A Brief History of Time

[Michelle]

Thought this was worthy of a post. If it's in the wrong place, feel free to move me.

Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time

It was shown as "reading material" for the guard at Carl's holding area. Not sure if it has any significance...but was really neat to read about "observations" and the such.

[uofapiglet]

Cool, you actually started a thread...

Well, all I got from last night's epi is that the guard, Aldo (Mac for "It's Always Sunny in Philly") was reading the book outside of the brainwashing facility...

And here's what I said about it earlier before the show even aired when mindsparkle and GJ brought it up in the spoiler section:

2)c) "A Brief History of Time" - This was a popular science book by Stephen Hawking from the 1980s, I think Carl Sagan might have had something to do with it too, but I'm not super sure. Anyway, it touches upon several topics and theories such as cosmology, astrology, mathematics, and our minute existence in the universe. Desmond really comes to mind with his supposed ESP abilities because the book talks about stuff like time travel, worm holes, the Big Bang, etc. I wonder if it'll be as simple as one of the chracters reading this book, like the Stephen King Carrie incident, or if it's actually even talked about on the episode, or something Jensen brought up to throw us off course.

So now we know that someone was actually reading it, and we also know that the writer's have also used the book "A Wrinkle in Time" as a previous Easter egg... How does it pertain to the show? I hope we find out soon enough...

On an interesting note, I read a fun fact on wikipedia stating that "A Brief History in TIme" is considered to be an "unread bestseller" because a lot of people own it but only a few have actually finished reading the entire book due to the nature of its content...

[Michelle]

Wow Piglet!!! Thanks for that.

[DaddyBeast]

We are getting hit over the head with the "Time" connection.  It's not just a coincidence.

If you don't have something about Time in your current theory about the show, you should reevaluate.

[mindsparkle]

We are getting hit over the head with the "Time" connection.  It's not just a coincidence.

If you don't have something about Time in your current theory about the show, you should reevaluate.

I agree... time seems to be critical in some way... and there are so many ways that time can play into a theory... 

My husband and I found Steven Hawking's book "A Brief History of Time" to be really difficult to read... it starts out okay but as the ideas become more and more complex and you're trying to wrap your brain around the idea of black holes -- it is indeed a task... one I never finished... my husband did but says it was mostly reading and less comprehending...  and personally, I think he's pretty smart... LOL

I only add this because I have to respect anyone that tries to read the book and the young guard reading it suggests to me that our others may be some very intelligent people

Even macho Pickett... may have had his redeeming qualities...

[JBRam]

We are getting hit over the head with the "Time" connection.  It's not just a coincidence.

If you don't have something about Time in your current theory about the show, you should reevaluate.

I agree... time seems to be critical in some way... and there are so many ways that time can play into a theory... 

My husband and I found Steven Hawking's book "A Brief History of Time" to be really difficult to read... it starts out okay but as the ideas become more and more complex and you're trying to wrap your brain around the idea of black holes -- it is indeed a task... one I never finished... my husband did but says it was mostly reading and less comprehending...  and personally, I think he's pretty smart... LOL

I only add this because I have to respect anyone that tries to read the book and the young guard reading it suggests to me that our others may be some very intelligent people

Even macho Pickett... may have had his redeeming qualities...

I'd like to read it... maybe I can find it in our library.

[mindsparkle]

Good luck JBRam... it's still very popular and should certainly be in the library... book stores still carry it as well.

[apriori]

I'm kind of familiar with Mr. Hawking's work. I wrote a term paper on him once.
For those of you who don't know him, he's an English astrophysicist who is considered to be one of the most brilliant people alive. He suffers from ALS (Lou Gehrig's Disease) and is confined to an automatic wheelchair. He speaks through a voice synthesizer. He tends to keep a pretty good humor about him and has appeared on The Simpsons at least once, (and, actually, to give you an idea of how highly he is regarded, played poker against Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein once).
As somebody mentioned before, A Brief History of Time is considered to be the most widely unread best seller of all time. That led him to publish A Briefer History of Time.

