NEW GRAND THEORY

[puff6962]

 



The magnetic environment of the island has allowed a manipulation of quantum outcomes as decribed by Hugh Everett in the 1950's.   I have included a summary of Everett's Many-World model of quantum mechanics.  It should have been, more appropriately, termed quantum averaging but allows for multiple universes coinciding in varying quantum formats.  Time travel is therefore not time travel because these alternate realities exist beside us.  If one is able to manipulate or search for the desired quantum state, you have a means of exploring and creating other realities.  (Here reality is dependent upon the perspective of the observer and any other participant would be an "other").  Such a device would require a strong magnetic field.....as found on the island......and a series of control stations syncronized precisely.....as in the hatches encircling a central station.  The island and the hatch system were therefore intended as a means of allowing individuals to travel other worlds and altered realities.  The Dharma initiative was then simply a front for the selection of individuals who could be trusted with such a gift (no Biff's taking over the world).  I'm getting off on a little tangent, but this is the science upon which the show is based (I have no doubt). 

    Anyway, here is the summary as promised:

Many-worlds is a re-formulation of quantum theory [1], published in 1957 by Dr Hugh Everett III [2], which treats the process of observation or measurement entirely within the wave-mechanics of quantum theory, rather than an input as additional assumption, as in the Copenhagen interpretation. Everett considered the wavefunction a real object. Many-worlds is a return to the classical, pre-quantum view of the universe in which all the mathematical entities of a physical theory are real. For example the electromagnetic fields of James Clark Maxwell or the atoms of Dalton were considered as real objects in classical physics. Everett treats the wavefunction in a similar fashion. Everett also assumed that the wavefunction obeyed the same wave equation during observation or measurement as at all other times. This is the central assumption of many-worlds: that the wave equation is obeyed universally and at all times.

Everett discovered that the new, simpler theory - which he named the "relative state" formulation - predicts that interactions between two (or more) macrosystems typically split the joint system into a superposition of products of relative states. The states of the macrosystems are, after the subsystems have jointly interacted, henceforth correlated with, or dependent upon, each other. Each element of the superposition - each a product of subsystem states - evolves independently of the other elements in the superposition. The states of the macrosystems are, by becoming correlated or entangled with each other, impossible to understand in isolation from each other and must be viewed as one composite system. It is no longer possible to speak the state of one (sub)system in isolation from the other (sub)systems. Instead we are forced to deal with the states of subsystems relative to each other. Specifying the state of one subsystem leads to a unique specification of the state (the "relative state") of the other subsystems. (See "What is a relative state?")

If one of the systems is an observer and the interaction an observation then the effect of the observation is to split the observer into a number of copies, each copy observing just one of the possible results of a measurement and unaware of the other results and all its observer- copies. Interactions between systems and their environments, including communication between different observers in the same world, transmits the correlations that induce local splitting or decoherence into non- interfering branches of the universal wavefunction. Thus the entire world is split, quite rapidly, into a host of mutually unobservable but equally real worlds.

According to many-worlds all the possible outcomes of a quantum interaction are realised. The wavefunction, instead of collapsing at the moment of observation, carries on evolving in a deterministic fashion, embracing all possibilities embedded within it. All outcomes exist simultaneously but do not interfere further with each other, each single prior world having split into mutually unobservable but equally real worlds.

Interestingly, Hawking and other of the great living physicists agree with Everett on the many world's interpretation.  A neat implication of the model is discussed in Timeline by Michael Crighton and the science forms the basis of the novel!

A good depiction of Everett's work is found in the example of "Schrodinger's cat."   A cat is placed in a sealed box with a device that releases a lethal does of cyanide if a certain radioactive decay is detected. For simplicity we'll imagine that the box, whilst closed, completely isolates the cat from its environment. After a while an investigator opens the box to see if the cat is alive or dead. According to the Copenhagen Interpretation the cat was neither alive nor dead until the box was opened, whereupon the wavefunction of the cat collapsed into one of the two alternatives (alive or dead cat). The paradox, according to Schrodinger, is that the cat presumably knew if it was alive *before* the box was opened. According to many-worlds the device was split into two states (cyanide released or not) by the radioactive decay, which is a thermodynamically irreversible process (See "When do worlds split?" and "Why do worlds split?"). As the cyanide/no-cyanide interacts with the cat the cat is split into two states (dead or alive). From the surviving cat's point of view it occupies a different world from its deceased copy. The onlooker is split into two copies only when the box is opened and they are altered by the states of the cat.
The cat splits when the device is triggered, irreversibly. The investigator splits when they open the box. The alive cat has no idea that investigator has split, any more than it is aware that there is a dead cat in the neighbouring split-off world. The investigator can deduce, after the event, by examining the cyanide mechanism, or the cat's memory, that the cat split prior to opening the box.

