LA X - Redux

Three LOST posts in a row? I must be on fire.

WARNING: Spoilers from LOST season 6 premiere.


This is going to be really short, a continuation of what I wrote yesterday. I just read a theory on Lostpedia which very closely mimics my point that the alternate reality is what happens if they never landed on the Island and thus did not detonate the bomb.

It actually resolves the issue of the alternate reality and it's purpose. Here's the theory: The alternate reality is the main reality. It is the original reality and metaphysically speaking it is the first thing that happens. What we've been seeing in the past 5 years, what we call the main reality of season 6 is actually the reset.

So in the alternate reality, something causes these characters to band together to reset their universe to save the Island (and potentially stop the MIB or something). How on earth they do this or find out about this I don't know. I'm not exactly positing my belief in this theory, just that it would really be an insane twist. It would also resolve the issue of "why them?" They would be chosen because they were chosen by themselves in a previous reality, emphasising the power of free will and choice and not pre-determination or destiny. They made their destiny.

EDIT: The same thing can be seen with the Incident, which the Losties always caused. Since they caused the Incident, they created the need for the Hatch and therefore they caused their own flight to come crashing down. Like the compass it's one heap of circular logic and I love it.

LA X - Some more thoughts...

WARNING! Spoilers from the LOST season 6 premiere!


Just to recap my main predictions from yesterday, since they were a bit muddled up...

1. The man in the cabin was actually MIB's "soul," which Jacob divorced from his body of the Smoke Monster, hence the monster's acting out the Island's/Jacob's will.
2. In the alternate timeline Sun and Jin are not married. Hence why she was addressed as Miss Paik.
3. Christian's missing body will be very, very significant.
4. MIB's name will either be recognisable to us OR the name holds mystical power over MIB.
5. Sayid is not being possessed by Jacob.
6. MIB's comment to Richard about chains may or may not be literal. Either way they will have a metaphorical meaning and will harken back to a shared past they had, shown in flashback.
7. This season will really revolve around MIB and that there will be a storyline/episode where each character will interact significantly with MIB in their own centric episodes.
8. MIB's "home" is not as simple as just going back to the Temple. It either references the outside world or the Temple is a portal to elsewhere.
9. And something I've believed for a very long time ... Christian is his own entity and this will be revealed midway through the season.

Anyway, I'm about to explain my next prediction. It's my way of 'solving' the two realities and how the Island sunk.

I'm seeing a lot of chatter about people calling the 'main' reality the one in which Jughead did not detonate or that the plan failed, whilst in the alternate reality Jughead detonated and reset everything, ie, the plan worked.

I propose that such a dichotomy doesn't work and is fundamentally flawed. I say this because in the reality where it did work you would just be introducing a massive grandfather paradox. If they sunk the Island with the bomb then they never would've landed and never traveled back in time to detonate the bomb. This, of course, presupposes the idea that these two realities co-exist and have always co-existed. It could be that the detonation of the bomb is what caused the universal rift, in which case the grandfather paradox does not apply.

I would suggest, ironically, that the main reality is where Jughead exploded and that in the alternate reality Jughead did not explode.

Hear me out.

My wording is actually misleading, as that still gives us the wrong dichotomy. Rather than saying the difference in these realities has to do with Jughead or the plan, I'm going to say that what separates them is if the Losties landed or not. So in the main reality the Losties did land and in the alternate realities, the Losties did not land.

That is, the alternate reality is not showing us a reset of any sort. It is showing us what it would be like if the Losties never landed at all!

The implications of them never landing are quite interesting. If they never land then none of the events of the past 5 seasons happen (duh) including Ben turning the wheel, them time skipping and Locke turning the wheel. No one will travel back in time to 1974 and the DHARMA Initiative. We know that the sunken Island has the DHARMA Barracks, so the Island existed until at least they arrived.

Potentially, this means that Radzinsky was still around and was the nutcase we saw in season 5. It means they would've attempted to drill into the pocket at the Swan site. Except this time no time traveling Losties to warn them of the dangers and especially no Losties to drop the bomb down the shaft.

To me this would strongly indicate that the Jughead explosion is what caused the Incident. That is, it somehow interacted with the electromagnetic pocket in such a way to necessitate the construction of the Swan and the button to contain that energy. This means WHH (Whatever Happened, Happened) is preserved. This in itself isn't exactly a new idea, it's been debated for quite some time. Where my own idea comes in is that WHH is also preserved in the alternate reality.

