Study the past to divine the future. --- Confucius
It is hard to argue against a master's pure thought.
Human beings do dwell on the past in order to divine or predict their future.
They do so in work: if I did X,Y, and Z then I should get that promotion.
They do so in relationships: if I did A,B, C with Lady One in the past but that did not work out, if I do X, Y, Z with Lady Two I will have a better relationship with her.
Sometimes, we get trapped in the past. When the "what if" scenarios begin to consume your thinking and reflecting time, you get caught up in the past which freezes the present to cause a fantasized future hope.
If you replace the "what if" with a more proactive, positive "what's next" attitude, then you are living in the present with a better outlook for the future.
This is best observed when people date and break up. Depending on how sudden or blindsided the break was, two things can happen. One, some can hide in the past (the good memories) to the point where they obsessive chase to get their former lover back in the future. Their future is a time loop of disillusion and rejection. Failure. Two, some can let go of the past to the point where they can move on to find a better friend and lover. Their future is moving forward into the future with confidence and new awareness based upon experience. Progress.
The perfect character study for this behavior pattern was John Locke.
Locke carried with him additional baggage from his childhood abandonment issues, and added more baggage with each failed relationship. His past haunted his present and clouded his future.
His obsession with his con man father, even after he conned him out of a kidney, destroyed the best relationship he ever had with another person, Helen.
In the real world, he found a woman who loved him for who he was, but since Locke had so much personal baggage unresolved in his mind (that he could not love himself enough to be loved), he effectively destroyed the best chance he had for happiness.
And even if one considers the sideways world as Locke's "fantasy" future to try to get Helen back after their final break up on the mainland (island time frame), that did not work out either since Locke ended the series alone in the church.
Human beings try to project future happiness upon themselves. But just fantasizing about it will not make it happen. Action speaks louder than words. Action also speaks more to obtaining a new future than just thinking about it.
Locke never tried to replace Helen in his life. And that was his down fall. His failing. His past ruining his future because once he realized that Helen was very good to him (and for him), it was too late. He could have went back into the dating pool to find a new Helen (learn from his past mistakes) but he was too afraid. He envisioned himself as some grand outback warrior, but that was pure fantasy clouding his judgment and detouring him from real, tangible goals.
And this trap is what makes people have lonely lives.
Thursday, September 17, 2015
Monday, September 14, 2015
NOSEBLEEDS
Another LOST element may have an alleged scientific claim.
A boarding school in central Massachusetts is being sued by parents who claim the school’s Wi-Fi signal is making their son sick, according to Boston media reports.
The Worcester Telegram & Gazette reported that the unidentified plaintiffs have filed a lawsuit against the Fay School in Southboro. The parents say their 12-year-old son has “Electromagnetic Hypersensitivity Syndrome” and has suffered headaches, nosebleeds and nausea since the school activated a stronger wireless signal in 2013.
The family is seeking $250,000 in damages and wants the school to switch to Ethernet cable Internet or turn down the Wi-Fi signal, according to The Telegram.
The school said in a statement that a company analyzed the Wi-Fi and found the signal is well within federal safety limits.
WBZ-TV’s Dr. Mallika Marshall previously reported that a number of people believe invisible rays are making them sick, but some doctors say there is no evidence of a link between Wi-Fi and illness.
These are just allegations that electromagnetic signals cause illness such as nosebleeds.
But that was a major clue in trying to explain the LOST inconsistently confusing time-skip story arc. Daniel claimed that when a person's mind "time skipped" it needed to have a constant in both time spheres or the brain would be affected causing nosebleeds then death. The problem with the idea of only a mental time shift was that we saw that full physical time shifts of people to different eras.
So what if Daniel's theory was totally wrong. That in itself is a good enough basis to explain the time shift arc. If we take the island's unique electromagnetic properties as true, then the idea of a hypersensitivity to magnetic waves in some people could cause a serious illness is plausible. Yet the consistent exposure to the waves (and the light force) would have affected the people who time shifted the most the worst (in theory). But Locke, Ben, half of the returning O6 did not suffer from any nosebleeds.
