Nested Doll Theory
+1 5 Votes
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By Konstantin
- Nested Doll Theory
- Created: Nov 15, 2007
- Last updated: Aug 14, 2008
- After episode: 3.22: Through The Looking Glass
- Status: Current
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I believe that the meta theory and the plot of Lost should satisfy several conditions: 1. This is a very long show. Anything can happen to the main characters. The plot should be flexible enough to replace any heroes and introduce new ones. 2. There should be several mindf* . All our theories about what’s going on should be debunked but in a gentle way – “Yes. How dumb of me not to think about it.” And this should happen not once or twice but at least three times. 3. All the ideas behind the plot should be easy enough for an ordinary viewer. This is not a show for intellectuals with backgrounds in nuclear physics.
When I used these three conditions as tools for testing and thought about all the theories about Lost and its mysteries I came up with this “Nested Doll Theory”.
First “doll” – electro-magnetic booster. The island an eclectro-magnetic anomaly invisible to an outside world. It has the power to increase the electro-magnetic impulses of someone’s brain neurons thousand and millions of times but only one the person catches the right brain wave. Some people are special. Locke is almost on the same wave with the island and he’s “given” things he was so deeply thinking about. Pushing button was actually an absolutely senseless thing – the station imploded not because Desmond turned the safety key – it was the powerful Desmond’s brain impulse that resonated with the island. That’s what DI was doing on the island – experimenting with people trying to understand what brain impulses patterns bring what results.
Second “doll” – video game. Later it turns out that the island is not simply a booster but something many times more complicated. Imagine – you put a special computer helmet on, turn the switch and find yourself in a virtual environment that is as real as life. Only you don’t know this – it looks and feels like real life. Your brain is a huge game pad with billions of buttons – electro-magnetic impulses of your brain communicating with the electro-magnetic amplifiers of the island. The island wants everyone of you to participate in a huge video game. You move from one level to another but if you fail you are moved back to the start of the level. You start it again completely unaware of you previous “life” except that the island saves the copy of the previous games and sometimes due to system failures you are given a glimpse of the previously saved games. There is no time travel – Desmond just loaded a previously saved copy and played it again. The Others know that – that’s why they are indifferent to death as they know how to “crack” the previous copy. The Others also know how to take off the “helmet” and return to the real world. They believe that they’re on a special mission played by the Game Master – Jacob. There’s no freedom of will – we all should do “course correcting”.
Third “doll” – just we ourselves. It turns out the Others were wrong. The island has no mission and no aim. It’s just an anomaly – the island cannot think. But it was absorbing and resonating with human brains for thousands of years and yes – it became a kind of computer that can actually help people. At the end of the show Losties and Others realize that all the time they were unwillingly playing with themselves, sending themselves again and again at the start of the level but then starting it again. They realized that they have free will and there’s no quest just their own passions and fears. And they find peace with themselves and were happy thereafter.
Imagine a group of smart people from the Ancient times found a computer. They start pushing buttons randomly and soon discover that the computer can do amazing “wonders”. Some of them are “special”, like one of them by some unimaginable intuition could click on Media player and watched a movie. Then there’s another group that was playing with this computer many years and they know a lot about it and could actually use it successfully, like they know that movies are saved in files and one can even make your own movies with a camera. But they don’t know HOW it works and they believe the computer is God that wants to tell them something. And at last imagine a third group that in the future will discover that computer is just a computer. You are the master of it and not the other way round.
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So long as your “video game” is only figurative, I think you’re heading in the right direction.
an interesting theory. could you expand a bit in places? it seems a bit rushed and a little bit hard ot follow because of that. but a good try. +1
I liked the first “doll” but the other ones are starting to sound like existentialism. I can’t help but imagine this theory ending the series in a pan out from one of Gary Troup’s books, like an homage to Citizen Kane. That would be totally gay.
I like the first and third doll. However the second doll idea of a literal computer game has long been debunked. +1
This is not a computer game and the Island is not a game console. I believe it’s something that is an EM anomaly that through milleniums of resonating with EM impulses of human brains became a huge brain itself. Only it’s still not human although the Others think it’s alive. People play games with themselves caught in countless time loop because the Island saves files with their previous attempts. The moment they realize this they can get off this theatre stage called life and actually start living.