Dharma Stations Part 5: The Hydra
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By AngeloComet
- Dharma Stations Part 5: The Hydra
- Created: Jan 22, 2008
- Last updated: Aug 15, 2008
- After episode: 3.22: Through The Looking Glass
- Status: Current
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Dharma’s aim: to modify creatures to flourish in environments they were not originally designed to exist in.
— AngeloComet
I have been intrigued by what the original purpose of the Dharma Stations were. Through the design of the various Stations, and for the few that we have been able to see Orientation films for, I believe that solid foundations can be drawn to build a case for their original intentions. In this series of theories I shall examine each Station in the order their existence has been revealed. Here I shall venture across the water to explore The Hydra Station.
The Hydra Station was a zoological station with man-made facilities both above and below sea level, scattered around and monitored from a surveillance room. Now the Island is home to the infamous Room 23 (where Walt was taken after his abduction and Karl was later seen, apparently being brainwashed); where cages for polar bears and aquarium tanks are used to inter prisoners; where construction has begun on a runway… Whilst I may refer to how The Hydra has been adapted for Other-uses, my primary aim here is to imagine what The Hydra Station was like when Dharma were ruling the roost.
New to the Dharma Initiative? On day one you’ll probably find yourself in a registration room where a video plays in the background, a man saying, “Barracks are surrounded by a high frequency sonar fence, to protect us from the Island’s abundant and diverse wildlife”. You’ll be assigned a role. Maybe a workman. Or, as the video explains: “Should you be assigned to zoological study, our ferry will carry you to and from the site three times a day.” (I smirk at the thought; it sounds important but, for all the “zoological study” being undertaken, there are still animals involved and that means someone is required to shovel crap - I guess that’ll be the new guy!) So as a Dharma Initiative worker on the Hydra Island you catch a ferry over and are then probably required to shower and change in the locker room (where Kate would one day receive a new dress to wear) before going out to meet the animals.
It seems the Hydra Island was for both zoological study and education. The room we briefly saw, where Juliet was on ‘trial’ (I’ve not made my mind up about that), contained a lectern that would be more appropriate in a lecture theatre. The operating theatre (where Jack performed spinal surgery on Ben) had an observation deck. I have a picture in my head of people in white coats, carrying clipboards, looking down from the observation deck at serious-minded Dharma zoologists operating on a sedated polar bear… More on the big, white bears later - but first let’s get our feet wet and check out the fish.
Jack - This thing’s for what? Sharks?
Juliet - Dolphins, too.
The soothing soundtrack of whale noises played into the holding tank where Jack was kept were probably used to pacify the sharks/dolphins. Remember how the room flooded? And there were chains hanging over the bench in Jack’s ‘cell’? I imagine a shark or a dolphin harnessed to the chains and submerged to keep it alive. Then drain out the water (shark/dolphin, harnessed, lowered onto bench) to conduct study. Probably this was how they managed to brand Dharma logos. Remember the shark that pestered Michael and Sawyer? It had a Dharma logo on its underside. (Aside: the generic Dharma logo shown on that particular shark was intended to be there, just not clearly visible. This explains why the Dharma logo on the shark doesn’t pertain to any particular Dharma Station logo we know of. End of aside.)
It’s worth wondering how marine life in general is effected by the ‘snow globe effect’ Desmond spoke of in his attempts to sail away from the Island. In the Lost Experience game, ‘DJ Dan’ produced photographs of a shark that had washed up on Australia’s Great Barrier Reef. Upon it, not altogether helpfully, was a Dharma Swan logo. How seriously you want to take that and how deeply you want to read into it is up to you (though my frank and healthy advice would be: don’t).
The surveillance room on the Hydra Island views areas inside the aquarium, the bear cages and the jungle. There are only six monitors but no telling how many cameras. I can guess, however, the Hydra does not show feeds from the Swan Station, for example, otherwise there would have been no need for Ben and Juliet to observe Jack in the Pearl Station during the Expose episode. It would be tempting to state that the cameras only view the Hydra Island, except we have seen one camera in the surveillance room appears fixed on Jacob’s cabin. (You can bet the anti-technology Jacob ain’t too happy about that!) You could suggest that Jacob’s cabin is watched as further evidence that Jacob is a prisoner; given that Jacob is invisible I’d argue Ben keeps tabs on the place to check if anyone else dares go near!