The time shift story arc was the least logically constructed element to LOST. It really was a bad filler story line which added many story tangents but little foundational support for the LOST mythology.
A boarding school in central Massachusetts is being sued by parents who claim the school’s Wi-Fi signal is making their son sick, according to Boston media reports.
The Worcester Telegram & Gazette reported that the unidentified plaintiffs have filed a lawsuit against the Fay School in Southboro. The parents say their 12-year-old son has “Electromagnetic Hypersensitivity Syndrome” and has suffered headaches, nosebleeds and nausea since the school activated a stronger wireless signal in 2013.
The family is seeking $250,000 in damages and wants the school to switch to Ethernet cable Internet or turn down the Wi-Fi signal, according to The Telegram.
The school said in a statement that a company analyzed the Wi-Fi and found the signal is well within federal safety limits.
WBZ-TV’s Dr. Mallika Marshall previously reported that a number of people believe invisible rays are making them sick, but some doctors say there is no evidence of a link between Wi-Fi and illness.
These are just allegations that electromagnetic signals cause illness such as nosebleeds.
But that was a major clue in trying to explain the LOST inconsistently confusing time-skip story arc. Daniel claimed that when a person's mind "time skipped" it needed to have a constant in both time spheres or the brain would be affected causing nosebleeds then death. The problem with the idea of only a mental time shift was that we saw that full physical time shifts of people to different eras.
So what if Daniel's theory was totally wrong. That in itself is a good enough basis to explain the time shift arc. If we take the island's unique electromagnetic properties as true, then the idea of a hypersensitivity to magnetic waves in some people could cause a serious illness is plausible. Yet the consistent exposure to the waves (and the light force) would have affected the people who time shifted the most the worst (in theory). But Locke, Ben, half of the returning O6 did not suffer from any nosebleeds.
The time shift story arc was the least logically constructed element to LOST. It really was a bad filler story line which added many story tangents but little foundational support for the LOST mythology.
Thursday, September 10, 2015
HAWKING CONCEPTS
Stephen Hawking revealed a new theory at the KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden. He claims to have potentially solved the Information Paradox.
The paradox a conflict between the quantum mechanics and general relativity models that has vexed physicists for more than four decades. The Information Paradox arises from black holes - - - specifically what happens to information about the physical state of objects that fall into one.
The quantum mechanical model posits that the information remains intact while general relativity argues that it is indeed obliterated under the black holes immense gravitation. But Hawking has developed a third opinion: the information never actually makes it into the black hole. "I propose that the information is stored not in the interior of the black hole as one might expect, but on its boundary, the event horizon," he said.
Basically, Hawking argues that the information about particles sucked into the hole sit on the surface of the event horizon as holograms (2D afterimages of a 3D object).
"The idea is the super translations are a hologram of the ingoing particles," he told the crowd. "Thus they contain all the information that would otherwise be lost." What's more, that information can actually escape a black holes pull thanks to Hawking Radiation -- the concept that photons can sometimes be ejected from a black hole due to random quantum fluctuations.
Hawking further stated black holes are boundaries or gateways to another universe.
Unfortunate space travelers won’t be able to return to their own universe, according to Hawking. But they will be able to escape somewhere else, Hawking said.
Black holes in fact aren’t as “black” as people thought and could be a way of getting through to an alternative universe.
“The existence of alternative histories with black holes suggests this might be possible,” Hawking said, according his report. “The hole would need to be large and if it was rotating it might have a passage to another universe. But you couldn’t come back to our universe. So although I’m keen on space flight, I’m not going to try that.
Hawking’s proposal is an attempt to answer a problem that has tormented physicists about what happens to things when they go beyond the event horizon, where even light can’t get back. The information about the object has to be preserved, scientists believe, even if the thing itself is swallowed up — and that paradox has puzzled scientists for decades.
