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Are Lost's New Time-Travel Physics Junk Science? Maybe Not..

popularmechanics.com — As if smoke monsters and tropical polar bears weren ’t enough to keep our heads spinning, Thursday’s episode of Lost, “The Constant,” opened up a whole new can of worms: the fourth dimension.

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  • WriterSD, on 03/04/2008, -15/+8Great article! The book mentioned sounds interesting. I'll have to order it!
    • rholland356, on 03/04/2008, -4/+6You'll have to READ it!
      • mykalimba, on 03/04/2008, -2/+1I believe WriterSD is referring to the book "Physics of the Impossible", mentioned in the PM article.
    • ogmak, on 03/04/2008, -1/+5I've studied this in my Physics and Philosophy class...
      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypotheses_of_conscio ...
      Right now, most are just conditions to explain phenomena like going back in time, time travel, and infinite people, all sound bogus but...then again, all theories.
    • WriterSD, on 03/07/2008, -0/+1That's EXACTLY what I was referring to (the book mentioned at the very beginning of the article). Thank you mykalimba. I believe the people who dugg down my quote had not read the ENTIRE article themselves.
  • mattnyc99, on 03/04/2008, -14/+2Is it just me, or does the Flux Capacitor not seem that far off? The Losties really did their homework on this one...
    • ccolec, on 03/04/2008, -4/+9I was waiting for Doc to show up in this episode, myself.

      "Desmond! Thank God I found you!"
    • stonebone4, on 03/04/2008, -0/+4Boats? Where we're going, we don't need boats.

      Seriously, because they'll just dump you right back out on the beach.
  • Spetz, on 03/04/2008, -7/+26I was thinking about this the other day. From my limited understanding of relativity, limited :) , I was thinking that the reason why they have to follow a specific bearing to leave the island without being time-warped is probably because of a singularity, or similarly large gravitational or energy field warping the space time about the island. To escape from it, you must go at an angle normal to the curve of space time. Travelling normal to space time, your path will be a straight line, differ to either side by a few degrees and you will have to go further to cover the same distance. Correct me if I'm way off someone, please.
    • Prototek, on 03/04/2008, -0/+5An angle normal to space-time would mean you are not traveling on the plane of space-time, which is impossible as far as I know.
      • Spetz, on 03/04/2008, -1/+5A better description would have been: If viewing the curve of space time from above, travelling at 90 degrees to the derivative of the curve. If that makes sense. Basically, the only straight line direction out of the singularity that meets all the lines of equipotentials at 90 degrees.
        • Prototek, on 03/04/2008, -0/+3If I'm understanding correctly, are you referring to a situation like that of the path a coin traces while in a coin vortex. Here's a picture of a coin vortex for reference: http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2844152230062 ...
          • Spetz, on 03/04/2008, -0/+3Yup, but that's a uniform singularity point, so you cross the equipotentials at 90 degrees no matter in which direction you travel. If the Lost island's effect is not uniform, there might be only one direction (the bearing) in which you cross all the equipotentials at 90 degrees.
          • colto, on 03/04/2008, -0/+9*head asplodes*
      • NJank, on 03/04/2008, -2/+7ahh... because smoke monsters ARE possible...
    • Oramified, on 03/04/2008, -1/+2I believe that is correct, although wouldn't speed be an important factor in addition to the bearing they are on?
    • stealthboy, on 03/04/2008, -3/+8The funny thing about spacetime is it's not three-dimensional. It's four. So flying in a helicopter "at an angle normal to the curve of spacetime" is meaningless. Also, we're talking speeds near the speed of light. Please, go read a few books on spacetime physics - you'll find them fascinating. Anything with enough mass and/or energy to warp spacetime in the size of the island would cause a lot more issues than are addressed in the show (like the end of the earth, our solar system, etc).

  • Gonz037, on 03/04/2008, -25/+4Try not to put spoilers in the titles huh?
    • DesertSquirrel, on 03/04/2008, -10/+34Yes, Lost is now COMPLETELY unwatchable because you now know that there is a time travel angle to the show.
      • Ramsxxxiv, on 03/04/2008, -8/+1Why does Time Travel make it "unwatchable"? If you have read any of the interviews with the producers you will find out that they are not going to use Time Travel as a crutch like Heroes has. Time Travel will not change the future you see in the flash forwards and the show will not take place in multiple universes.

