THE ISLAND CANVAS

Each day is a new canvas to paint upon. Make sure your picture is full of life and happiness, and at the end of the day you don't look at it and wish you had painted something different.  - - - Unknown


There will always be a debate on what was the Island? Was it a place? Was it an intelligent character? What are the theories around it?

One theory is that the Island is a machine. The clues include the mechanical clanking that the smoke monster made when it appeared in the jungle, the idea that the island "can move" in time and space, and that inside a certain area ("the snow globe") energy and light act differently.

How does this machine work? The central processor would have to be the light cave. The "unique" electromagnetic energy is the intelligence that runs its systems. Just as the human brain is a series of neuro-electric impulses that store information in brain cells, the Island must store information in the bio-organics that are the Island surface. 

What is the purpose of the machine? One of the earliest thoughts about the numbers was that they represented the Valenzetti Equation.  The blast door map makes a reference to a Valenzetti research activity.  This is a mathematical equation that allegedly predicts the exact number of years and months until humanity extinguishes itself. The Island broadcast the core numbers of the equation throughout the world. It could be a homing beacon in order to draw in human subjects to run tests and calcuations on the status of the human race. 

Why are humans important in the equation? For a machine to function properly, it needs input data. For a machine designed to predict the future of mankind, it would need current human information in order to calculate its present solution. The humans brought to the Island are representative of the core factors of the equation. For example, 4- Locke (faith); 8-Hugo (compassion); 15- Sawyer (change); 16- Sayid (common sense or law/order); 23- Jack (science) and 42-Jin (family or love). By plugging in these characters personality traits into the formula to test whether the human race will kill itself off.

Some believe the Numbers themselves are the actual solution to the equation. The destruction of mankind prediction could be used by the Island scientists to change the world's behavior to save the planet. For example, the Numbers could represent the cause of mankind's demise: 4 (nuclear war); 8 (chemical); 15 (biological warfare); 16 (conventional warfare); 23 (pandemic); or 42 (overpopulation). By this theory, the Island's final solution is 23 - - - Earth will fall by a pandemic.

Another theory about the Island machine involves a less practical research purpose. The core of the Island is its electromagnetic energy. This unique EM field can produce tangible results in the real world or material applications to mankind. However, for the Island to produce material applications it needs a raw stock material, which is human thoughts and emotions.This is the reason that human beings have been brought to the island for thousands of years. It is to take their thoughts and emotions to run the machine to create huge advancements in technology, such as time travel or healing cancer or paralysis. 

Throughout the series, the Island does create an aura of danger for anyone who is captured by it. The classic panic run through the jungle being chased by the Others or the smoke monster is the emotional fear that feeds the machine, giving it the purest, unfiltered data stream from the human mind.  By extracting the data from human minds, the Island can influence, manipulate and reward human behavior. This may be why Dharma and Hanso were so "successful" in real life because of the results of their experiments gave them great insight into the future. 

Even today, businessmen hire futurists to help them make long term bets on the future in commodities, finances, geo-political issues and technology advances. If one has predictable knowledge of future events, one can put themselves in the best position to profit from those events. Widmore is a classic example of a businessman looking for an edge. If the Island could be harnessed to predict (then change) the future, Widmore or his ilk could effectively rule the world.

Another theory is that the Island is not an island but an alien being. This alien is not of human form, but is like an interstellar turtle with tropical flora upon its shell. This alien feeds off of human emotion in order to survive. That is why it uses mind control (games) in order to extract the emotions from its subjects. Since this alien uses human thoughts and emotions are a food source, it also has the means to mind control or train its subjects to serve it. By manipulating a person's inner desires (like Ben's need for power and control), the alien can create a sustainable food crop of human beings.

Further, since the alien can get inside a person's head, the alien has the ability to alter that person's perception of time and space. This could explain why Michael could not kill himself in NYC after he escaped the Island because "the island was not done with him." This could mean that Michael never left the island per se, but was in some sort of physical static status while his mind was free to wander in his own imagination.  This could dovetail in numerous theories that the Island is really a "collective consciousness" of the various characters who are either institutionalized mental patients or patients in comas that are hooked up to a central dream machine. The Island could be that central mind control device.