Now Hawking has proposed that the information is stored on the boundary, at the event horizon. That means that it never makes its way into the black hole, and so never needs to make its way out again either.
A paradox is a statement or proposition that, despite sound (or apparently sound) reasoning from acceptable premises, leads to a conclusion that seems senseless, logically unacceptable, or self-contradictory.
It seems absurd or self-contradictory matter changes its status but not "information" when caught in the event horizon of a black hole. It would seem then there is a different cosmic physical state when at the edge of the gravitational pull.
How would that work on organic objects. If the "information" is created to a holographic state of "being," then would the organic life forms still be "aware" of an existence? And if the "information" is stored on the event horizon, what actually transfers into the other universe?
We set this question out because of the paradox between the island time line and the sideways world (which was stated as a place of death.) But there was evidence in the Hatch that the countdown timer was a release mechanism to "escape" a place of death. It could be that the light source is the holographic projector of the human beings caught in the event horizon of a black hole. The "information" and matter of the human beings, in essence their personal life force, continues on trapped in a new reality which appears to be the island.
How the trapped information which must wind and rewind like a video projector can interact or change is unclear. If the information on transformation is set in its final stage, then the LOST universe is merely a "replay" of past events. If the information on transformation is not set, and can change through the interaction with other newly trapped information holograms, then the LOST universe is a hybrid reality.
The Hawking concept could lend some support to the fan theorists believing that the island was part of black hole engulfing our solar system. The island could have been the "cork" or electromagnetic counter to the black hole's gravitational pull. But that does not explain the parallel time lines between the island and the sideways worlds.
In a multiple layered theory of Hawking's concepts, he may be actually trying to explain what spiritualists would call each individual's life force or soul making its journey to another level of existence.
The paradox a conflict between the quantum mechanics and general relativity models that has vexed physicists for more than four decades. The Information Paradox arises from black holes - - - specifically what happens to information about the physical state of objects that fall into one.
The quantum mechanical model posits that the information remains intact while general relativity argues that it is indeed obliterated under the black holes immense gravitation. But Hawking has developed a third opinion: the information never actually makes it into the black hole. "I propose that the information is stored not in the interior of the black hole as one might expect, but on its boundary, the event horizon," he said.
Basically, Hawking argues that the information about particles sucked into the hole sit on the surface of the event horizon as holograms (2D afterimages of a 3D object).
"The idea is the super translations are a hologram of the ingoing particles," he told the crowd. "Thus they contain all the information that would otherwise be lost." What's more, that information can actually escape a black holes pull thanks to Hawking Radiation -- the concept that photons can sometimes be ejected from a black hole due to random quantum fluctuations.
Hawking further stated black holes are boundaries or gateways to another universe.
Unfortunate space travelers won’t be able to return to their own universe, according to Hawking. But they will be able to escape somewhere else, Hawking said.
Black holes in fact aren’t as “black” as people thought and could be a way of getting through to an alternative universe.
“The existence of alternative histories with black holes suggests this might be possible,” Hawking said, according his report. “The hole would need to be large and if it was rotating it might have a passage to another universe. But you couldn’t come back to our universe. So although I’m keen on space flight, I’m not going to try that.
Hawking’s proposal is an attempt to answer a problem that has tormented physicists about what happens to things when they go beyond the event horizon, where even light can’t get back. The information about the object has to be preserved, scientists believe, even if the thing itself is swallowed up — and that paradox has puzzled scientists for decades.
Now Hawking has proposed that the information is stored on the boundary, at the event horizon. That means that it never makes its way into the black hole, and so never needs to make its way out again either.
A paradox is a statement or proposition that, despite sound (or apparently sound) reasoning from acceptable premises, leads to a conclusion that seems senseless, logically unacceptable, or self-contradictory.