        Frankly what did you expect was happening on the show? Time Travel is at least scientifically plausible unlike many of the other theories.
      • mywhitenoise, on 03/04/2008, -2/+3Even though the time travel angle was introduced in Season 3, and arguably Season 2.
      • Gonz037, on 03/04/2008, -4/+2I didn't say it would be completely unwatchable, did I? Personally, I already watched it, but THIS IS A ***** SPOILER none the less.
        • mykalimba, on 03/04/2008, -4/+1Hmm... anger management, anyone?
        • sysop073, on 03/04/2008, -3/+1not at all, that was a perfectly reasonable reaction to seeing a spoiler. on the internet of all places
    • Travisncs, on 03/04/2008, -1/+21desmond was "time traveling" in episodes in early 2007...wouldnt say it was necessarily a spoiler.
    • aefven, on 03/04/2008, -2/+0Hey the mans right... Spoilers and headlines don't mix regardless of magnitude.
  • Mr.Gone, on 03/04/2008, -7/+19We could go back in time and help Anon.... I mean that puppy. Yeah, the puppy is the new thing right?
    • SemiSarcastic, on 03/04/2008, -1/+5Next week: Windows user runs over linux users cat. I predict 5000 diggs with this one!
      • Mr.Gone, on 03/04/2008, -0/+8If he was talking on his iPhone and it was a lolcat it would be 15,000 easy. Make it a cracked top 10 and... well I think the internet would explode.
    • metapop, on 03/04/2008, -4/+4i still want to help ron paul
  • erkokite, on 03/04/2008, -4/+7I wouldn't rely on PM to tell me anything about physics.
    • mykalimba, on 03/04/2008, -0/+14I agree, but my subscription to Popular Quantum Mechanics lapsed, so PM will have to do for now.
  • trevorjez, on 03/04/2008, -7/+131last episode was the best lost episode to date. just stating the facts.
    • levendis7, on 03/04/2008, -15/+2And the least-watched, I believe.
    • mywhitenoise, on 03/04/2008, -4/+22It was certainly up there. Sayids episode was pretty damn good.
      • Hoogs, on 03/04/2008, -5/+1Which one was that again?
      • GeorgeStone2, on 03/04/2008, -1/+3I liked Sayids better too.
        There's something about assassinations..
    • fadetoone, on 03/04/2008, -6/+10I agree with mywhitenoise; Sayid's episode a few weeks back was fantastic. Not sure I like the whole time travel thing. The time on the island warping: cool. Time travel: not so much.

      Lost has two settings: boring and *****.
    • pleeker, on 03/04/2008, -0/+27All of the Desmond episodes have been great, going back a couple seasons now. Last week's was the best for sure, though.
    • daveisfera, on 03/04/2008, -16/+5I fail to grasp why it was interesting. No new information was revealed, and the whole idea of "the constant" was just flat out stupid.
      • GeorgeStone2, on 03/04/2008, -7/+4I agree.
        There wasn't even any kind of pseudo science behind the constant.
        Just stupidity.
      • iceblademan, on 03/05/2008, -1/+1Go watch reruns of the OC you two. Clearly this show is not for you
    • twotimesthru, on 03/04/2008, -0/+13For me, I have to say it ties with "Flashes Before Your Eyes," in Season 3, another Desmond-centric episode where we first learn of his journey after turning the fail-safe key...
      • mustbepatient, on 03/04/2008, -0/+5Yeah, that was my favorite. Sayid and Desmond seem to be the most interesting characters on the show.
    • mattsegal, on 03/04/2008, -1/+3agreed
    • undershirt, on 03/04/2008, -0/+3I thought the same thing man. I loved the idea of needing a constant to balance your mind between two time periods. So fascinating and indulging, unlike most of the mysteries this show has thrown at us. So I agree; it's the best Lost episode I've seen.
    • theundone, on 03/05/2008, -0/+2For sure. Every time Lost starts to bore me and I start thinking it's not worth watching, they throw one of these episodes in.
    • iceblademan, on 03/05/2008, -0/+1***** yeah
  • bromac, on 03/04/2008, -2/+28If time travel was possible, where's all the time travellers?
    • BigPapi, on 03/04/2008, -2/+59they took'ar jobs!!
      • bromac, on 03/04/2008, -2/+1If you take your grandfathers job, so he can't buy your grandma a drink, is that a paradox?
        • bmonet, on 03/04/2008, -0/+10Buy your grandma the drink instead and become your own grandfather. This will also help you with the brains later on because of your delta brain wave.
        • GeorgeXIV, on 03/04/2008, -0/+1In all seriousness, (I cant source this so someone may have to back me up) Einstein stated that if theoretically someone were to invent a time machine then time travel would not be possible before the first time machine was invented.
      • dafragsta, on 03/04/2008, -4/+2Dur-ka-dur!!
      • stonebone4, on 03/04/2008, -0/+2DERT DA DEURRRRRRRRRRRRRRR
      • shauncorleone, on 03/04/2008, -0/+3Don't worry, we can stop them. Back to the pile!
      • rossinio, on 03/04/2008, -0/+4Goddamn goobacks!
    • AdamaObama, on 03/04/2008, -1/+22Probably in mental institutions. That's where I'd look first.
    • rustchild, on 03/04/2008, -1/+14Warren Buffet is a time traveler. How else do you explain his stock portfolio?
    • OsiVert, on 03/04/2008, -0/+11depends if you use the Back to the Future or Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure time theories. Bill and Ted traveled on one time plane, so therefore you couldn't change the future since it has already happened. When McFly traveled, he created a new dimensional time plane.
      • vypergts, on 03/04/2008, -0/+8Puh-lease, everybody knows that Terminator physics are the only legitimate time-travel rules...