Mr. Hawking is typically associated with the physics of black holes. I personally think that the producers including his book is an attempt to get us thinking that the island has something to do with black holes, but I'm not buying it.

Actually, one of Hawking's more well-known is the idea that certain types of radiation can escape from black holes (when you look at black holes in physics, nothing should technically be able to escape). So there could be some kind of tie-in between the monitoring equipment that Penelope's men had and Hawking radiation, but I doubt it. 

[JBRam]

I'm kind of familiar with Mr. Hawking's work. I wrote a term paper on him once.
For those of you who don't know him, he's an English astrophysicist who is considered to be one of the most brilliant people alive. He suffers from ALS (Lou Gehrig's Disease) and is confined to an automatic wheelchair. He speaks through a voice synthesizer. He tends to keep a pretty good humor about him and has appeared on The Simpsons at least once, (and, actually, to give you an idea of how highly he is regarded, played poker against Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein once).
As somebody mentioned before, A Brief History of Time is considered to be the most widely unread best seller of all time. That led him to publish A Briefer History of Time.

Mr. Hawking is typically associated with the physics of black holes. I personally think that the producers including his book is an attempt to get us thinking that the island has something to do with black holes, but I'm not buying it.

Actually, one of Hawking's more well-known is the idea that certain types of radiation can escape from black holes (when you look at black holes in physics, nothing should technically be able to escape). So there could be some kind of tie-in between the monitoring equipment that Penelope's men had and Hawking radiation, but I doubt it. 

He also appeared on Futurama, a show that (I believe) has the same writers as The Simpsons.

He's a very fascinating man, and although I can't comprehend and don't really beliee a lot of what he says, I say he is the exact picture of the modern genius, though he doesn't look the part.

[Jugdish]

I agree that time is being thrown to us and it is going to play a part. About a year ago I was promoting some kind of time manipulation theory. I thought that this could explain the whispers. The people are at the same place as the losties but at a different time. I am not saying this is the case but I thought I would throw it out there. I also have no idea how this would work.

Now there seems to be more evidence of time moving different on the island. I am not sure if it is slower or faster. I think the idea that Juliette landed around 9-11 will come into play as a clue on how time is moving on the island.

[CastawayCayley]

(and, actually, to give you an idea of how highly he is regarded, played poker against Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein once). 

Um. I don't understand, was this some kind of computer simulation?Einstein died when Hawking was 13. Newton died in 1727.

[JBRam]

(and, actually, to give you an idea of how highly he is regarded, played poker against Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein once). 

Um. I don't understand, was this some kind of computer simulation?Einstein died when Hawking was 13. Newton died in 1727.

I'm guessing that he played Einstein and Newton on the Simpsons.

[CastawayCayley]

(and, actually, to give you an idea of how highly he is regarded, played poker against Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein once). 

Um. I don't understand, was this some kind of computer simulation?Einstein died when Hawking was 13. Newton died in 1727.

I'm guessing that he played Einstein and Newton on the Simpsons.

see now that would make more sense. I thought it was mentioned as a side note... he was on the simpsons and ALSO once played poker....
Nevermind.

[apriori]

(and, actually, to give you an idea of how highly he is regarded, played poker against Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein once). 

Um. I don't understand, was this some kind of computer simulation?Einstein died when Hawking was 13. Newton died in 1727.

I'm guessing that he played Einstein and Newton on the Simpsons.

see now that would make more sense. I thought it was mentioned as a side note... he was on the simpsons and ALSO once played poker....
Nevermind.

Actually that was on Star Trek. I somehow forgot to mention that bit.

[Michelle]

Something new to add here...the jewelry lady was named Ms Hawking in S3E8. Kind of odd that she is the one to explain all of this time and correction stuff. Maybe a clue of some sort. But I'm not bright enough to grasp it.

Also, the guard was WRITING/DRAWING in the book. Maybe a note for later on to refresh his mind or something??