunnies, later....) Those Tempestuous Krell: Wizards Of Id- I'm sure we all 'flashed' on the more obvious implications arising from the name of the island's energy station- The Tempest. In addition to referencing one of Shakespeare's renowned works, the name invokes a connection to that classic 1956 sci fi movie-- "Forbidden Planet"-- starring Walter Pidgeon, Anne Francis, and a yet-to-find-his-Naked-Gun-funny-bone Leslie Nielsen. One of my most memorable movie theater experiences was viewing this film in its full sensorial glory, writ large on the wide screen during a mid-1980s film retrospective near the University of Minnesota campus. The Forbidden Planet (FP) connection has already been mined by many a Lost aficionado, so I won't belabor the points too much.1 Some examples of previously proposed parallels include the following:  "There is a sorcerer character who manipulates the other characters. On Lost, Benjamin Linus rules, or seem to rule, The Others, manipulating them and the survivors of Flight 815 with lies. Like Dr. Morbius and his attempts to control the great Krell machine, Benjamin tries to control the wish-fulfilling powers of the island. Ben tries to protect his daughter, Alex, from the romantic advances of Karl, as Morbius and Propero tried to protect their daughters. On Lost, the island itself is also a character like Prospero. It causes nearby ships to be wrecked on it and baffles the survivors with its mysterious powers. It seems to judge the survivors, either rewarding them with its healing powers or killing them. Like Forbidden Planet and The Tempest, there is a monster on the island in Lost. It is frightening and lethal, like the Forbidden Planet monster, not foolish and despicable like Caliban." (Source: http://lost.wetpaint.com/page/Forbidden+Planet+(The+Tempest)?t=anon)  Of course, the purpose and function of the Tempest as an energy station establishes a surface similarity to the ancient Krell device. The extent to which this parallel runs deeper is an issue that as yet remains unseen. Suffice it to say that I am certain I am not alone in my suspicion that in a future episode we may learn about some weird, ancient device still operating on the island  to produce effects not unlike those of the Krell device, perhaps even including the projection of the id onto the material world, as may turn out to be the case of our good 'ol, bad 'ol friend, the smokey monster. Will we first glimpse this device when the Flight 815 survivors finally make it to the temple? Will we see Locke clad in ancient robed garb, hands outstretched in worship of the ancient device, perhaps glad that he is finally getting some answers? Or, per prediction from last year's postings, through use of a new narrative structural device called the deep flashback (DFB), will we witness an expeditionary force landing on the island, strangely clad, speaking an ancient tongue, struggling to unload heavy components that will ultimately be joined to configure the Krell-device-equivalent? (Shades of STARGATE SG-1!) Will this force have journeyed to the island from Atlantis? Lemuria? And will we see how the device has been designed expressly to exploit the island's unique energy properties?  Here's hoping that all of these questions, and more, will be addressed through use of DFBs, as the series proceeds with its fifth and sixth exciting seasons. And wouldn't it be satisfying to learn that in addition to the Flight 815 survivors being connected to the island through the effects of prolonged exposure to the island's energy field, that the survivors are also connected to the island in 'karmic loops' as they cycle in-through-and-out-of-history, recurrently, living lives on the mainland, only to return, again and again in cycles of karmic recursion, to the island. I, for one, would LOVE to see Hurley in a past life, put in charge of the rations for the ancient expeditionary force delivering the Krell-like device to the island. "Dude, pass the clay tablets and stylus.... I've got some esculent comestibles to divvy up to the lads...." But where is all of this cycling going, and where are things headed as we move closer to season six? In short, what do the survivors have to do, once they return to the island in that final season? Natural Traversable Wormholes And The Cyclical Brane Wars- The key here lies in the creation of "traversable wormholes" that would allow matter to travel from one mouth to another, through the 'throat' of the wormhole:  "Lorentzian traversable wormholes would allow travel from one part of the universe to another part of that same universe very quickly or would allow travel from one universe to another. The possibility of traversable wormholes in general relativity was first demonstrated by Kip Thorne and his graduate student Mike Morris in a 1988 paper; for this reason, the type of traversable wormhole they proposed, held open by a spherical shell of exotic matter, is referred to as a Morris-Thorne wormhole. Later, other types of traversable wormholes were discovered as allowable solutions to the equations of general relativity, including a variety analyzed in a 1989 paper by Matt Visser, in which a path through the wormhole can be made in which the traversing path does not pass through a region of exotic matter. A type held open by negative mass cosmic strings was put forth by Visser in collaboration with Cramer et al., in which it was proposed that such wormholes could have been naturally created in the early universe."  