        /nerdy sarcasm
    • teknic111, on 03/04/2008, -3/+1In an alternate universe.
      • ShrikeBite, on 03/04/2008, -1/+2Huh, why is this one dugg down? It makes the most sense. The only way time travel would be possible, is in a multiverse time-space model, where the very act of time travel would cause the split.
    • TheKarmaPolice, on 03/04/2008, -0/+5maybe the future is a whole lot cooler than everything that has happened so far, so none of the time-travelers have ever bothered to visit us.
    • tightscrummy, on 03/04/2008, -1/+1Nice one Dr. Hawking.
    • trusttimothy, on 03/04/2008, -0/+2http://www.viruscomix.com/page382.html
    • matriculated, on 03/04/2008, -0/+1Buying stocks and betting on sports.
    • Archer007, on 03/04/2008, -0/+3Behind you!
  • Cronikeys, on 03/04/2008, -2/+168Desmond,
    At 8 AM today, someone poisons the coffee. Do NOT drink the coffee. More instructions will follow.
    Cordially,
    Future Desmond
    • R3Dirkulous, on 03/04/2008, -25/+13+1 for The Office reference
      • tewcewl, on 03/04/2008, -15/+9Wow. No. Try again.
        • R3Dirkulous, on 03/04/2008, -1/+6what?I dont get it, was it not from the office?
        • goomba323, on 03/04/2008, -0/+7No it was....the poster is just an idiot. Replace Dwight with Desmond and you have an excellent Office/Lost hybrid Joke. Dugg.
      • curme, on 03/04/2008, -6/+12-1 For stating the obvious.
    • longhorn627, on 03/04/2008, -0/+8Funniest thing I've read today.
    • cyberghost232, on 03/04/2008, -1/+5I had to log in just to digg that comment.
  • cogitocogito, on 03/04/2008, -1/+28What Lost so far has in common with good time travel movies like Twelve Monkeys is that there is no sense to be made of multiple time lines or "changing" the past or future. Thus there is no paradox (strictly speaking).

    (Another movie that's good in this regard is, believe it or not, Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure).
    • Scrappy1850, on 03/04/2008, -3/+2excelent!
    • offspring06, on 03/04/2008, -2/+2I loved that movie.
    • rhabd0mancer, on 03/04/2008, -1/+7I was reminded of Slaughterhouse-Five.

      Desmond is doing some serious time-tripping, just like Billy Pilgrim.
      • argra, on 03/04/2008, -2/+0They didn't even bother to rename the concept. I immediately thought 'Hey, Desmond is unstuck in time!' A minute later the physicist guy calls it the exact same thing.
    • Animal, on 03/04/2008, -0/+11I always appreciated Twelve Monkeys for having the time travel that way but it's too bad that it isn't done more often, but I guess it doesn't allow for as much interesting science fiction if there's no possibility of changing the future by time traveling.