It seems absurd or self-contradictory matter changes its status but not "information" when caught in the event horizon of a black hole. It would seem then there is a different cosmic physical state when at the edge of the gravitational pull.
How would that work on organic objects. If the "information" is created to a holographic state of "being," then would the organic life forms still be "aware" of an existence? And if the "information" is stored on the event horizon, what actually transfers into the other universe?
We set this question out because of the paradox between the island time line and the sideways world (which was stated as a place of death.) But there was evidence in the Hatch that the countdown timer was a release mechanism to "escape" a place of death. It could be that the light source is the holographic projector of the human beings caught in the event horizon of a black hole. The "information" and matter of the human beings, in essence their personal life force, continues on trapped in a new reality which appears to be the island.
How the trapped information which must wind and rewind like a video projector can interact or change is unclear. If the information on transformation is set in its final stage, then the LOST universe is merely a "replay" of past events. If the information on transformation is not set, and can change through the interaction with other newly trapped information holograms, then the LOST universe is a hybrid reality.
The Hawking concept could lend some support to the fan theorists believing that the island was part of black hole engulfing our solar system. The island could have been the "cork" or electromagnetic counter to the black hole's gravitational pull. But that does not explain the parallel time lines between the island and the sideways worlds.
In a multiple layered theory of Hawking's concepts, he may be actually trying to explain what spiritualists would call each individual's life force or soul making its journey to another level of existence.
Tuesday, September 8, 2015
AN EXPLANATION OF LOST ELEMENTS
Three of the oddest plot points in LOST may now have a theoretical scientific basis.
Scientific America reports that Spanish physicists have crafted a wormhole that tunnels a magnetic field through space.
"This device can transmit the magnetic field from one point in space to another point, through a path that is magnetically invisible," said study co-author Jordi Prat-Camps, a doctoral candidate in physics at the Autonomous University of Barcelona in Spain. "From a magnetic point of view, this device acts like a wormhole, as if the magnetic field was transferred through an extra special dimension."
The idea of a wormhole comes from Albert Einstein's theories. In 1935, Einstein and colleague Nathan Rosen realized that the general theory of relativity allowed for the existence of bridges that could link two different points in space-time. Theoretically these Einstein-Rosen bridges, or wormholes, could allow something to tunnel instantly between great distances (though the tunnels in this theory are extremely tiny, so ordinarily wouldn't fit a space traveler). So far, no one has found evidence that space-time wormholes actually exist.
The new wormhole isn't a space-time wormhole per se, but is instead a realization of a futuristic "invisibility cloak" first proposed in 2007 in the journal Physical Review Letters. This type of wormhole would hide electromagnetic waves from view from the outside. The trouble was, to make the method work for light required materials that are extremely impractical and difficult to work with, Prat said.
This discovery gives some basis for several bizarre and troubling aspects of the LOST story.
First, many fans theorized that the island was at the gateway of a space-time vortex, a wormhole, as a gateway to explain why the island would shift in time when the light cave FDW was turned. Since wormholes are not controllable (they are destructive galaxy inhalers), it was hard to wrap a scientific basis for this plot element. But if the island was conducting electromagnetic experiments, the Dharma-military complex could have been attempting to create an artificial "wormhole." It makes sense that Dharma would be funded as part of black ops defense budgets. A space-time device would be a radical new weapon to actually "replay" and re-position assets to guarantee victories.
Second, the artificial wormhole could be used as a "cloaking device." This would explain how the O6 helicopter "saw" the island disappear. In our known physical universe, an island is attached to the ocean bottom miles from the surface. If the island vanished as seen, the displacement of millions of square feet of earth in the ocean would have caused a massive whirlpool tsunami effect. But none of those physical ocean changes were seen by the O6 survivors. The conclusion was that the island had to have been cloaked (and in the confusion the pilot overshot the island and crashed in the ocean.)