Another theory related to the last one is that the Island does not really exist. It is a machine code that has been fed into the characters via The Numbers. The Numbers represent an operating program that allows comatose or broken minds to experience a "real life" in cyberspace. This theory would follow the game theory of the series, which is that the LOST experience was merely a Survivor reality show plus massive on-line video game. Since all the events take place in another world (cyberspace), the rules of physics, time, space, life and death do not apply as it does in our real lives. A person in total paralysis can walk again. A person with severe mental illness who can interact with any person can be the likeable joker. The bitter young boy can have his revenge fantasy.  

Therefore, the "island" can be anything that a person connected to it wants it to be. It could be a Egyptian temple complex and a science research facility - - - all at the same time because that is what is being created by the community of minds attached to the fantasy game. This theory also forms the continuing "mission" aspect of the show. The characters continually went on missions throughout the island just as any video game player would need to do in order to advance the game play or get to another level. But in this game, there is no clear end. It is open simulation of an adventure life for people (the main characters) who Jacob said had no real lives to go back to. So the Island is an addictive place where one could meet, interact and create new friendships that they could never make in real life.

Another theory is that the Island is a time machine. Author H.G. Wells is known for his science fiction fantasy novels. The series references one of his novels in its title, "The Shape of Things to Come." In that novel, the end of the world is represented as the collapse of the human civilization. In that episode, Alex is murdered by Widmore's men. This is when Ben is stunned to say "he changed the rules." The rules could reference the classic rules in any time travel adventure: one does not change past events since it will affect the future.  In this show, we see that time on the freighter is different than the island time when the dead doctor washes up on shore but is alive on the freighter. In a flash-forward, we see a glimpse of future when Ben turns the FDW. The island would collapse and fall to the bottom of the ocean.

Like in previous theories, if one can harness the power of a "time machine," he could control the world. This may be the basis of the Widmore-Ben "war" over the control of the Island. But such a conflict does not factor in completely the Jacob-MIB story arc. One could say that the Widmore-Ben conflict is merely a diversion or one battle in the real conflict. It would make sense from a Greek or Roman mythology that the gods would manipulate humans to do their battles on earth. It is clear that Jacob is an immortal being that possesses the power to create lessor gods or immortals (like Richard) to serve him inside a "time sphere." That is why Richard does not age or Hugo does not lose weight despite a lower ccalorie count - - - the island does not allow them to age. It preserves their status quo when they arrive inside its time shell. It is when people leave the time shell is when they begin to age again . . . and this the primal reason why rational people become irrational when they demand to go back to the Island (they want to live forever).

Another theory is the Island is a spiritual sorting machine. How do dead souls travel to the after life? In many ancient religions, a soul would travel to an underworld where in a physical body form have to journey through dangerous passages in order to be judged worthy of going to paradise or heaven. The Egyptian temple and hieroglyphs are clues that this place has a spiritual foundation. But what happens when souls get "lost" in the transition? The Island may be a net to get those people on the cosmic fence to show their true heart and redemptive qualities. Or it may as simple as sorting souls into bonded groups to make the passage to the next level of existence (one cannot die alone). As a result, the Island spirits (such as Jacob and MIB) are proctors giving all the candidates their final exams in life to see who will graduate as a class. The sideways world is like the lobby where class mates wait for their fellow students to complete their tests in the exam room. And once they all complete their tasks and they are graded, they meet again for their graduation ceremony (which was at the church reunion.) 

If the Island was merely a spiritual realm then the continuity errors, science, space, medical, legal issues and problems do not really exist in our normal perception or thought processes. A spiritual plane of existence could have its own rules or no rules at all. It gives each character a clean slate to create their own path to salvation. But as we see, the baggage of their past lives is hard to leave behind. 

So, the Island continues to remain a blank canvas. LOST fans continue to have the opportunity to paint a different meaning to the Island's properties in order to solve its mysteries.