      I've also always liked that Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure did it pretty much the same.

      Bill: Can we get your dad's keys?
      Ted: Could steal them but he lost them two days ago.
      Bill: If only we could go back in time to when he had them and steal them then.
      Ted: Well, why can't we?
      Bill: Cause we don't got time.
      Ted: We could do it after the report.
      Bill: Ted, good thinking dude. After the report we'll time travel back to two days ago, steal your dad's keys, and leave them here.
      Ted: Where?
      Bill: I don't know. How about behind that sign? That way when we get here now, they'll be waiting for us. See?
      Ted: Whoa! Yeah! So after the report we can't forget to do this, or else it won't happen. But it did happen! Hey, it was me who stole my dad's keys!
      Bill: Exactly, Ted.
    • Spoomeister, on 03/04/2008, -0/+2Also especially like how they went out of their way to emphasize that it was the consciousness that was travelling, not any physical body. Solves a lot of story / continuity problems that way. And also that the science of it is just a supporting role, and the emotional hook for Desmond was the real big deal.
    • FredFredrickson, on 03/04/2008, -0/+1Whoa!
    • indiefan, on 03/04/2008, -1/+1the third harry potter book actually does the same thing really well.
    • NSNick, on 03/05/2008, -0/+0Best/most confusing time travel movie I ever saw was Primer.
  • lyso, on 03/04/2008, -9/+6Oh come *on*. While you can argue time travel is possible, how could just sending the mind (which is the arrangement of particles in a specific region of your body) but not the rest of your body be possible? The article ignores this aspect. I like Lost (and Slaughterhouse 5 for that matter), but this is just science fantasy...
    • Otto, on 03/04/2008, -1/+12If you assume that consciousness and memory and such is a matter of information (the pattern of the neural activity instead of anything particularly physical), then you're really sending that information through time, not a physical part of the body. If there were something that this pattern could be stored in, like you know, you, then it's at least plausible. You don't have to resort to a "soul" to think that consciousness is non-physical in nature. Complex patterns can exist inside the simple structures that contain them.
    • OutlawSamurai, on 03/05/2008, -0/+1Although, there is nothing mentioned against full matter transport in Lost, yet. In fact, some could interpret the Station 6 orientation video (the two #15 rabbits) and the polar bear skeleton in the desert to be potential indications of matter-through-time travel.
    • iceblademan, on 03/05/2008, -0/+1Here's Lost's storyline, in mid-flight above your head
  • mmx2000, on 03/04/2008, -6/+11This is a "real" - or at least, reported, phenomenon in the area of the sea off Japan known as the "Devil's Triangle", also sometimes called the "Bermuda Triangle of the East". There have been documented cases of a plane flying over the ocean, experience instrumentation failure, and upon return, they find themselves 30 minutes in the future, or that they crossed an unexplainable distance in the time shown.

    According to the History Channel, anyways.
    • Prototek, on 03/04/2008, -0/+8I love History Channel too but they also include a lot of pseudo-science. History Channel isn't 100% factual but then again, neither is history.
    • mywhitenoise, on 03/04/2008, -2/+4It does kind of remind me of the Philadelphia Experiment.
    • SharkyTech, on 03/06/2008, -0/+1Pics or it didn't happen...
      Besides from what are they concluding they have 30 minutes, by the clock that is part of the instrumentation that failed?
  • Schumach5, on 03/04/2008, -2/+89Ay, Brotha.
    • Scrappy1850, on 03/04/2008, -3/+12how cool would it be if desmond got into a deep conversation with hulk hogan?
  • 28dayslater, on 03/04/2008, -3/+49"I don't understand, I dugg this article like I was supposed to, Al, why didn't I leap yet?"
    • fix8ed, on 03/04/2008, -0/+5Talk to Ziggy.
    • daskatzsocrates, on 03/04/2008, -0/+3According to Ziggy theres a 4.032% chance you need to have sex with your television.
  • benneh1, on 03/04/2008, -1/+5http://www.timelooptheory.com/the_timeline.htm
    explains it all
    • TheHeat, on 03/04/2008, -0/+1Repped you back up to a neutral amount of digs. I have been calling not TIME TRAVEL, but TIME LOOP upon reading that website that I picked up from Digg.