Notice that the critical component in holding a traversable wormhole open is a spherical shell of exotic matter. Is this related to my "Island Compass" posting in which I proposed that the island was located on a sphere? Yes, absolutely! Here is where it all begins to come together.... What do I really think is going on, and where are we headed during the next two seasons, and what may the climax of the series finale entail? As the series continues to play out, don't be surprised to find easter eggs pointing us to the importance of cosmology in general, and the view from string theory, in particular. This will tie into the developing plot lines relating to wormholes. And interestingly enough, it will all tie in to the Adam and Eve skeletons in the cave.  What is going on? Following the lead of Visser (please see the above quote), I strongly suspect that we will ultimately learn that the island is part of a naturally created wormhole system which arose during in the early stages of the universe. The creation event produced a spherical shell of exotic matter, surrounding/encasing an inner physical core, comprised of elements that would ultimately form the island and its surrounding waters. How is the spherical shell produced and maintained? By the very nature of the 'black rock' substrate on which the island is founded. Following the lead of Lost blogger EyeMSick, I suspect that the creation event infused the black rock with very small, trace amounts of mirror/anti-matter.2 Thus the importance of the white/black symbols and the light/dark themes, interspersed throughout the series to date. And most definitely, a distinctly possible reason why the BLACK ROCK ship arrived on the island outfitted with MINING equipment and a ready labor force. Did the HANSO's build their empire in no small part through extracting and exploiting the powerful benefits of the island's black rock substrate, bringing it back to the mainland?  The black rock island substrate generates a spherical shell of exotic matter which, in turn, enables the opening of traversable wormholes, enabling the island to function as a 'hub' or connection in a naturally-created system of interconnected wormholes. One intriguing implication of this proposal is that this system may have played a role in the diffusion of life as we know it, across the universe. Will we find that it really is Adam and Eve, whose skeletal remains we have seen in the cave, on the island? Is the island truly the physical manifestation of the Garden of Eden, spawned at some early point in the universe? One point of discussion surrounding whether or not a wormhole is plausible concerns the energy/exotic matter required to hold the wormhole open. In this regard, the passage is instructive: "Morris, Thorne and Yurtsever pointed out that the quantum mechanics of the Casimir effect can be used to produce a locally mass-negative region of space-time. In this article, and subsequent work by others, they showed that negative matter could be used to stabilize a wormhole. Cramer et al. argue that such wormholes might have been created in the early universe, stabilized by negative-mass loops of cosmic string." (Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exotic_matter)  Again, what I am proposing is that an early-universe event created a sphere of exotic matter encircling an inner sphere of 'regular' matter comprised of elements that eventually would form the 'black rock' infused island and its surrounding waters. In addition to generating and sustaining the outer shell of exotic matter, the black rock island produces a "locally mass-negative region of space-time"; in effect, the entire island and the surrounding sphere of exotic matter comprise an interrelated system producing the Casimir effect. So we may in fact find out that the island itself is generating the Casimir effect, and the task or challenge thus becomes how to properly channel or control the effect, to obtain the results one desires. Was the island so attractive to DHARMA and others, precisely because it provided a naturally-occurring laboratory for exploring and exploiting a myriad of