The point is the Hydra Island appears well-monitored, which brings up the issue of animal freedom. How free were animals to roam? We have seen other cages (Sawyer ran past different cages when Karl let him loose during A Tale Of Two Cities) but that’s not to say all animals were kept caged. What I would like to bring into the mix here is the Hurleybird. The Hurleybird is that bizarre creature that has appeared twice (I’d argue we’ve heard it on other occasions). If you can recall, it was basically like a large bird of prey, like an eagle, but a bizarre camoflage-colour of green. If the Hurleybird (so-called because it potentially spoke Hurley’s name!) is a Dharma-developed animal, genetic modification may have been involved to create a creature adapted to survive in the jungle (eagles generally aren’t big on jungle life). I’m venturing here that Dharma’s zoological study was for this aim: to modify creatures to flourish in environments they were not originally designed to exist in. This brings me neatly onto polar bears.
On the Blast Door Map was the following notation: ‘Stated goal, repatriation. Accelerated de-terretorialization of Ursus Maritimus through gene therapy and extreme climate change.’ That’s quite a mouthful, so let me break it down into simple words.
“Stated goal, repatriation.” - Repatriation is the term given to the process of returning indigenous things to their own environment. For example, if Australia suffered a viral outbreak that caused the country to be evacuated, the process of returning Australians back to their country once it was safe would be ‘repatriation’. In the sense of polar bears, repatriation for them would be a return to the Arctic. So does ‘stated goal’ mean Dharma intended to return polar bears to the Arctic? I would say yes, but not until the experiments had been concluded. . .
“Accelerated de-terretorialization of Ursus Maritimus through gene therapy and extreme climate change.” ‘Ursus Maritimus’ is a fancy term for polar bear. ‘Accelerated de-terretorialization’ means a rapid change in living environment, apparently through gene therapy and climate conditions. Or, put basically, Dharma shifted polar bears out of their Arctic environment to modify their capability to survive in tropical conditons, using gene therapy to assist the goal. Link that in with ‘repatriation’ and the goal becomes clear: create tropical polar bears and then send them back to the Arctic!
Let’s not forget the polar bear cages, either. Basically they were giant Skinner boxes. (Crash course in Skinner psychology coming up! B. F. Skinner put rats in cages with a button to press. Pressing the button deposited a food pellet. The rats learned to press the button to get the food. However, sometimes the button was changed to deposit food randomly, or at intervals, or not at all - and Skinner studied the rats’ capacity to learn and unlearn in accordance. Lesson over. And yes, all this pressing the button business should be ringing bells with you regarding certain other aspects of the Dharma Initative!) The polar bears had a relatively complex series of buttons to press in their cages in order to get fish biscuits, which basically seems to echo Skinner’s Rats experiments on a larger scale.
So we can understand the experiments on polar bears pretty well. What we can’t understand so well is the purpose of these experiments. For example, you may or may not feel strongly about animal testing. Some poor rabbit (probably not with a number on its back!) strapped down in a laboratory somewhere with make-up shoved in its eye is not a pleasant thought - but there is a purpose; the goal is to determine if the product is harmful to humans. Whether it’s right or wrong is a debate for another place, but what can’t be denied is that there is a point. So what are we to make of genetically modified polar bears enabled to exist in tropical conditions?
My guess would be along the lines of comparative psychology. That is, the psychological study of animals to enable understanding of human behaviour by comparison. Taking the polar bear study, the concept of the experiment is to change a living thing to make it adapatable to environments it was originally unsuited to, “for the betterment of mankind” as Alvar Hanso might say. Dharma were giving evolution a nudge. And given there’s such a thing as a Valenzetti equation that predicts the destruction of the human race, it would seem to me that mankind will be required to adapt in order to survive. If the polar bears can do it, maybe so can we.