NOW,  applying this little mind-bender, think what most of "the flashbacks" have in common.  The characters have done something, felt something, missed something, or have not done something that they would like to change.  The reason that they are not "on the list" is that, if allowed to utilize the island's magnetic quantum hub, they will not use this gift for the purposes of their own development but will try to reverse the past as Desmond tried. 

Dharma was a cooky scientific cult who came to the island for reasons of obscurity and seclusion but happened upon a group of people who had been upon the island for a great length of time.  As the scientists began studying the island, they began to develop some understanding of it's characteristics and potential.  The purge began with scientists arguing against use of the quantum conduit being separated from those whom wished to explore it's potential.  The other's fought with the Dharma initiative and prevailed.  Perhaps a few of the scientists were absorbed, but most died.  The Others were left with a sub and a hatch mechanism that allowed for a magnetic window to localize a beacon for the island.   


Anyway, I'm getting tire of typing. Please tell me what you think and feel free to add to the above.

[jules778]

Wow what a theory... if I am following you correctly a person's life could look like a picture of a family tree starting w/ the birth... a person's life choices could split into different "branches" and those choices even more branches ... if I am picturing correctly. Now that could be an infinate amount of possiblities... Mixing those together w/ different people and there choices could be a bit confusing.

It's an interesting theory as to why some are chosen and others not.  My only problem is that is this theory too hard for the average viewer to understand?

[mindsparkle]

You've put a lot of time and effort into this theory... it sounds brilliant

When you talk about the observer are you talking about what the typical layman would think of as observer or the scientific use of the word which is very different..  I only know this from the stupid movie, "What the Bleep." After the movie insulted my intelligence I tried to find out about the real science behind quantum mechanics and how the writers/producers were distorting quantum physics to justify a mystical belief.

One aspect of a theory dependent on an observer is that you would have to see what would happen without a conscious observer monitoring the experiment. But that’s Catch-22: you need a conscious observer monitoring the experiment to see what happens. You can’t look at the experiment without looking at it so no one can ever know if this interpretation is true.

Now that's about as much as I can address in your theory because it's over my head and I don't know enough to argue, agree or even understand all that you've said...

I wish I could and don't let my stupidity stop you from continuing to explore this theory, but as the post before me asks.... do you really think the writers would put together a show that the main stream mass audience would not comprehend? 

Maybe, they will use a theory similar to yours and simply leave it to be over our heads... as in the last episode when Patchy tells Kate, "you can't understand."  Maybe, we the mass audience just won't understand, what do you think?

[puff6962]

I agree.  I don't pretend to understand all of Everett's ideas (I am only a physician), but the implications fit.  The sprinking of the Others in the past of the survivors....the troubled pasts....the necessity that the Others be without flaw....  If you were to travel into various quantum realities, the first necessity would be that you not change the outcome allowing you to return.  To avoid the Back to the Future II paradox, you can't vary from the reality that got you to the mechanism of your quantum travel.  THUS, THE FLASHBACKS ARE A MEANS OF SHOWING THE FLAWS IN THE SURVIVORS PASTS AND THE REASON THAT THEY CANNOT BE ALLOWED TO USE THE ISLAND TO CORRECT THEM.  Additionally, if you can pull a "Quantum Leap" and enter your own person and control your mind, you must do so at an age in which you remember the rules guiding you in your travels.  By these maxims, the others are privy to the lives of the survivors because they have already travelled back to study or guide them.  The did not know that the plane was going to crash, but they had infinite time to travel back in the realities of the survivors in order to study them.  Second, the survivors are either newcomers or "Others" who have gotten lost in the travels.....possibly returning to their lives at a time when their memories were not capable of being retained (Locke).  In this case, they must be treated as newcomers and vented through the same selection process.  Third, you can alter realities outside the quantum bubble but not inside it.  Thus, the greatest sin in Otherville is to kill one of your own (as what happened with the female doc and the lady other).  Outside this bubble, they can get killed over and over with an endless plethora of manipulations possible  (college words) to manipulate that quantum reality so that the outcome is not changed....but the Other doesn't die.  Finally, the most important Maxim is don't be a Biff (Back to the Future II).  You can travel back in time to see and experience whatever piece of history that you want, but you can't exploit it.  Thus, Mikail was expressing personal knowledge when he spoke of Nadia Komeniech as the greatest athlete of all time.  