wormhole, electromagnetic, and other phenomena? If so, I would expect their devices to focus less on actually generating energy, Casimir effects, and exotic matter, and more on how to properly direct and control these naturally-occuring aspects of the island. Following the lead of Lost insights from the 'popularmechanics.com' site, as reported in the most recent Doc Jensen column,3 I agree that the 108-minute Swan hatch discharge will be revealed to play a role in all of this. My surmise is that the 'incident' which Dr. Candle/Wickmund/Halowax has referred to will ultimately be shown as a man-made disruption of the island's natural equilibrium or operating system-- namely a disruption of the island 'hub' in a naturally-created, interconnected wormhole transit system-- and that DHARMA or whoever was responsible for this incident designed and implemented a system in the Swan hatch to compensate for the incident's disruption. So where is all of this headed? The key here goes back to cosmology, in particular, the string theory version.... Ironically, this 'brane'-based view is not inconsistent with cyclical themes of death and rebirth as found in various world religions (karma, etc.):  "Faster than you can say 'Ekpyrotic Universe,' a movement has taken hold -- albeit like fingers on a ledge of eternal skepticism -- that would blow one of the basic tenets of the Big Bang to smithereens. Think parallel branes and five dimensions. Science never sounded so cool. The new idea would not replace the Big Bang, which has for more than 50 years dominated cosmologists' thinking over how the universe began and evolved. But instead of a universe springing forth in a violent instant from an infinitely small point of infinite density, the new view argues that our universe was created when two parallel "membranes" collided cataclysmically after evolving slowly in five-dimensional space over an exceedingly long period of time." (Source: http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/astronomy/bigbang_alternative_010413-1.html) If true, this may provide glimpses into the larger subtext informing the motivations of the survivors to return to the island, and what they must do on the island, in season six. More specifically, if our universe was created out of the collision of two four- dimensional branes, followed by the creation of the island/sphere hub as part of a larger, naturally-generated wormhole system, then the integrity and continued existence or our known universe, including planet Earth, may indeed turn out to be in jeopardy. Why? Because our existence within the current four-dimensional brane is threatened by another brane-collision event. In short, the model is one of recurring cycles of destruction and creation through periodic (albeit VERY long periods!) collisions among four-dimensional branes. Is it possible to pull a 'jumper', avoiding death and destruction by using the wormhole transit system to travel to a third brane-world-verse that will not be party to the impending, cataclysmic, brane-bashing event? Is this part of the secret knowledge that DHARMA and others may have in their possession (Hanso, Widmore, etc.)? And would it not be in the best interests of a self-interested, wealthy magnate to buy his way out of impending cosmic doom, securing for himself and his heirs a place in a safe, new (brane)world? Time and space will tell.... In the meantime, what might this tell us about what Jack and the rest of our intrepid band of survivors will do in season six, once they return to the island? Here is my best take to date on what we will see in this final season, and in the cataclysmic denouement we'll observe in the final episode.... Jack and crew will be back on the island, ultimately joining forces with (believe it or  not) Ben, to do battle with Widmore and his forces. At this time, I feel we'll see that Faraday and Charlotte will have converted away from the 'dark side,' to the 'light side' force with Jack and Ben. Locke's a wild card here, as like Luke, he may find it hard to resist the temptation of the dark side... Wouldn't it be funky to find out that his real father is.... Widmore? Locke as Luke, and Widmore as Darth Vader? WIDMORE: "Locke, I am your father!" LOCKE: "Noooooo.....!" Back to the island-task at hand in season six.... Per my above proposals, Widmore  will be pursuing self-interested ends/goals, leveraging and misusing the island's powers in ways that put the planet (and more) in profound jeopardy. That's why our heroes must return to the island and do battle with Widmore. But this is only the setup, as we will learn that once our heroes overthrow Widmore and regain control of the island's powers, in a flashes-of-Faraday-in-the-Tempest fashion they must now take steps to use these powers to avert the crisis at hand, which is the final payoff of