Swan Station Post: http://lost-theories.com/theories/2008/jan/14/dharma-stations-part-1-swan/
Arrow Station Post: http://lost-theories.com/theories/2008/jan/16/dharma-stations-part-2-arrow/
Staff Station Post: http://lost-theories.com/theories/2008/jan/17/dharma-stations-part-3-staff/
Pearl Station Post: http://lost-theories.com/theories/2008/jan/21/dharma-stations-part-4-pearl/
Key episodes
| # | Title | Aired | Central character | Theories |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3.1 | A Tale of Two Cities | 10-4-2006 | Jack | 130 |
As always, amazing stuff Angelo! Something to think on!
Another great read. :)
+1
AC, This is a very nice post! Looks like your research has paid off! Great job! +1
Wow, Angelo, you’ve really done some research!
I agree with everyone, this is a really great post!
Okay then,
How come the hostiles kept the polar bears? Tom said to sawyer “Oh you got a fish bisket! it only took the polar bears (x amount of time).”
weird.
Love it!!! Great job as usual.
What evolutionary changes will be necessary for the survival of the human race?
Excellent work again AC +1.
There ain’t much else to say. Other than your timing is great in that I was bored and needed something interesting to waste the last few mins of the day.
Jack - ‘the hostiles’ didn’t keep the polar bears. ‘The hostiles’, since becoming more commonly known as The Others, actually set the polar bears free.
Tom’s remark is actually more of a clue that he was part of Dharma before becoming an Other. I was going to elaborate on this in the post but the thing was already getting too long and it didn’t seem that important to my overall purpose.
The big question I get out of this is why the DI thought extreme climate versatility might be important to human evolution. To create tropical polar bears and release then into the Arctic would be cruel , and can’t see it just for curiosity’s sake. Perhaps the goal was to find out if humans were altered to adapt to a new environment, could they then naturally revert back (to adapt again) once the environmmental catastrophe was over? Then again, maybe the Arctic they foresaw in the future would be a tropical place.
AC, well done yet again.
I had forgotten about the camera fixed on Jacob’s cabin. Very good insight.
Angelo, I think this is one of your best and that’s saying alot. +1
Good job! I love this series. +1 I do however agree with ozzig. Why set the polar bears free after they are accustomed to the tropical weather? That would in fact be cruel. I suppose to see if they would revert, but what’s the point of that?
JW/Ozzig - I would assume that Dharma (if my theory is correct) would be ‘creating’ polar bears that are adaptive to both climates. Polar bears that can flourish in the Arctic or the Bahamas! (It’s not so unrealistic; after all, we humans manage to live in all kinds of extremes with a little adaptation - other animals achieve the same ends also.)
Annie - Sincerely thank you. High praise indeed, and it means a lot to me.
JW, I was thinking that Dharma would do such a thing, but would need a big reason for it.
If some impending catastrophe was on the horizon, just for instance, say a comet on the way that would slightly alter the earths orbit , taking it closer to the sun and resulting in an 80-100 degree global temperature increase, that would last for 10, 50 ? years, but then the earths orbit would resume to normal. The arctic becomes tropical and the tropics unbearable. Just for instance.
They would want to try to save as many species as possible, including cold-climate species. But a problem would arise when the planet went back to it’s original orbit, and the earth regained arctic etc climates that species were no longer adapted to live in. It would be important to know if nature would step in and reverse the previous alteration. If not, the species are doomed anyway.
I’m just saying that I think something BIG would be behind such experimentation, that they wouldn’t do it just for curiosity sake.
AC, I didn’t see your response when I was typing mine. That could very well be the DI goal—some sort of universal adaptation, and it would fit for the same reasons as I mentioned, even if I did get a little sci fi there (But it is possible!)
AC, Another very insightful post. I don’t know if you saw my post on the Hydra a while back: http://lost-theories.com/theories/2007/dec/20/one-possible-significance-name/ However, my theory indicates that life expansion was one of the goals of the hydra station as well as animal research.
Also, I read the phrase ‘accelerated de-territorialization’ to mean something different. territorial |ˌteriˈtôrēəl| adjective 1 of or relating to the ownership of an area of land or sea : territorial disputes. • Zoology (of an animal or species) defending a territory : these sharks are aggressively territorial. • of or relating to an animal’s territory or its defense : territorial growls.
Therefore de-territorialization (in the context of polar bears) could mean to stop defending their territory?
