Lost (It’s A Panopticon)
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By mwl92
- Lost (It’s A Panopticon)
- Created: May 31, 2007
- Last updated: Aug 13, 2008
- After episode: 3.22: Through The Looking Glass
- Status: Current
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If you like my spoiler theory please rate it positively. The Lost island is a prison/hospital located in a wormhole
The island is a Panopticon located in a wormhole in the universe created by the Dharma initiative. The black smoke is the universe self correcting itself and transporting a “fixed” person back to real time.
The idea of Panopticon where prisoners could be observed without them knowing it was first proposed by Philosopher Jeremy Bentham in the late 18th century (see the easter egg J. “…ntham in obituary – Jeremy “Ben”tham was also greatly influenced by John Locke). John Lock will be in the coffin at the end of the series. The concept of the design is to allow an observer to observe (-opticon) all (pan-) prisoners without the prisoners being able to tell if they are being observed or not, thus conveying a “sentiment of an invisible omniscience.” In his own words, Bentham described the Panopticon as “a new mode of obtaining power of mind over mind, in a quantity hitherto without example. There was an episode where somebody was asked what are you doing here, and they responded “We watch”.
In addition to a prison of sorts, the island is also a hospital. Patients are observed and experiments are run. ”. Some “normal” people are “Control Samples”.
The people on the island all have one thing in common and they were all specifically chosen to go to the island so that they could be observed in order to determine the island’s affect on their “situation”. They are either mentally or physically disabled or with some sort of imperfection or impairment. The island experiment is to see if these life problems can be corrected or healed in real-time via the wormhole, the person be regenerated, and transplanted back into real-time.
The hatch with the magnetic pull was creating the wormhole and was continually resetting the second door back to 108 minutes thus perpetuating the time period in the wormhole over a period of 20 years or so. Now that the second door has stopped resetting itself and bending the light, the island is in risk of being discovered and catching back up with present day.
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| Title | Author | Cmnts | Votes | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| another book-alike | magpie | 4 | 1 | −1 |
WOW!!!! I think you have it…. I thought something like that might be possible… I always wondered how there seems to be a common thread in all the losties flashbacks such as Sun always lying and keeping secrets and then the same time back on the island they are also being tested on this…
I have noticed that around the time that any of the losties die - they have come to a breakthrough in what they are there to fix.
Not sure what the necessity is of the worm hole. The rest of your ideas sound highly plausible… take out the worm hole aspect and I think you’d really have something.
Interesting, but how would the island ‘warp’ back to present day if the hatch was indeed keeping it stuck in the past by 20 years? If the hatch was a time stopper then its destruction would simply allow it to pass through time like normal, which means it would be in the eighties with no way of influencing the present other than waiting around 20 or so years to get caught up.
The writers aren’t Einsteins and they may likely never answer some of the scientific facts and constaints but the concept of a panopticon located in some sort of wormhole can easily be conjured up and expanded on as an overall plot theme.
mwl92 - I just noticed that the Dharma inititive logo and the blast door maps look somewhat like the design for the prison/medical Lantham suggested. Just thought I shre that with you…..
The concept of the Panopticon was conceived by philosopher Jeremy Bentham not Jeremy Lantham.
I looked panopticon up on wikipedia and I think you mean Jeremy bentham as opposed to Jeremy lantham.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panopticon
however I liked your post, and it’s an original idea.
Sorry - I corrected the spelling of the guys name. And yes, the Panopticon sketch looks remarkably simlar to the Dharma logo and hatch diagrams.
Wow that’s the best theory I’ve read yet. As much as I don’t want to know the meaning yet,I’d be happy if this was it.
As most of you have - I have read thousands of theories and been obsessed with figuring this out. For some reason - this seems to be the most plausible theory I have heard yet (enough to get me to register and post something). I just have a feeling that you are on to something here. Of course even if this was the basis - there are still many more questions that come into play :)
The central tower of the Pan Opticon prison is referred to by Bentham as “The Pearl”.
jazprof was the first person on this site to mention what you’ve stated in your theory. Very interesting, and it could have something to do with the overall theory minus the wormhole. Also, how would you explain the innocent people who are on “the island”?
The innocents are Control Samples
Dude….you nailed it…. NICE!!