the entire series, tying everything together into a nice, neat, string-theory-enabled bow. Here it is:  In the final episode, our heroes will have to use the island's powers to enact a COURSE CORRECTION, else the planet will be destroyed. Of course, one extant version of this denouement has been traveling in the orbit of our community of Lost thinkers for some time: They will use the island's powers to DEFLECT AN INCOMING ASTEROID, enacting an Earth-saving course correction. A second variant of this approach-- what one might reasonably call an LCC or a  'Localized Course Correction'-- is that our heroes may be called on to leverage the island's powers to save not only the Earth, but also to save the fate of the Milky Way galaxy, from the dark, gravitous clutches of... Yes, you guessed it.... an approaching or emergent BLACK HOLE.... How they would use the island's powers to address this threat in such a way as to attain a Course Correction that saves the galaxy is something that is still open to speculation. (Is this the source of Lindelof's comment to the effect that it will all end somewhere near the Crab Nebula?) But per my above proposals, I suspect that Lindelof and Cuse may have a far larger  scale of Course Correction in mind for us at series' end.... namely a CCC, or a "COSMIC COURSE CORRECTION". If the show does reveal a larger threat, on a cosmic/universal scale, then I would not be surprised to find our heroes battling with Widmore to gain access to the island's powers in order to save not only the Earth and the Milky Way Galaxy, but also to save the fate of the entire Universe as we know it. Will FATE work through our heroes and the island, to achieve the ultimate Course Correction of all time, saving our known Universe from the cataclysmically devastating BRANE DAMAGE that would result, if another brane were allowed to collide with our own....?  I suspect that Widmore will learn out about this impending cosmic cataclysm and develop a self-interested plan to create his own kingdom through transporting himself, his followers, equipment, valuables, foodstuffs, etc., through an island-enabled wormhole, from our brane to a third brane which is out of the path of the incoming brane that will collide with our own brane/universe. Our heroes will learn about this dire cosmic threat, but unlike Widmore they will work to leverage the island's powers to save the fate of our known brane/universe, enacting the ultimate COSMIC COURSE CORRECTION. If they fail, the other brane will collide with ours, enacting yet another cycle of creation through destruction producing, in an ironically karmic way, another new universe.... Orchid Hatch Rabbit Redux: A Tail Of Two Bunnies- Now, moving from the realm of the plausible to the possible-- the realm of hare-brained theory (sorry, I couldn't resist that one)-- how interesting that they are now finally beginning to (slowly) unpack the intriguing storyline presaged by the Orchid hatch film released last summer, with two #15 white rabbits and a very concerned Dr. Halowax. Quite naturally, speculation focused on: (1) how it was possible for two #15 bunnies to be copresent in near-spacetime proximity, and (2) why Dr. Halowax appeared to be so concerned that the bunnies be kept apart.  One set of theories has proposed that the Orchid hatch was engaged in TIME TRAVEL experiments, arising perhaps as a direct (or indirect) result of a Casimir Effect-contained wormhole. In brief, Dr. Halowax and his associates may have been investigating and fine-tuning the use of small, contained wormholes as a means of space-time travel and transport. What we witnessed in the Orchid hatch film was an apparently inadvertent and unexpected appearance of the space-time transported (Lamb shifted?) bunny #15 on a shelf behind Dr. Halowax, holding the bunny #15 that was sent through spacetime. How were two bunny #15's able to appear at the same time in such close spatial proximity? If time travel is involved, don't you send yourself through spacetime, i.e., you aren't creating and sending a copy of yourself through spacetime? Yes, when viewed from a time travel perspective, like Marty McFly and the DeLorean, you send yourself through spacetime and will appear to an observer at the time and place of your 'time travel event' to have disappeared into the elsewhere and elsewhen of spacetime. But if some of the Orchid hatch experiments were focused on wormhole-enabled time travel, and bunny #15 was a test subject in exploring this phenomenon-- all with an eye toward fine-tuning the effect for use as a means of transporting people, animals, and objects in a controlled manner across space and time-- why did we see two bunny #15's in the Orchid hatch film? Again, from a time travel perspective this is possible in theory, if the spacetime coordinates used to