The Continuing Experiment
−4 14 Votes
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By CrazyPolarBear
- The Continuing Experiment
- Created: Sep 25, 2007
- Last updated: Aug 14, 2008
- After episode: 3.22: Through The Looking Glass
- Status: Current
- Flag this theory:
While thinking about who is going to come on the freighter, I remembered that the producers had said that the boat was not Dharma related, but then I thought, why wouldn’t Dharma try to take the island back?
I think it’s possible that the DI might want Ben to be in control of the island.
In the Swan Orientation video, Marvin Candle mentions, ‘utopian social….’ and then the film cuts out. I think it is fair to assume that one of the DI’s areas of research was into creating a perfect society, and that the community living in the barracks was the subject of this research. in order for the social experiment to be scientific it would be necessary for there to be an independant group of researchers, who had no contact with the group, monitoring it from another location, possibly another station on the island.
When the purge happened the observers realised that the native islanders had managed to stage a coup and wipe out their utopian society, leading them to reason that this group of people was far superior to the group which they had put together. It was decided that the ‘hostiles’ would make a better case study than the Dharma scientist’s and with their superior knowledge of the island would be able to carry out their research much better than they could.
The DI communicated with Ben via the Flame Hatch and a truce was called - the DI would allow the hostiles to remain in control of the island and make use of their facilities to advance their society, on the condition that they do not attack any other Dharma installations and that their researchers are allowed to study their community.
This may be a possible explanation as to why the food drops still occur and can still be ordered from the Flame Hatch, and also why the Swan Station continued to be manned by Dharma staff well into the 1990’s.
Any thoughts?
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 | 1733 |
Key episodes
| # | Title | Aired | Central character | Theories |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3.20 | The Man Behind The Curtain | 5-9-2007 | Ben | 415 |
thanks for the vote, whoever you are! I was starting to think there was nobody here tonight!
its a possibilitiy cpb. but i dont think so.
good job do
Its actually really plausable-nice work again!!! Dude your like the most consistently thought-provoking theorist on this site, keep it up! But im a bit curious as to what this has to do with the food drops??
Yeah im an anonymous voter but cheers for the acknowledgement.
muchas gracias!
Well magician, one of the biggest questions about the DI has been ‘if the DI is no longer active on the island, then why do they keep dumping pallets of food on the island’ That theory could be one explanation, another would be that Ben has fooled them into thinking that their experiments are still active.
Thanks again for the vote!
I have an idea. Richard says they’re there for more important reasons. Maybe those important reasons are for the Dharma Initiative, while Ben’s looking into his own things instead.
very plausible +1
Why would a Utopian society not seek peaceful solutions instead of mass murder? Why would a Utopian society need/have guns?
where did you hear the producers say the boat wasnt dharma related cpb?….thats pretty interesting.I think some of this theory is possible but think tree_sneakers has a good point.
perhaps tree sneakers the fact they have guns and fight and kill is proof to the dharma scientists that utopia is impossible.
CPB I think this is excellent and very possible however TS’s question is important. The hostiles don’t display very utopian behaviour and you would imagine an enlightened race would be more peaceful but I guess we have no reason to suppose they would be other than our own hopes.
CPB: Nicely written, well thought out, and plausible. I am with the Mrs. and TS, though.
Thanks, for thinking outside the box! +1
Utopian societies and religious cults have a lot in common. This cult of Jacob may be close to the inhabitants of Walden II. Is it possible that the food drops are drugged?
From the votes it looks theres alot of people are against this idea.
to answer a few questions:
TS - It all depends on what the DI considered utopian, different people have different view’s. I think initially the DI put together a selection of the best minds that they could find and then let them decide how to run their community while the researchers assessed them, and the people decided they needed to be armed after learning about the hostiles. I believe that the hostiles managed to take the DI’s weopons and use them against them. I think the DI then viewed this group as a superior society for their superior strategy, because in a ‘survival of the fittest’ sense they are.
WTF- I am not sure were I heard that first but I think it’s on most spoiler pages, it’s the reason why I think it’s Widmore or Paik or both of them, as they are the only other supsects! (Unless it’s a group that haven’t been mentioned yet, but I wouldn’t like that I think it’s about time things started to tie together)