The Fountainhead, Of Mice and Men, Stephen King....David Hume....John Locke.....all are writings or philosophies of men creating their own realities and finding their place in the world.  David Hume wrote of the necessity of physicial order to the universe.  The classic paradigm of turning on you lamp>>>>light (ordered) versus turning on your lamp>>>>lamp possibly explodes (disordered) demonstrates his argument.  

Reality is defined by the observer is Buddist in origin and now pervades science (and politics!).  What if the observer is neither trapped in time or space?

[jules778]

ok now I am LOST!

[mindsparkle]

I'm lost, too...

the task of our author of this theory is to break it down so that we can understand it, if he/she wants us to understand... again I revert to Patchy, maybe we just can't understand, we are incapable... which by the way, I find insulting, understanding is equal to the amount of correct information I am given to work with...

[lost_soul12]

wow now i understand that makes so much sense that explains everything to me. I can atcually picture those theorys in the show GOOD JOB !!!

[mindsparkle]

Are you serious?  Tell me what you understand cuz I'm really wanting to understand... it sounds like a brilliant theory -- I just don't get it..

[kelvinlives]

Great write up. I haven't read a good easy explaination of Schrodinger's cat, as you wrote.
Add Sliders to the list of LOST references, if it isn't already there.

I have came to believe in the create your own reality Theory.
I am sure that during the next Desmond flashback, we'll have more information on this.
Catch 22 indeed Mindsparkle.

[mindsparkle]

whatever

[puff6962]

Examine the nature of Desmond's flashback at the time of the hatch implosion.  This was the first episode to begin providing answers regarding the abilities of the others.  One of these people (the Ring lady) was actually present with Desmond telling him that he, first, would not alter his path and, second, that even if he did the universe tends to be self correcting. 

Now, I don't want to sound like a whacko, but this fits with Everett's model very well.

Remember Michael Creigton's book Timeline.  An old experiment is shown in which a beam of light is passed across two parallel slits.  The resultant pattern on a screen is one of light, medium, and dark upon a screen placed some distance from the slits.  The nineteenth century explanation for this result was based upon the wavelike properties of light producing an addition, nonoverlap, and cancellation pattern of the waves (light = two positive tracings adding, dark = one peak and one trough combining).

Now this paradigm was again studied after the particulate nature of light was known.  A device was created that could spit out individual photons one at a time.  What was important about the experiment was that it gave no opportunity for the light particles or waveforms to interact.  The result, however, WAS THE SAME. 

The mystery of the double slits remains unsolved, but the prevailing explanation is Everett's.  Under his model, the reason that you still see light, medium, and dark patterns upon the screen is that the individual photon travelling between one of the two slits is interacting with another photon travelling randomly through the other slit FROM AN ALTERNATE QUANTUM REALITY. 

The more similar the two quantum realities, the more they interact.  Deja Vu has been suggested as the cognitive outcome of your mind experiencing the phenomenon.

It would seem that, if one were to create a quantum elevator, it would be necessary that the object being transported remain stable in its attributes.....no tattoos on any of the others.  The mark placed upon Julia now separates her physicially from her previous state and is a punishment second only to death.

Additionally, the reason the the universe is self-correcting is that you cannot get far enough perpendicular to the quantum realities that exist beside us (using the tree branch analogy above) for important outcomes to be different.  Adjacent realities may differ by miniscule degrees of detail.....a fly landing on my ring finger instead of the index.....but differing outcomes exist at a reach outside our grasp in the quantum world.

Again, I like the tree branching analogy very well.  However, I would picture a billion branches running parallel and tightly packed....with each branch a tightly packed coil of sub-branches......each subranch a coil, and so on and so on.  Altering the past or, in Desmond's case the future outcome, requires overcoming a great deal of quantum inertia.  You must jump from one nanocoil to another leading to jumping from one microcoil to another....and so on and so on.....until the desired outcome is reached.