send the person (in this case, the bunny) were to overlap the spacetime coordinates of the person (bunny) as they existed prior to the time travel event (the simplest case) or after the event (more complicated). An example would be Marty McFly setting the DeLorean for a day, an hour, or even a minute in the past. In theory, we would see two Marty's that were so close in age, that they would  APPEAR to us to be the same person. Hence, it appears to us that the bunny #15 on the shelf is the same as the bunny #15 in Halowax's arms, only this is the bunny from another time, sent back (or forward) through time, to appear in close spatial proximity. But doesn't the proximate spatiotemporal copresence of two bunny #15's violate the anti-paradox stance of Cuse/Lindelof, let alone the Novikov "Self-Consistency Principle" and Stephen Hawking's "Chronology Projection Conjecture"?4 Hmmmm.... You may have a point, there....  Aren't there other potentially valid explations for the 'tale of two bunnies'? One intriguing alternative is suggested by Lost aficionados engaged in mining the insights available from a 'MIRROR MATTER' approach.5 Like the Forbidden Planet connection, this approach has been the subject of speculation by others for some time. Accordingly, I won't belabor the points but will merely highlight some key relevant insights for the present discussion. Put simply, a 'mirror matter' view suggests that the Orchid hatch experiments may have wittingly or unwittingly created an event that enabled a 'mirror matter' version of bunny #15 to enter and exist for a period of time in near spacetime proximity of the other bunny #15 creating, in effect, a potentially HUGELY problematic situation were the matter and anti-matter bunny #15's to rub noses or otherwise touch!  Yes, in terms of that Fifth Elemental exchange between LeeLoo and Korben Dallas, we might witness one "big badda boom!" However, one nagging question for the 'mirror matter' crowd is why the #15 appears on the same side of both bunnies, in the Orchid hatch film. If the second bunny is a 'mirror matter' bunny, why isn't the #15 on the other side of the bunny, or reversed in some other way/shape/form? (Indeed, try this one out.... hold up a picture of the bunny #15 in the mirror, and see what number it looks like, then turn the picture upside down, and see what number appears... Unfortunately, however, it's not fifteen....) Does this sound the death knell for a 'mirror matter' explanation for the appearance of two bunny 15's in the Orchid hatch film? Perhaps only (space)time will tell.... Are Those Bunnies Behind Door #3? Q.E.D. Through QT (Quantum Teleportation)?  In the meantime, there is a third alternative for us to consider, namely that the bunnies may turn out to reveal that some of the Orchid hatch experiments were aimed at exploring and fine-tuning a means of transporting people, animals, and objects through TELEPORTATION. No, this is not necessarily the same as time travel, although quantum teleportation (QT) might be developed to the point that it may be employed as a mechanism for engaging in time travel. Let me clarify.... Like the typical view of time travel as sending oneself, an animal, or object through spacetime, what is sent through spacetime via QT disappears right in front of the eyes of an observer present at the place and moment of the time travel event. However, unlike the typical view of time travel, say through a wormhole, QT does NOT send the original person (or animal or object) through spacetime; instead, the very process of preparing the original for teleportation destroys the original:  "Teleportation is the name given by science fiction writers to the feat of making an object or person disintegrate in one place while a perfect replica appears somewhere else. How this is accomplished is usually not explained in detail, but the general idea seems to be that the original object is scanned in such a way as to extract all the information from it, then this information is transmitted to the receiving location and used to construct the replica, not necessarily from the actual material of the original, but perhaps from atoms of the same kinds, arranged in exactly the same pattern as the original. A teleportation machine would be like a fax machine, except that it would work on 3-dimensional objects as well as documents, it would produce an exact copy rather than an approximate facsimile, and it would destroy the original in the process of  scanning it. A few science fiction writers consider teleporters that preserve the original, and the plot gets complicated when the original and teleported versions of the same person meet; but the more common kind of teleporter destroys the original, functioning as a super transportation device, not as a perfect replicator of souls and bodies." So