Third, the idea of an artificial wormhole with layers of invisible EM energy would help explain why the island was hard to find. It would also explain the light differentials Daniel observed on the island (because the island shifts between dimensions in order to be obscured, and more energy would make the island then shift in time.)
Scientific America reports that Spanish physicists have crafted a wormhole that tunnels a magnetic field through space.
"This device can transmit the magnetic field from one point in space to another point, through a path that is magnetically invisible," said study co-author Jordi Prat-Camps, a doctoral candidate in physics at the Autonomous University of Barcelona in Spain. "From a magnetic point of view, this device acts like a wormhole, as if the magnetic field was transferred through an extra special dimension."
The idea of a wormhole comes from Albert Einstein's theories. In 1935, Einstein and colleague Nathan Rosen realized that the general theory of relativity allowed for the existence of bridges that could link two different points in space-time. Theoretically these Einstein-Rosen bridges, or wormholes, could allow something to tunnel instantly between great distances (though the tunnels in this theory are extremely tiny, so ordinarily wouldn't fit a space traveler). So far, no one has found evidence that space-time wormholes actually exist.
The new wormhole isn't a space-time wormhole per se, but is instead a realization of a futuristic "invisibility cloak" first proposed in 2007 in the journal Physical Review Letters. This type of wormhole would hide electromagnetic waves from view from the outside. The trouble was, to make the method work for light required materials that are extremely impractical and difficult to work with, Prat said.
This discovery gives some basis for several bizarre and troubling aspects of the LOST story.
First, many fans theorized that the island was at the gateway of a space-time vortex, a wormhole, as a gateway to explain why the island would shift in time when the light cave FDW was turned. Since wormholes are not controllable (they are destructive galaxy inhalers), it was hard to wrap a scientific basis for this plot element. But if the island was conducting electromagnetic experiments, the Dharma-military complex could have been attempting to create an artificial "wormhole." It makes sense that Dharma would be funded as part of black ops defense budgets. A space-time device would be a radical new weapon to actually "replay" and re-position assets to guarantee victories.
Second, the artificial wormhole could be used as a "cloaking device." This would explain how the O6 helicopter "saw" the island disappear. In our known physical universe, an island is attached to the ocean bottom miles from the surface. If the island vanished as seen, the displacement of millions of square feet of earth in the ocean would have caused a massive whirlpool tsunami effect. But none of those physical ocean changes were seen by the O6 survivors. The conclusion was that the island had to have been cloaked (and in the confusion the pilot overshot the island and crashed in the ocean.)
Third, the idea of an artificial wormhole with layers of invisible EM energy would help explain why the island was hard to find. It would also explain the light differentials Daniel observed on the island (because the island shifts between dimensions in order to be obscured, and more energy would make the island then shift in time.)
Monday, September 7, 2015
DREAM
"There are anxieties from dreams that are more real
Than the ones life brings; there are sensations
Felt only by imagining them
That are more ours than our very own life.
There are countless things that exist
Without existing, that lastingly exist
And lastingly are ours, they’re us…"
Than the ones life brings; there are sensations
Felt only by imagining them
That are more ours than our very own life.
There are countless things that exist
Without existing, that lastingly exist
And lastingly are ours, they’re us…"
Fernando Pessoa
Saturday, September 5, 2015
SIMPLE
Ockham's Razor is a philosophy described by
the following eponymous laws:
"With all things being equal, the simplest explanation tends to be the right one"
The complexity and tangential aspect of the LOST stories makes it hard to find the simple explanation for the show. The Big Premise may be lurking in the shadow of many other story tropes.
We have tried to digest the story lines from front to back, and back (ending) to start (landing on the island). There are so many u-turns, dead ends and filler arcs (like the other 48 days) it makes it hard to separate the wheat from the chaff.