Of course, I have no idea how Desmond is REPEATEDLY getting visions of Charlie's death and means to avert them.  Additionally, how does he know that, if he is able to jump from the branch of this outcome to another, something worse may occur?

I have my theories.  The most plausible is that the Others exist in many times simultaneously ("Only a fool is trapped in time and space") and that Desmond received a taste of this following the Hatch implosion.  He is thus seeing the island now as he saw London in his flashback.  In this retrospective view, he is aware of each of his attempts to save Charley and each situation triggers another premonition.  He is therefore travelling sideways on the quantum outcome tree hoping to save the little guy.  However, the universe in self correcting and the alternate realities most accessible to us (adjacent realities) usually produce the same outcomes.

If this "retrospective view" explains why premonition has pervaded the series.   (Walt....bird, Locke....the island will give us the answer, airplane dream, boone dying,  Echo....look north, bearing, you're next, Julia.....husband hit by a bus, Jack....i'm going to make you walk, Hurley....numbers, Boone....drug dream, Claire's clarvoint, etc. etc.).

I have another thought.....sorry.  If the implosion led to Desmond being handed this gift....as he experienced the full force of the island following the event.....was the Hatch a means of containing the Island's effect of blending quantum realites?  Was the security perimeter really a similar device? 

Please build upon this theory, I have long thought that the show would need some serious science to explain the happenings of the island and that ABC would not sink 100 million into this show based upon some hocus pocus to appear at the end.  I am convinced that this is the science that underlies the occurrences upon and off the island.  I am not enough of an aficionado to explore all of it's applications however.  Maybe I'll buy season one and two and watch them again.  Hope all is well, good luck, and remember.....Only a fool is trapped in time and space.

[kelvinlives]

whatever

     
Sorry if you took that as an insult. This is a spoiler free thread and I was thinking you were making a joke. I won't elaborate on the joke, but I found it rather funny and was saying that it was a really good one.   

[mindsparkle]

Sorry, this is all over my head and I just checked out... all is good!

I thought I could hang in there and keep up but.... thanks for the credit on a good joke... I wish I were so clever!

[a_dot_out]

All right! This is a fantastic theory to explore albeit my loose and basic understanding of the general concepts of quantum theories. I find this far more plausible than the "all games" theory someone has been attempting to propagate across the internet. I previously stumbled upon the cat-in-a-box theory when attempting to further my basic understanding of quantum computing and really like puff6962's interpretation of it. I think the beam of light experiment would be a little better understood using a few diagrams or images. I'm not familiar with that one, but am able to gather a loose grasp based upon the demonstration.

you can alter realities outside the quantum bubble but not inside it.  Thus, the greatest sin in Otherville is to kill one of your own (as what happened with the female doc and the lady other).  Outside this bubble, they can get killed over and over with an endless plethora of manipulations possible  (college words) to manipulate that quantum reality so that the outcome is not changed....but the Other doesn't die.

I would like to run with this idea a little bit. Why would it have been deemed acceptable or even protocol for Patch to kill Ms. Klugh even upon Ms. Klugh's wishes (accepting the quantum bubble and that the characters are currently in said bubble)? This is quite a large sacrifice to make especially for those that supposedly understand the larger picture and potential repercussions of certain actions. Was this done simply because the outcome of keeping her alive in care of the unpredictable Losties posed a far larger threat to the universal changes occurring within the quantum bubble? Why is it ever acceptable for the Others to kill anyone at all?

mindsparkle:
Don't give up, I bet if you didn't think about this for a few days then came back and read it fresh, you would have a clearer understanding. Not necessarily a complete understanding, but certainly a better one.

[LostGirlDeb]

I also think this is brilliant!!

I wish I could understand it better, but I think I've got the general picture (I hope)

My question would also be, how would they possibly begin to  explain something so complex to the people like my husband and so many others for example who watch Lost for the pleasure of just watching a TV show (layman) or even me for that matter?
Here is something....
Maybe the show is actually written in such a way that it can be interpreted in different ways depending on the level of understanding of the viewer (which would make it brilliant also)
Almost like it is written in "layers" and you can make it as simple or as complicated as you choose.

I love the theory and would love to hear more about it!
I especially like the idea about why Juliette may have been marked and am also curious  as others are,  as to why then was Mrs Klugh bent on getting herself shot?