ironically, if one wishes to adopt an anti-paradox stance and avoid problems associated with meeting oneself in another place and/or time, since QT destroys the original, it offers an attractive alternative for instantaneously transporting people, animals, and objects from the island to the mainland (and vice-versa.) Taking a page from the 'Star Trek' franchise and its concept of the 'transporter', one significant benefit of destroying the original is employing a filter to 'clean out' unwanted disease or aging (Richard Alpert?), prior to reconstituting the 'pattern' as  a filtered copy, in another location. While Star Trek references and visions of Jeff Bridges derezzing at the computer station in Tron may make QT seem like an idea whose reach will always remain outside the realm of effects on physical matter in the macroscopic world, think again.... Building on the Caltech findings reported in my "Quantum Connections" posting from last year, a group of researchers has recently reported the "First Quantum Teleportation Between Light And Matter": "Researchers at the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics in Garching and the Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen have succeeded in transferring a quantum state of light to a material object - an ensemble of atoms. The concept of quantum teleportation - the disembodied complete transfer of the state of a quantum system to any other place - was first experimentally realised between two different light beams. Later it became also possible to transfer the properties of a stored ion to another object of the same kind. A team of scientist headed by Prof. Ignacio Cirac at MPQ and by Prof. Eugene Polzik at Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen has now shown that the quantum states of a light pulse can also be transferred to a macroscopic object, an ensemble of 10 to the power of 12 atoms (Nature, 4 October 2006). This is the first case of successful teleportation between objects of a different nature - the one representing a "flying" medium (light), the other a "stationary" medium (atoms). So my idea for applying QT to produce macroscopic effects is not looking as far-fetched or pseudoscientific as it might have appeared, at first blush. But while QT may ultimately be leveraged as a means of instantaneous travel, since in its current state of development it destroys the original, it remains problematic as an explanation for the two #15 bunnies, unless per the standard time travel option, the copy is sent back in time, to the same place and time as the original. Hmmm.... Actually, that does have some appeal as an explanation, over and against the standard time travel scenario, as it is an exact COPY (albeit NOT mirror-reversed) that is copresent with the ORIGINAL, and this may have some interesting implications in terms of the extent to which a teleported copy meeting the original, in the past, may actually not violate all aspects of the paradox problem.... What's The Big Deal Wid' Dose Bunnies, Already? Omniscience Through QE? Interestingly enough, the Orchid hatch 'double-bunnies' point to one of the more intriguing clues dropped into a recent Doc Jensen interview with Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof: Omniscience. In that interview, Cuse defined omniscience as "to be in more than one place at a time."6 While appearing in more than one place at the same time technically qualifies as OMNIPRESENCE, it is interesting to consider the means or mechanisms through which we might achieve omnipresence and take that next step beyond to true OMNISCIENCE, i.e., a consciousness simultaneously spanning more than one physical presence or location.  The first step is attaining omnipresence. Is it possible to generate copies without destroying the original? Was DHARMA able to realize the vision identified in one of the earlier quotes, namely a teleporter that "preserves the original"? If so, we may be seeing the results of this device in action when the two #15 white rabbits are shown in the Orchid hatch film. While this still remains an open question, additional clues sprinkled throughout the show to date hint that it may be possible to be in two (or more) places at once, on the island. Aside from the 'double-bunnies', we have seen Walt appear to Sayid and Shannon in a rain-soaked jungle, this while being held captive by the Others, elsewhere on the island. And in tonight's episode we witnessed the dramatic appearance and subsequent disappearance of Harper, delivering the ominous mission to Juliet, in the presence of Jack. So these and other examples from the series are pointing beyond mere teleportation, to bilocation or omnipresence, as an ability made possible on the island. The second step is omniscience through non-local, quantum consciousness, distributed