In the alternate reality, no bomb is dropped to contain the energy. Therefore the pocket of energy spirals out of control, and possibly is it as a result of this that the Island sinks. WHH is preserved. The Losties never crashed on the Island, so they never travel back in time so they never drop the bomb and stop the pocket of energy. And no grandfather paradox.

I don't think this is too farfetched and definitely within the realm of possibility as a reveal on the show. How they would do this I have no idea, perhaps LOST is not done with Eloise Hawking the time travelin' Nanna just yet.

So yeah, my next prediction is:

WHH is preserved. Alternate reality is one where the bomb never went off because the Losties never crashed. Similarly, the detonation of Jughead is what causes the Incident in the main reality.

*** *** ***

Another passing though I had, and definitely not a prediction I subscribe to, but just had as a passing thought is that the main reality is actually the alternate reality. The "what if" reality. That is, the reset actually worked. The alternate reality is the real reality and the events on the Island is what if the bomb didn't work, what would happen? So that way they are able to give us all the answers, but still have one game-changing twist at the end. We wouldn't be cheated because we know the story-that-could-have-been. It would also adhere to Damon and Carlton's prediction that immediate reactions to the finale may not be positive, although over time they will come to appreciate it.

Lost S06E01-02 - LA X

WARNING: SPOILERS FOR LOST. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.


My God. So much to think about given what was shown. I'm not gonna go into length,  I find writing those to be quite a chore and probably one for people to read as well, especially when I'm proven wrong. So I'll just list my thoughts off as they come.

Terry O'Quinn is a genius. 'nuff said. That look he gave Ben when he said "I want to go home." *shiver*

So I was wrong about MIB not being Smokey. I'm okay with that. The only issue they have now is to explain Smokey's obedience to Ben and how it seemed to have a programmed function of scanning and killing selected people (and the Pilot for no reason). Perhaps this is the same reason he couldn't kill Jacob himself.

I remember watching an interview of Michael Emerson ages back and the interviewer pointed out that the entirety of season 3 was based around Ben and Juliet, as the enigmatic Others where all the drama revolved. I suspect MIB/Flocke will play that role for season 6. Every ep will focus on him, and I suspect he will have personal interactions between most of the characters ... in a way that reveals their true character and at the same time reveals some part of his plot.

What is "home"? I think that's one of the most important questions. It could be the Temple, hence the TempleOthers' barricading it when they find out Jacob is dead. But it did seem he had free access to the Temple wall and was described as a security system. So maybe the Temple has a portal to somewhere else? I'd say maybe he wants to go to the outside world and the Island serves as a prison, BUT we have Christian (in white tennis shoes) who appears off-Island to Jack. That did seem like a Smokey automaton, but I also believe Christian is his own entity. There's Kate's vision of Claire off-Island as well ... So it would seem as if Smokey had some influence off-Island (though this could've been the Island's power).

One thought I had was maybe his home is the alternate reality we are seeing the flashsideways ... We was witnessing a world in which MIB was taken away. So without a need for the Island, it sunk and many of the lives of our Losties were changed because they didn't have any particular destinies.

Aha! Epiphany. Perhaps MIB was separated from Smokey at some point. Oh oh! Maybe MIB and Smokey were never really together. That's why no one was suspicious of Flocke at first because no one ever thought MIB had shape-shifting abilities... Nah but wait, that wouldn't work because the TempleOthers knew to put out the ash ... Well, perhaps MIB and Smokey were one and some point in history, MIB's "soul" was extracted from Smokey and imprisoned in the cabin. Ash was placed around the Cabin so Smokey could not reach in and become whole again. This way Smokey becomes a souless machine merely fulfilling it's job. Hence Smokey in seasons 1-3/4. Once the ash circle is broken, MIB is able to escape, reunite with his body and puts his plan into action.

I say this because it be reconciles MIB and Smokey. I think it's clear that Locke and Ben went to the Cabin and that apparition they saw was MIB pleading for help. The ash circle was complete and so was acting to keep him in. (Perhaps in the past it was used to keep MIB out and Jacob safe in the cabin ... but at some point this changed) Despite being imprisoned, Smokey was still floating about the Island doing it's thing.