The simplest question to ask may be "what was LOST about?" The snarky answer would be "about six years." But in a basic review, the answers could include:
1. A survival story of plane crash victims on a Pacific Island.
2. A story of lost people trying to find purpose in their miserable lives.
3. The secret lives between strangers trapped in an uncomfortable situation.
4. The fantasy dream world of an individual or group of individuals.
5. A metaphoric journey from life to death.
"With all things being equal, the simplest explanation tends to be the right one"
The complexity and tangential aspect of the LOST stories makes it hard to find the simple explanation for the show. The Big Premise may be lurking in the shadow of many other story tropes.
We have tried to digest the story lines from front to back, and back (ending) to start (landing on the island). There are so many u-turns, dead ends and filler arcs (like the other 48 days) it makes it hard to separate the wheat from the chaff.
The simplest question to ask may be "what was LOST about?" The snarky answer would be "about six years." But in a basic review, the answers could include:
1. A survival story of plane crash victims on a Pacific Island.
2. A story of lost people trying to find purpose in their miserable lives.
3. The secret lives between strangers trapped in an uncomfortable situation.
4. The fantasy dream world of an individual or group of individuals.
5. A metaphoric journey from life to death.
Thursday, September 3, 2015
HAPPINESS AS A CURE
At various levels, many of the characters on LOST were lost in a state of depression.
Claire with an unwanted baby; Locke without a true family; Jack without the respect of his father; Hurley with abandonment issues; Kate with alleged abuse issues.
If LOST itself was one big, tortured group therapy session to end manic depression, well, there is a little science that would back up that point.
Claire with an unwanted baby; Locke without a true family; Jack without the respect of his father; Hurley with abandonment issues; Kate with alleged abuse issues.
If LOST itself was one big, tortured group therapy session to end manic depression, well, there is a little science that would back up that point.
Happiness not only spreads, it could actually help prevent depression, according to a new study.
Depression is not contagious, according to a new study published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society. Happiness, however, is more likely to spread between friends, and the
results from the study may help remove some of the stigma surrounding
depression.
The World Health Organization estimates that 350 million people
are currently living with depression. Preliminary studies have now shown that social support and friendships may be a major factor in lifting people out of depressive states. A detailed study shows some empirical
evidence that happiness is contagious, and that those who befriend
depressed people are not in danger of becoming depressed themselves.
Researchers
examined data from over 2,000 teenagers who had reported their network
of friendships and answered questions about their levels of happiness as
part of an earlier research project. Based on the survey results, the
scientists classified each student into either a “low mood” (depressed)
category a or “healthy mood” (not depressed) category. Then, they mapped
out friendships and ran computer simulations to determine whether
happiness and sadness spread between friends like an infectious disease.
The conclusion that depression is not contagious is supportive. However, some people can still be uncomfortable or get down around a depressed friend of relative. Who has not been around a party pooper?
Meanwhile, happiness not only spreads—it may prevent (and even help
people recover from) depression. The model suggests that teens with five
or more happy friends have half the probability of suffering from
depression over a six to 12-month period than teens without no “healthy
mood” friends. And adolescents with 10 healthy friends have more than
double the probability of recovering from depressive symptoms.
“This
was a big effect that we have seen here,” said Thomas House,
mathematics professor at the University of Manchester and coauthor on
the study.
“It could be that having a stronger social network [the real-life
version, not Facebook] is an effective way to treat depression.”
Since
the study suggests teens are not at risk of “catching” depression from
their friends, and having happy friends may prevent and even pull teens
out of depression, House and his colleagues stress that it is important
to promote any friendship between adolescents. Friendship is a win-win,
the study says—it can’t hurt, but it may be both protective and
curative.
“If
we enable friendships to develop among adolescents (for example
providing youth clubs) each adolescent is more likely to have enough
friends with healthy mood to have a protective effect,” House said in a
prepared statement. “This would reduce the prevalence of depression.”
One of the true lessons of the LOST series was the importance of people finding the bonds of true friendships. It changed people's lives. It allowed them to move past the baggage of their prior lives, to set a path for a better self and better future.
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