in time across space. Here is how it might work.... Say some egomaniacal industrialist with delusions of grandeur wished to 'play god' through being able to appear in more than one place at the same time.... say..... an omniscient Charles Widmore? How might this be achieved? You guessed it, through QT enabled by QE (Quantum Entanglement.) QE describes more precisely the aspect of QT that enables instantaneous communication and coordination of messages, non-locally. This has already been scientifically demonstrated; all Widmore needs to do is find a way to leverage the island's unique energy properties and channel this energy through a device, to produce a form of macroscopic QT that does not destroy the original, yielding spacetime clones of himself, linked through quantum entanglement to produce an approximation of a god-like, omnipresent and omniscient being. What a daunting prospect, indeed! What if it turns out that Charles Widmore (and/or  some other person) IS able to produce these effects? Being in more than one place at the same time.... All the while, being conscious in AND across these places.... Might this not provide an overwhelmingly unfair strategic and economic advantage? Again, is it possible to mimic the effect of the Star Trek Enterprise transporters, to 'filter' out unwanted diseases and aging, when creating a new spacetime clone (shades of the 'ever-fountain-of-youthful' Richard Alpert)? And might this not help to explain why we seem to be seeing copies of people we thought were mortally wounded or dead (Mikhail, Tom/Mr. Friendly)?  On a deeper level, doesn't this all sound a bit like it is bordering on the type of powers that we might expect of our good 'ol extra-dimensional buddy, JACOB? Is Jacob able to move the CABIN around the island through teleportation? And does this also not enable him to create spacetime clones of the cabin, helping to explain how the cabin may actually be able to appear in more than one place at the same time?  QT generates further interesting possbilities when we consider that some of the Orchid hatch experiments may have been focused on exploring and fine-tuning ways in which to use QT as a means of transporting more than mere messages, namely macroscopic matter, in the form of persons, animals, and objects.... From this fourth view, the second bunny #15 may not turn out to be: (1) the original bunny, sent through spacetime ala time travel; (2) a 'mirror matter' avoid-the-nose-rubbing-at-all-costs bunny; or (3) a QT copy meeting the original, via time travel; but instead may be (4) a spacetime copy generated through QE adapted to yield macroscopic effects.  In short, if through QT we can affect spin and configurations at subatomic levels, we may in fact discover ways to leverage this approach to affect spin and configurations at atomic and molecular levels, raising the possibility of not only creating spacetime copies at a distance, but also of realizing that age-old ALCHEMICAL dream of turning lead into gold. The basic approach would be to use QT adapted to higher levels, to cause changes in the atomic and molecular configurations of matter, enabling one to turn lead into gold, or even to create copies of objects or persons in time, across space (at different places or locations.)  One test of the QT hypothesis is if at some point we are shown the dead 'twin' (copy) of the Tunisian DHARMA bear, located on the island, or even in or near the Orchid hatch. In this regard, I wonder what a team excavating the area surrounding the Orchid hatch might find. This may also shine the interesting light of possibility on speculation that we may see a field of skeletons in a future Lost episode, reminding us in some manner of the pile of notebooks. However, beyond the surface similarity of the notebook pile, the QT approach raises some intriguing possibilities.... What if this field of skeletons turns out to be a 'Field of Screams', comprising the clonal remains of QT testing at the Orchid hatch? Are these the unfortunate spacetime copies who gave their lives in the service of the greater DHARMAN good, in the search for a viable means of spacetime transport? QT Covert Ops: Does Widmore Have A 'Military-Industrial-Complex'?  Widmore showing up on Ben's "Red Sox" tape, looking to find and exploit the island, poses all sorts of intriguing possibilities regarding the darker forces that may be at work, underneath the guises of DHARMA, the Hanso Foundation, and beyond. Indeed, in my "Soviet/DHARMA Psi Wars" piece from last year, I proposed that the CIA and the military may have been involved in a joint project with others (Hanso, DHARMA, Widmore?) to explore and exploit the island's unique energy properties, as a source of new weapons and strategic capabilities. Evidence supporting this view is scattered here and there, throughout the series, including references to a REMOTE VIEWING station, the construction of a sonic fence surrounding a compound (not altogether inconsistent with a military approach), and more....  