Jumping trains of thought completely ... These flashsideways ... Eugh, I'm not sure what to make of them. Damon and Carlton have both said that they're both real and important and it's the relationship we should be focusing on. That is they're not simple what-ifs. The sunken Island was post-Dharma ... I don't believe it had to do with jughead's explosion, as they wouldn't sink an island. Something sunk it and I think we will find out what, but honestly I don't think there's any info that will illuminates us.

As for the alternate reality ... I don't think it was caused into existence by jughead - that's only what we're lead to believe. I think the blast always happened and caused the incident and its side-effect was to blast our peeps to 2007. In the other reality can't simply be "if the blast worked" because that would just be one giant grandfather paradox, hence why I think the Island sunk for another reason.

Alternatively, perhaps the very nature of the grandfather paradox is what caused an alternate reality to happen, so both realities could happen.

I do think the alternate reality has substantial relevance to the main plot, outside of simple character stories. But what I could not possibly imagine.

The mysteries of the TempleOthers is what will be explored this year, in addition to Flocke. They will have some importance to the overall arc, but I don't think any greater importance than any of the other arcs. I am interested in seeing their precautions ... are they aware that their enemy is Smokey? Or is this simple protocol, ie "If Jacob dies spread ash circles around the temple" without them really understanding it's significance? Because Richard and the Others all seem pretty complacent regarding MIB ... whilst Illana and Bram are the only two at all concerned.

MIB's comment to Richard about chains ... Perhaps a red herring? We're lead to believe Richard was a slave on the ship, OR that some situation occured where he could himself in chains on the ship (like a mutiny). I'd like to think that Richard is older and more important than that. I think Richard, MIB and Jacob were all "friends" at some point, ie they talked. And during these talks MIB would always mention to Richard that he was chained to Jacob. Hence why his comment to Richard would let him recognise who it was.

Sayid's revival? I'm not sure what to make of it. Perhaps there is another entity possessing him... Damon and Carlton both indicated that that particular story would unfold in the coming eps. Do I think it's Jacob? No. That would just be too much shapeshifting, I'd think. No, I think that Jacob's proxy will be through Hurley, talking to him from beyond the grave. So that leaves Sayid maybe also being MIB (unlikely) ... or maybe, just maybe Sayid was revived.

EDIT: I wouldn't have any strong objections if it turned out that Locke was revived into Sayid's body. Dunno how that'd work ... but would be interesting.

EDIT: As for Christian's body disappearing ... That certainly is interesting. Is Jack destined not to get the closer he needs with his father? Or perhaps everything else that is different is just a red herring, and Christian's body disappearing is a constant? That is, in the normal reality the coffin disappeared as well, which is why Christian's body is not on the Island? (Doesn't explain the coffin appearing though, but I thought it was interesting).

EDIT: There must be something about MIB's name, which is why they're hiding it from us. Perhaps they'll never reveal it. But it also should be noted that Bram, who seems to know full well what MIB is and what he is capable of, actually asks "Who are you?" in the foot. And when Richard recognises him, his first action is to hit Richard's throat, as if to mute him from saying his name. Could there be some sort of power over MIB if you used his real name?? I can't see the reveal being useful at all, unless it's a name we all know like Aaron.

EDIT: Finally, in the airport customs office with Sun and Jin. The security guard addresses Sun as Ms Paik, rather than Mrs Kwon. That's interesting ... could it be in this timeline they've not married yet???

And if he was truly revived then there is still hope for Locke coming back. Which is more than anyone could hope for.

Free will?

I've opined in the past about my love of the semi-consciousness right before one becomes completely lucid from sleep and the crazy thoughts one can have in this state. I've composed many a story and many an essay from these disentangled mess of thoughts. So it should come as no surprise that this morning my thoughts went to tackle the problem of free will in a deterministic universe. (If you're a LOST fan as I am, then perhaps it really is no surprise it was this morning, what with free will being perhaps the most prominent theme of the show and with the final season premiere tomorrow.)

It wouldn't surprise me if every first year philosophy student in pretty much every university around the world will tackle this issue. Not only is it supremely old problem and therefore has an extensive literature for newly matriculated students to peruse, but I find it a useful heuristic to discern the actual philosophy students from those that will never get it. It's really a matter of properly understanding the different arguments that have been proposed and whether or not people can ask meaningful questions of these positions and arguing a point.