      Digg is not a website, it is my lifeblood.
    • Jrr6415sun, on 03/05/2008, -0/+1although that may not be the explanation for lost, I think that is the best theory I have EVER read on Lost, and I would be so happy if that was how Lost played out.
  • Ramsxxxiv, on 03/04/2008, -2/+9I found a great fan post on this very topic last night that looks at what might be happening.

    http://forum.lostpedia.com/showthread.php?p=526600
  • etgryphon, on 03/04/2008, -2/+9What we need is the UN to defeat Charlie Chaplin and UN-Nazi the world!
    • Hoogs, on 03/04/2008, -1/+7Possibly the most random comment of all time.
      • sgtpppr, on 03/04/2008, -0/+8No, he's talking about the time machine ride in Idiocracy.
        • xephonia, on 03/04/2008, -1/+0Actually, he's talking about the most recent Doctor Who Christmas special. (Voyage of the Damned)
          • xephonia, on 03/04/2008, -0/+1Okay, wrong. I got the pseudo-history from both shows mixed up and sgtpppr is correct. Need more sleep. :(
    • turkoftheplains, on 03/04/2008, -0/+1Age + BUN = Lasix dose
  • busket, on 03/04/2008, -6/+0Anyone expecting there to be a lot of overlap between actual science and popular entertainment needs to do more science.

    Besides, trying to get useful information by asking a theoretical physicist about what's theoretically possible is like trying to get useful information by asking your local pastor about all of the magical things god can do.
  • hydroplane, on 03/04/2008, -11/+1If I had a time machine I would go back in time and get JJ's dad fired from showbiz so his son couldn't ride his coat tails and make ***** tv and movies.
  • goldenhearted, on 03/04/2008, -2/+51All the time-traveling and science stuff aside, last week's Lost was one of the show's best episodes.

    Henry Ian Cusick was fantastic and I feel glad he's part of the show.
    • mykalimba, on 03/04/2008, -2/+1Hmmm... not sure how you can say it was one of the best episodes with the prefix of "All of the time-traveling and science stuff aside..." It's all of the time traveling and science stuff that made the episode so good, no?

      And I agree that Desmond has been one of the best additions to the roster.
    • braingilbreath, on 03/04/2008, -0/+4who cried?! some of the best acting was in this episode.
      • antdude, on 03/04/2008, -0/+2I almost did. Yes, I admit it. :(
      • Jauladeoro, on 08/27/2008, -0/+2The phone conversation between Desmond and Penelope is what got me.
    • mattsegal, on 03/04/2008, -0/+2it was an awesome ***** episode
      • TBoneFever, on 03/05/2008, -0/+1"it was an awesome ***** episode"

        Am I the only one who thinks using "awesome *****" to describe something is the equivalent to a double negative?
  • uziko, on 03/04/2008, -5/+1We won't be able to do this until we have enough power to manipulate planets. Like literally being able to move planets around. We would need to be able to convert the entire energy of the sun into electricity and then build a giant machine the size of a planet that could move planets around.
    • Corrosionx, on 03/04/2008, -0/+2To move matter, probably. But it was Desmond's consciousness that got unstuck in time, and no science can predict how much (or how little) energy it would take for consciousness to achieve this.
    • Scrappy1850, on 03/04/2008, -0/+4pot-talk!
  • trigger119, on 03/04/2008, -1/+20Desmond for the win!
  • amjwh99, on 03/04/2008, -2/+21BROTHER!
  • Corrosionx, on 03/04/2008, -0/+28Even if last week's episode's time travel put you off (what self-respecting digger would be put off by such awesome time-travelling I don't know) but the emotions reached a climax when Desmond finally talked to Penny. Well played, Darlton.
  • supaklaw, on 03/04/2008, -2/+10PENNY!
  • tumbler360, on 03/04/2008, -24/+2I wish Lost would go away. It's a bitter reminder of how much I looked forward to that show only to have it go nowhere and hit the reset button and start a new story at the end of each season. The show is a smoldering ruin of what it once was, just get the fire hose out and finish it off.
    • Hoogs, on 03/04/2008, -1/+8You, sir, couldn't be more wrong.
    • sgtpppr, on 03/04/2008, -0/+3Fortunately for you, they made the show that follows 'Eli Stone' just for you. ABC will dance naked in the street if you'll watch that show.
    • dbsmoker, on 03/05/2008, -0/+1tumbler360, you're an idiot.
  • phosphite, on 03/04/2008, -0/+5Dugg for reference to Michio Kaku. I've read his book Hyperspace, and it makes my head hurt.
    • Mexrocker, on 03/04/2008, -0/+1I wish I had taken the opportunity to register for his class or even sit in on one....