Indeed, my "Soviet/DHARMA Psi Wars" posting provides an in-depth overview of relevant research by Dr. Harold Puthoff, Ingo Swann (Swan hatch!), and others, citing the prominent role played by the CIA and the military in exploring remote viewing and other techniques. Is it really that much of a stretch to suggest that Charles Widmore may turn out to have ties not only to DHARMA and the Hanso Foundation, but also to a deeper, darker military-industrial-complex in which he is playing a central role? I would not be surprised to learn in subsequent episodes that this is the case. And that Widmore (or whoever is occupying the 'Darth Sidious/Emperor' role) is 'playing' the military for his own deeper, darker, nefarious ends....  Think about the possibilities associated with a quantum-equipped fighting force.... Enhanced remote viewing capabilities, across space AND time, providing advanced warning and strategic advantage not unlike the precogs in Minority Report. The ability to transport people and equipment in an instant, across space, moving one's troops/forces to best strategic advantage, and out of harms way just as the bullets begin to fly. What if each soldier were equipped with a QT device enabling instant teleportation, just before the bullet or shell fragment hit them? Of course they would die, but a copy of them would be created elsewhere, instantly transporting them to safety. If this reminds you of some of what you have seen to date on Lost, and will see in future episodes, then QT may be at play, behind the scenes. (For example, the reappearance of Mihkail; and will we again see Tom/Mr. Friendly... and even.... Charlie?)  In addition, how would you like to face the attack of a force comprised of QT spacetime clones, wielding enhanced intelligence capabilities through the distributed 'computing' capabilities arising from the quantumly-entangled consciousness produced by a field of spacetime cloned soldiers.... And if it is possible to teleport people, animals, and objects, think of the possibilities in wiping out entire ranks or fields of opposing soldiers, through teleporting them to another, more distant, place and time. Perhaps this is what may help to explain the field of skeletons....  And how ironic that in future episodes we may see not only the crew of the Black Rock employing complex mechanical MARINE CHRONOMETERS to chart the location and timing of wormholes across the globe, but we may also see Widmore and others relying on this outdated yet functional time-keeping technology. Of course, the irony is that leveraging 'new school' science (wormholes, time travel, teleportation, etc.) can wreak havoc on 'new school' time-keeping devices which rely on electricity and comparatively fragile circuits. 'Old school' thoroughly mechanical devices like marine chronometers should prove invaluable in helping to establish the timing of events like wormholes, events whose energy types and levels will throw off calculations or even 'fry' the 'new school' time-keeping devices, entirely.... Copyright 3/7/08 by Dr. Todd J. Hostager ENDNOTES: 1. I referenced the Krell and Forbidden Planet in my inaugural HEMA Theory page, which debuted one day shy of 13 months ago (2/8/07.) I first began watching Lost in January, 2007, after my brother Dean handed me the Season 1 and 2 DVD sets and smiled. Not long into the pilot episode, and I was hooked for good. Like others who have noted the Forbidden Planet connections, I subsequently learned that these connections have been noted since the beginning of the show. Those who previously mined from this veritable wealth of connections are too numerous to mention here, but some examples include: One by SkipNewarkDE, posted on December 10th, 2005: And here is one from June 19th, 2006: And December 12th, 2006: Here are two interesting links, posted after my 2/8/07 referencing of Forbidden Planet as a connection for Lost. The first is 'Rich Pundit's interesting theory from the TailSection site, posted on 4/4/07: 2. Please see EyeMSick's Lost blog for further information, in this regard: 3. In this regard, please see the following page of Doc Jensen's Entertainment Weekly column: 4. Please see the following, for more information on the Novikov 'Self-Consistency' principle and the Hawking 'Chronology Protection Conjecture': 5. For an early incarnation of 'Mirror Matter' Lost theory, please see: Please see MikeNY's very interesting version of the 'Mirror Matter' approach, including his references to Foot and Forward: 6. This quote is taken from an insightful interview of Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof by Doc Jensen: | |