AC, I love your Dharma Station Series, and I cannot wait for the big finale on the Orchid! Here’s my take on the Hydra Station and its original function:
I think experiments were conducted on typically territorial animals like polar bears and sharks in order to determine if they could reduce or eliminate certain kinds of behaviour related to extreme territorialism. I believe the ultimate goal was to somehow reduce territorialism in human beings. After all, we have divided up our globe into hundreds of artificial territories into arbitrary units we call countries. These countries are subsequently divided into yet smaller territories called states. And of course, from there we have counties and municipalities, etc. Humans are, perhaps, the most territorial species on the planet. I think Dharma was hoping to change the Valenzetti equation by modifying the human genome so that we became less territorial, and thus less likely to go to war and kill ourselves over completely artificial boundary lines. Do you think I’m way off the mark here?
Hey, great theory AC. New registered user, long-time reader, and I’ve got to say that your theories are ‘cream of the crop’ (along with yours, ozzig!) They’re so well thought out. I do, however, have a minor question that I couldn’t locate the answer to on Google. Everyone knows that sharks need to move to survive, presumably because they must have flowing water to filter out oxygen, with the exception of a select few shallow water species (which the shark that attacked the raft was not). Now, even assuming the shark was ‘caught and chained’ in the minimum amount of time, between the draining, branding, study, and refill time, it would seem safe to assume that our shark would be, it not completely dead, at least unfit to return to it’s habitat of open ocean. Now, this suggests two viable possibilities to me. 1) That the room was not meant for live specimens, or 2) that the sharks were also a subject of adaptability research. Crazy, but probably doable. Just a thought. Great theory!
Slusho, that’s exactly what I was trying to say (but your way was much much better :)).
talksinhersleep, i think we’re on the same wavelength (okay, i know that was corny). i like your theory about anti-aging too. since that ties in with the hanso foundation project (life-extension) and is also evident in richard alpert’s character (who is apparently ageless), it’s probably more on the mark than my idea. the fact that polar bears and sharks, not to mention dolphins, are extremely adaptable animals is probably a major part to the story as well. after all, sharks have been around since before the dinosaurs, and polar bears live in extreme conditions for large, land based mammals. maybe we can learn something from them! whether it allows to live longer lives or simply adapt as a species to a future environment…we shall find out soon!!
Talks - I did read your theory (I was surprised I never posted a comment; I remember thinking it was well-researched and put together). Indeed, your mention of good old Joop was another aspect I was briefly considering delving into in this post, but linked in with the anti-ageing of the Hydra you’ve already made the point better than I would have here.
Starsearcher - Many thanks, and good question. I could speculate that the harnesses were slack enough to allow ‘wriggle room’ and branding occurred underwater with the shark restrained just enough to prevent it breaking loose and turning into Jaws. But you’re right to raise the point; to have branded sharks the way they did must have served a purpose! (Maybe it was to prevent senile dementure like in that brilliant film Deep Blue Sea!)
Satrsearcher/AC Would holding the shark and moving the water with some kind of pump work?
Ozzig, if that comet turns out to be called the Angelo Comet, I’m offically claiming this site as the best in the world! :-)
I totally agree witht the de-territorialisation comments, I think its much more with breaking down territorial behaviour in animals to prevent war in humans. Sounds very very plausible.
Another excellent post and discussion AC! +1
Ok, so the three-toed aliens want to bring some species to the home planet (possibly including Homo Sapiens) but they need humans to do a little homework for them first - find out if some basic traits can be squashed (if you can keep a shark from eating a dolphin you can keep it from attacking delicious aliens while they vacation at the alien sea shore).
At least that was the original deal until The Others developed a taste for Dharma ranch dressing. People will do awful things to each other to get that ranch dressing! :P
Excellent theory! The abstract nature of my comment is not a reflection on the effort that went into your post. Very well done.
Yeah, I don’t really get how the Skinner experiments tie into the adaptability/de-territorialization experiments.
Maybe they weren’t Skinner-analogues at all but… memory tests?!?!?!
but you’re definitely right that the Hydra was meant “to modify creatures to flourish in environments they were not originally designed to exist in” +1
I strongly disagree Jacob is a prisoner (Ben seems like a servant to him), but other than that this was an awesome theory. I believe it. You explain things very well. I hardly can wait for season 5. 1+