      maybe during my spring break I'll take a trip to visit my friends in CCNY and see if I can get in on his office hours...
  • saulhudson, on 03/04/2008, -3/+20The Constant is easily the best episode of season 4 so far.
    • thellamafarm, on 03/04/2008, -0/+5best yet
    • zip000, on 03/04/2008, -4/+1Really? I thought it was the worst episode this season. The stuff about "finding your constant" just seemed like a ridiculous plot device. The acting was good and well paced, and I don't have a big problem with the time travel - but the "constant" idea struck me as the most obtuse plot device so far in the show.
  • Ike0, on 03/04/2008, -2/+5http://mirrormattermoon.blogspot.com/

    Read this, it's a great explanation of the show and I'm pretty sure it's the complete explanation of Lost.
  • hobbitsareneat, on 03/04/2008, -1/+9That was a brilliant episode of Lost. I hope they continue with the time travel stuff.
    • Nysul, on 03/05/2008, -0/+1I hope the exact opposite. All the time travel stuff is what turned me off to Enterprise (not to mention the dufus captain).
  • alkajazz, on 03/04/2008, -0/+6So it goes.
    • turkoftheplains, on 03/04/2008, -0/+1Listen: Desmond Hume has become unstuck in time.
  • EWigglesworth, on 03/04/2008, -2/+3oddly enough, popular mechanics is also junk science
  • stealthboy, on 03/04/2008, -11/+2Sorry, but this past episode was the official "jump the shark" episode. Time travel like they presented is bunk because of the paradox of affecting the future. Ok, so the rat beamed into the future and learned the maze, but then came back in time, ran the maze, and died. So the rat never existed in the "future" timeline to learn the maze in the first place. It's a logical impossibility. Sorry, Lost writers, but students of the physics of Relativity you are not!

    • Price, on 03/04/2008, -1/+8No, the rat's consciousness went forward in time not the rat itself. There's a difference.
      • stealthboy, on 03/04/2008, -3/+1Then it's not in the realm of physics. This is junk science, bordering on metaphysics.
    • crashingechelon, on 03/04/2008, -1/+3Plus remember Daniel said that he was gonna teach the mouse an hour from now on how to run the maze. Only the rats consciousness was sent into the future and the future mind went into the rat, so the rat did exist in the future. The thing with this time travel is that your mind only goes in between to places at once and as Daniel explained it, that with out a constant for the mind to know it would disconnect completely and the person or rat would die.
    • comineeyeaha, on 03/04/2008, -1/+2also there was a period of time where desmond went back to the future and daniel said that he was out for a while. Maybe in that time span he taught eloise how to run the maze.
      • dbsmoker, on 03/05/2008, -0/+1Exactly. Daniel said Desmond was out for 75 minutes, which would have given him enough time to train Eloise.
    • etgryphon, on 03/04/2008, -1/+2Also Richard Feynman's theory also point to parallel universe that are created at each quantum decision that overlay each other. How ever inelegant it is, it still would explain what happened to the rat and Desmond.
  • diggafrica, on 03/04/2008, -16/+1downloading lost from Africa takes me a long time. yet they waste my time as i never get any answers.. just more riddles . this show is a piece of zebra *****
    • sgtpppr, on 03/04/2008, -2/+12Well, it's better than AIDs....oops, too soon?
      • Corrosionx, on 03/15/2008, -0/+1Wow.... that was cruel, but I still loled
    • dbsmoker, on 03/05/2008, -1/+1diggafrica, you're an idiot.
  • DiggityCarl, on 03/04/2008, -14/+2Makes me glad I never wasted any time watching that show!
  • evanfp, on 03/04/2008, -1/+2this stuff is like reading a bernstein bear book compared to the movie Primer. interesting stuff though, loved the last Lost ep!
    • stonebone4, on 03/04/2008, -0/+1Yeah, I don't think anyone will ever unwrap Primer.
    • NSNick, on 03/05/2008, -0/+0Such a good movie. Also such a good *****.
  • TreatsTheBear, on 03/04/2008, -1/+2"Are Lost's New Time-Travel Physics Junk Science? Maybe Not.."