Very basically, you've got two sides to metaphysics: Determinists and non-determinists, most people falling into either category or at least leaning towards one pole on a spectrum. Determinism argues that people are merely extensions of the basic laws of physics that govern our universe and therefore one could theoretically, given all the variables, know how another person will behave. Non-determinists, I would define, are those that argue that there are at least some instances in which these physical laws can be defined, for instance, human free will.

Of the determinists you can further dichotomise. Compatibilists  and Incompatibilists. The latter argues that free will and determinism are incompatible and therefore if the universe is determined then free will is but an illusion. Compatibilists, on the other hand, argue they are compatible and most variations of the argument try to change the definition of free will, which escape the initial problem entirely and I've always found to be quite weak.

Given current scientific literature, it seems to indicate quite strongly for a deterministic universe. Advances in physics but also in neuroscience showing how fundamentally our perception of reality and rational thought can be usurped by a handful of damaged neurons (I am talking about, of course, Anosognosia, one of the most interesting conditions I've read about) all push towards determinism.

Anyway, deep in my semi-lucid state, I started thinking about the implications of quantum physics on this deterministic view. Things like the double-slit experiment, in which an electron will randomly pass through one of two slits, also seem to indicate indeterminism. Plenty of attempts to explain away this random behaviour (many worlds theory, for example) and no doubt more attempts to search for some underlying deterministic principle/law that governs where the electrons will go.

Interestingly, there is some correlational evidence to suggest the results of these random generators are heavily skewed to one side given mass global events (such as 9/11), which gives credence to some psychic form of phenomena.

After I had my thought I did a quick and brief search out there to see if there was any kind of theory out there similar to mine and I found some related, but nothing definitive. But then again, it might've been the physics jargon that completely went over my head.

The brain has an immense density of neurons, it's actually quite ridiculous when you read about the numbers. But each one of these neurons is made up of atoms and subatomic particles and even smaller ones (quarks etc). And at this quantum level, things such as spin and movements and such all have some level of randomness.

What if the human free will, or the soul if you will, were able to influence this randomness? If a bunch of electrons and their wave functions all collapse in a certain way then a certain neuron will fire or a certain chemical imbalance is created which then causes the behaviour. At least to me this idea does not seem implausible. What excites me about it is that you are able to retain the notion of a deterministic and scientifically valid universe AND that of free will. (Though I suppose you could argue that my acceptance of the premise of a fundamental randomness already undermines that of determinism. In which case you probably have a good point, and I would ask you to think of this rather as me trying to reconcile a scientific universe and free will)

Thinking of free will as directly acting on the universe will always cause problems (think mind-body problem). But recasting it as an indirect influence ... I think this reconciles the two seemingly opposite notions. Not having this idea would leave one with still the quantum randomness in the brain (and indeed the rest of the body) which indicates that humans were inherently totally random and capricious. At least this way we retain some semblance of a soul and can understand that very strong belief I think we all have of actual free will. That is, it's clear to everyone that they first want to do something and then have the brain chemical reaction which then causes the actions, which contradicts most scientific models that the neuronal impulse occurs which both causes your conscious awareness of it and the action at the same time (which would definitely be an exercise of determinism).

Amazing how in a semi-conscious state I would've thought something like this up. Usually my ideas lack any tangible logic, as far as I can see, this seems to have a logic throughline. Then again, you might argue that it's not amazing at all and I was always going to think this up in that state ...

Let's talk about conspiracy

Don't have much of a goal in mind, just a ramblin' stream...

The other day I was thinking about conspiracy. Don't ask me why. I recalled that once on the AW forums someone, I can't for the life of me remember who, talked about how entertaining notions of conspiracy was indicative of open-mindedness, that you were questioning and not blindly accepting the establishment. I recall distinctly that I repudiated his argument by telling him he was basically saying that you were either a rational conspiracist or a blind sheep listening to the government. Whatever happened to the people who had rationally evaluated conspiracy claims and believed them to be stupid?

On top of that, I also mentioned that conspiracy theories were by definition illogical (or at least irrational). Trying to push them as rational/logical is about the same as a Theist pushing religion as rational/logical. I pointed out that if, in the future, by some miracle, this particular conspiracy was proven to be correct, that the people of the future would not look back at us and at him in particular and "worship" him or give credence to his insight or call his actions logical.

