Time-space on the island part 2: about brains and time.
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By leonardocarfi
- Time-space on the island part 2: about brains and time.
- Created: Apr 25, 2007
- Last updated: Aug 14, 2008
- After episode: 3.15: Left Behind
- Status: Current
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Looking for a saviour
— leonardocarfi
In the first part I said time flow is altered by energy from the island, in this part i discuss it’s implication in perception of time by people on the island. Read part I first =P
On my previous theory I said the energy from the island unlocks time, it isn’t that rigid one-way timeline we are used to in our non-island world anymore, so you don’t go from past to future as usual but also from future to past. Another way to put it is like there’s no time, like past, present and future fuse together or connect and they can now interact symmetrically (and I’m not talking about time travel, just an altered state of time iself). But our brains evolved for a linear perception of time, if not trained they can’t allow us to see the future, not even trough vague premonitions, not even on the island, and they can’t allow us to change our past for the same reason. Some brains are however more preadapted to such functions, and child’s minds are particularly plastic. (Walt?Locke?)
I also said at least some of the others, Ben included, have an expanded perception of time. I think they only teach “good people” and kids a way to do this, and only if their brains are capable of such learning. That’s why they perform tests on Walt and all the losties, every task they’re assigned is a test they’re not aware of, to determine if they’re capable of being “educated”. Were the others performing the same kind of tests on the scientist that were on the island’s facilities? (we know at least those on the pearl were tricked for sure)
Maybe all the time they were just searching a gifted person that could actually see the future clearly enough to avoid the end of human race, kind of a saviour.
Key characters
| Short Name | Full Name | Episodes | Theories |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ben | Benjamin Linus | 3.20, 4.9, & 3” href=”/episodes/theres-no-place-home-parts-2-3/”>4.13 | 1714 |
| Eko | Mr. Eko | 2.21, 3.5, 2.7, 2.10 | 287 |
| John | John Locke | 3.3, 2.17, 1.4, 1.19, 3.13, 3.19, 4.11, & 3” href=”/episodes/theres-no-place-home-parts-2-3/”>4.13 | 1229 |
| Walt | Walter “Walt” Lloyd | 2.2, 1.14 | 345 |
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| Title | Author | Cmnts | Votes | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Timeline trouble | ProfOzone | 16 | 6 | +6 |
I think the idea that time itself isn’t set up the way we percieve it, but is rather one big piece that isn’t subject to change is a possible scenario here. There is no “past” or “future,” just present. One big jigsaw puzzle. The “gift” that some of the characters seem to posess regarding their advaced perceptions of time as a whole is nothing more that the ability to assemble that puzzle with great ease. Maybe? Thoughts?
Your metaphor is great…since they’re on the island now, their whole lives are part of the game, and my guess is there will be 1 person able to assemble completely the puzzle of events… I also think the puzzle-analogy is a great one because of the interconnections between character’s past…as the pieces of a puzzle.
We’re on the same page, I think, leonardo. See some of my other past posts, and also those of les lemieux.
The concept of synchronicity (introduced to the world by Carl Jung) suggests a non-linear understanding of time, where the past AND future are “encoded”, as it were, in the present. Some physicists even believe this is the true nature of time. In fact, in his book “The End of Time” Julian Barbour does suggest (if memory serves) that all the possible moments in time do not, in fact, occur in a line of succession, but rather they exist all jumbled up, like in a bag of puzzle or Scrabble pieces, and the key to them coming out in a pattern when we draw them has more to do with our own perceptions than it has to do with the pieces themselves.
But why then, can 2 separate people, actually 6 billion people, all come up with the same perception more or less? I would think that if time is jumbled up then the pieces would be put together in many ways by each person. But in general, most of us are pretty linear.
DO 6 billion people come up with the same perception, more or less? That’s an interesting question.
But we shouldn’t take Barbour’s analogy too literally. He didn’t suggest that each person just takes moments in time out of the bag randomly. There is a reason they come out in a linear, logical order for human beings, and those reasons apply to all human beings the same way. Even so, the point is that the true nature of time is not linear even if we humans do perceive it that way.
Think about it this way…
Imagine a vending machine, and in it there are treats of various kinds… candy and the like… and all of it is put into the machine in a perfectly random way. However, for any treat to come out of the vending machine, a person must put in a certain amount of money, press a button denoting the treat she or he wants, and allow the machine to find that particular treat and drop it into a bin for retrieval by the hungry customer. The treats in the machine represent moments in time in no particular order. But everything done by the machine to sort out the treats represents our perceptions. We can only take the moments in time one at a time and in a particular order. So that is how we experience them. But that is not, in fact, how they actually are. If we could overcome this limitation in the way we experience (break the vending machine), we could “remember” the future just as we remember the past, or we could “plan for” the past just as we plan for the future. Not by traveling in time… that concept has no meaning here because time is not a road to be traveled. Rather, it’s a point wherein all possible events, past and future, exist.
Interesting. What would be the reason that they come in order? Is it human specific? What purpose would having that linear concept of time serve to humans? In other words, the evolutionary advantage? But if then again if time is jumbled, evolution is not necessary or possible. Not sure if your still reading this post….. ……
I’m still reading it… I hope you are! :-)
It’s not a function of biology, but of physics.
The reason we have this limitation in our perceptions is due to the “dimensionality” of our experiences. I don’t know if you’ve read “Flatland”, but in it is described a two-dimensional world that is visited by a three dimensional object. A 2D being asks the 3D being if it will show itself. It agrees, and passes through the 2D plane for the benefit of the 2D being. The 3D creature happens to be a sphere, so the way the 2D being experiences the 3D being is first as a point materializing out of “thin air”, then as a circle that gradually gets larger, then the circle gets smaller, then it’s a point again, and then it vanishes. This experience is the best conception the 2D being can have of the 3D being… and notice how inadequate it is!
For us to see time as it truly is, it’s theorized that we’d need to be 4D beings. But we’re more like 3.5D beings, experiencing 3 full spatial dimensions and only half the time dimension (as it travels one way). So there we have it. We’re stuck seeing only one time line when there really isn’t a time line at all. Just every possible moment existing behind the glass of the vending machine waiting for us to call them out one at a time in a logical order.