    Oh the other hand, maybe. And by maybe I mean yes, absolutely. Just because wormholes exist and it's theoretically possible to create one and travel through it doesn't make any of the rest of Desmond's condition make any sense whatsoever. Wormholes in any movie, book or TV show are really just plot holes with a nicer name.
  • umop3plsdn, on 03/04/2008, -2/+3Too bad we couldn't go back in time and stop the writers guild strike from happening in the first place. Assuming the butterfly effect held true.
  • HPMNick, on 03/04/2008, -1/+2Worm holes do not exist.. They were contemplated due to the curvature of space time and the idea of faster than light travel via different paths through curved space.... and the explanation gets a little fuzzy as to how this would actually happen.

    What they do, however, is violate causality. Violating causality is logically impossible.

    It was a mathematical concept that is based on nothing, and violates some very larges premises we've accepted.
    • stealthboy, on 03/04/2008, -0/+1I like how someone actually dugg you down for your comment. Science, be damned!

  • dontswimtoshore, on 03/04/2008, -2/+7Michael Faraday, FRS (September 22, 1791 – August 25, 1867) was an English chemist and physicist (or natural philosopher, in the terminology of that time) who contributed to the fields of electromagnetism and electrochemistry.
    (Wikipedia)


    ...clever clever Lost writers.
    • crashingechelon, on 03/04/2008, -0/+4Yeah, they are clever with major character names in the series. They all reflect a person who existed in certain fields of study.
      • dontswimtoshore, on 03/04/2008, -0/+1cool, have to look into more. I only checked this because there was a "Faraday" metioned in a Dyson commercial last night during Top Gear.
    • 4LeggedtriPod, on 03/05/2008, -0/+1Faraday's birthdate - 9/22/1791 Oceanic 815 Crashed on 9/22/04 - 17+91 = 108 - 4+8+15+16+23+42 = 108
    • Jauladeoro, on 08/27/2008, -0/+1They did this with many (or probably all) the characters. Look up the names John Locke and Rousseau.
  • WanderLink, on 03/04/2008, -2/+11Who the ***** cares. It's tv, it's science-fiction. I hate it when science snobs complain that something isn't scientifically realistic in a movie or tv show. Just shut the ***** up and enjoy it. It's called science-FICTION for a reason. It's not called science-non-fiction.
  • Zlorp, on 03/04/2008, -0/+7Id just like to mention that this was probably the best episode to date.

    and after all of the other stuff thats happened on the show, why are people worried about how realistic this is?
  • speccy, on 03/04/2008, -0/+15I know about Eloise!
  • srodolff, on 03/04/2008, -7/+4So, Lost is now resorting to time travel. Looks like my decision to stop watch after the raft and pirates episode was a good one.
  • pandaboy99, on 03/04/2008, -0/+0Ahem..... WIZARDS!
  • srodolff, on 03/04/2008, -1/+1or.........I'd travel back to the airport lobby before the flight was boarded and hand out the script of Lost to every passenger waiting to get on the plane.
  • lunaismoon, on 03/04/2008, -0/+1I like this guy's essays
    http://www.powells.com/blog/?author=104
  • shannondees, on 03/04/2008, -0/+2So now Desmond = Billy Pilgrim of Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-five.

    They even use the same terminology..."unstuck in time" and the same type of time travel along his own consciousness time-line.

    Does the island now = Tralfamadore?

    In Slaughterhouse-five Billy Pilgrim is kidnapped to Tralfamadore and brought there through a time warp, so that he could be on Tralfamadore for years but without the same lapse in time in his time-line.

    homage or rip-off?
    • dylanmat, on 03/04/2008, -0/+2Dugg for Slaughterhouse 5
    • TBoneFever, on 03/05/2008, -0/+3Homage ....because the writers are clever enough to make an original story obviously. Why create a BS explanation of tale of time travel if you think someone else has already got it right?
  • Escamotage, on 03/04/2008, -0/+4PENNAY!
  • michaelGregoire, on 03/04/2008, -2/+1Pssst... it's fiction....who gives a sh*t?
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