It was my position, and still is, that logic is not predicated on the result and is rather about the process. In the same way I think about discrimination ... A company that has equal proportions of African Americans and Caucasian is not a non-racist community. In fact, I would wager that if they deliberately worked towards some racial quota then race directly entered into the process and therefore making them racist. As long as a company does all it can to give equal opportunity to all races, then as far as I'm concerned, their primary concern in the process is hiring the people most qualified for the job. Now if it should turn out that no African Americans are qualified for the job, then how can we judge the company? So long as the race wasn't the reason for ineligibility and they had equal opportunity to apply ...

In this same way logic is not about the result but is based on the process. If you asked me whether it would rain tomorrow, I could tell you "yes." In situation A I could look at weather charts and make a prediction based on meteorological models. In situation B I could have flipped a coin and said if heads it would rain. Now if it turns out that it did in fact rain, by this person's thinking, in both situations I would have made the logical decision, which is, of course, quite absurd.

So far nothing I've said is really groundbreaking. I'd've thought it quite obvious, but apparently not so to this individual. I got to thinking, however, about why this kind of retro-active result ever entered into our consciousness. I supposed that it had something to do with the stereotypical modern day Capitalism, where the ends justify the means. This kind of thinking became entrenched and, perhaps not coincidentally, the conspiracy theories started to develop at the same time.

In my philosophy course last semester, my lecturer mentioned as an aside one philosopher (again, can't remember) whose major tenet was that conspiracy was based on our own fear that the world does not make sense. That it places an ease on our cognitive load to have a responsible being in charge.

Which of course brought me to God. I don't think it too far of a stretch to put my previous ideas of logic back onto ideas of God. In that if in the future God does come down to Earth and smites Richard Dawkins, I do not believe the people of the future would look back at modern day Christians and call them rational. Atheists in particular aren't going to look back and call our contemporary non-believers (ie, everyone who doesn't spend their lives masturbating over The God Delusion) illogical. Christians aren't going to look back and think our Christians any more or less intelligent than they already did. Surely, the Christians in particular, would look back and acknowledge the unyielding faith of these people?

Reminds me of another philosopher I read in that same course, but this time I remember his name. Foucault. He described the qualitative change in experience over something like an 80 year gap in which public displays of power and authority were supplanted by the panopticon, an ethereal crude 'Big Brother' where people internalised the power of the external world. I remember quite distinctly asking in one of our tutorials about whether this development either was because of or caused a shift away from God as external to God as internal. The move away from the Bible as literal to metaphorical.

He had no answer for me.

And I haver no answer for you.

NEW LAPTOP :D

Over the past few weeks I've been desperately trying to convince my parents to get me a new laptop. For awhile there, it looked like that was gonna be my Christmas present, but that never eventuated. Ironically, the laptop we did end up getting was the one I would've got for Christmas ... but at a $400 cheaper :D Not only that, we pretty much didn't have to pay a single dollar for it. If I felt lucky I'd try to convince my parents to get me a new technological device every coupla weeks, if not just to sell back onto eBay.

Spent the afternoon downloading all the crap I knew I would need for it. Here's my list of absolute must-have programs to help my transition between laptops.

• Google Chrome (I made the official jump today :D)
• iTunes
• iTunesKeys
• Quicktime Alternative Lite
• Real Player Alternative Lite
• Real Media Player
• Foxit
• Sumatra PDF
• Messenger Plus + associated ad patches
• Seesmic Desktop (I tried Seesmic Windows today, but didn't like that at all)
• AVG

Tomorrow I'll be getting PeerGuardian2, probably a torrent client ... An Office Suite would be nice. I might invest in an anti-Malware type folder just in case.

Had a devil of a time trying to import all my new music. I discovered iTunes had a "Automatically import songs" folder so that you could drag and drop files there and it would sort it for you. But this mustn't work as intended as my 30gb suddenly became over 50gb. Duplications abound. After like 4-5 tries, I decided to use the tried and true method of just drag-and-drop into iTunes itself. This worked out fine, except for inexplicable duplications. 1 hour of manual deletions later and we're fine.

While I was at it I finally removed AC/DC from my music. Why the fuck it was even there in the first place is anyone's guess.