LOST-Theories.com

+1 AC. A tough one this and I think you’ve done well. I will comment more later if i get a bit of time.

Another +1 for some fantasmagoric writing here, but I have one question.

Wasn’t it Ben that first began jamming transmissions off the island, not DHARMA? If the transmission were being jammed all along, how did the numbers escape the island?

AC, You have outdone yourself with this one! Good research. I have a question for you . Are you planning on posting your theory about “The Orchid”,before the start of season 4? +1

Molly - As stated, I am assuming that Dharma built a jammer for a purpose (and the purpose was to prevent the radio tower broadcasting off island). The radio tower was broadcasting the numbers (Rousseau’s team heard it, Leonard heard it) post-purge, so I assume ‘the hostiles’ turned it off. And then Ben, for whatever reason (probably to keep people from leaving) stated the Looking Glass was flooded and communications were jammed.

KSJ - All being well, I aim to post it on Wednesday. It’s in rough shape now, but the bones are there! And then I’ll be finally finished and clear for S4!

The jamming hardware didn’t have to be housed underwater, it just could have been controlled from there for security reasons. That cable could have had many uses.

AC, that sounds like a plausible scenario for the purpose and function of the station. The only part I’m not sure on is the experimentation and observation. Harpoons aren’t used to capture, but to kill. I suppose anyone in the water around the station would need protection against possible shark attacks. Maybe something emitted from the station drew them near and they had to be chased off, don’t know.

Can’t wait for the Orchid one, but I’d STILL like to see one about the Dharma door, with you at least pretending it’s real!

Box - I didn’t relate the cable with the jamming signal. I speculated that the cable could be to do with the sonar in the Station, and connected to the sonar fence. I also speculated it could have been a feed for power, oxygen, etc. Or it could have been something else entirely. (What bothers me most about it is that no one has followed it on land to see what it’s connected to!)

Ozzig - Maybe, due to the experiments they did on the sharks/dolpins, killing them became the only ‘humane’ thing to do once things didn’t turn out quite right. As for that Door you keep banging on about… Unless the highly improbable becomes probable and the fake door in the decoy village becomes bloody Stargate or whatever then, no, I’m not doing one. No matter how much you flirt with me.

Well, ok, no more banging about the door then, at least not in your direction, i know a closed mind when I see it. But would you mind explaining that flirting comment? I fail to see how you got that. Apparently, your pal Lojozz knows you quite well, no need for an umbrella in your vicinity. (OMG, I’ve just flirted again!!)

You love it.

Oh, I get it now! You think if you can make me think that you think I’m flirting with you, then I will be embasrrassed and go away, then no one around to contradict you! Won’t work.

You are suggesting above, that once dolphins and sharks have been experimented on so horribly that the only thing left to do is to put them out of their misery, that this is done by harpooning them? Now that is warped, that is not euthanasia. Also, if they are that bad off, they aren’t going to be in any shape to be swimming around to get harpooned. Unless you are suggesting that they bring the poor creatures in to flop around on the floor where they can be harpooned, sportsman-like?

AC, I think you did a masterful job at putting this theory together! I tend to agree with your findings. +1 Nice job!

I particularly like how you tied in the Radio Tower with the Valenzetti Equation.

Just a thought, could TLG via “The Flame” averted direct contact with the radio waves?

The only thing I am uncertain about, and it’s a small thing, would be the harpooning of the sharks and dolphins. I mean if they get them into TLG, I am sure they could employ other methods to capturing them, without injury. Perhaps, the harpoons were used for other purposes. And, no I am NOT encouraging you, Ozzig!

AC, you know, I think you should do one on the door… I will give you an example:

Dharma Stations Part 8: The Door

The Door station is quite possibly the most intriguing station of all. It is a door, a baddly constructed door with a generic door logo on the door itself. What did Dharma use it for? I believe this once again goes back to psychological experiments. This experiment specifically focused on the sense of humor of the subject. The subject was told he is assigned to the Door Station and once he got there he realized there was a sheet of rock behind it. If he laughed then he passed the test, if he failed he was sent to The Swan to push the button because he is a very serious person and it takes a very serious person to handle the pressure of the Swan Station. The Door is door to the means of the door into the mind allowing the door of seriousness to be opened revealing whether or not they could lock the door of The Swan without someone losing their mind causing them to break down the metaphorical door of sanity. DOOR!

You like?

JW? So, everyone thinks I’m kooky just because I think there could be something more to the door than meets the eye?

Dab, didn’t quite understand that, but that’s ok…

Ha, Ozzig! Because I agreed with your assessment regarding the harpoons, I didn’t want AC to think I was encouraging you to give him a hard time. Nothing I haven’t done to him myself! lol

Oh, ok, Dab. Well, not like I need encouragement, although it never hurts. But you’d best watch out for giving him a hard time. Why doesn’t Lojozz ever get accused of flirting with him?

The theory I followed just fine, just had a problem with the dolphins and sharks aspect. (Glad I got some support on that one!) It made no sense as a method of either capture or euthanasia.

AC you killed it once again! Nice work…

Something on Charlie’s death. Even if Charlie would have remained in the room he was in when the grenade blew he would have stayed safe. The water, again, would only rise to the hole’s level giving him ample space to keep his head above water. I can overlook this…

Another thing… Why would the door seal from the outside (charlie’s section)? Those doors in particular are meant to be closed from the inside in case of outer breach. I can overlook this as well…

Just thought I’d throw that out there… Good post

No, I just like the Door Station with the door logo. It is comical in my opinion. There are just no facts about it. There is no way AC could write a post about it just yet. It would be all guess work. All he could write is that it is a door with rock behind it. That is it.

Ok, JW, because it’s you, I believe you that you weren’t making fun of me. Thanks for clearing that up. Actually, I guess you probably could have gotten away with making fun of me, but still preferable that you weren’t.

Why has noone commented on my post about the Door Station? I actually like it. LoL. It was meant to make people laugh, this site is too serious sometimes!

JW, no one could have done better ! See, I can say that now ! (You know why I couldn’t earlier) But it was funny, I thought you were parodying me.

Hey Ozzig remember me, I also was in on that rant about “The Door” Remember we sychronized! :-D

Ozz/Dab - my harpooning of ‘sick animals’ from testing was not serious (hence ‘humane’ in inverted commas). A serious reason would be to kill whales.

I am joking.

For the record, my girlfriend has often insinuated that Lojozz and I must have some kind of flirting relationship going on when she hears about how we have sat up until dawn, drinking and talking/debating with each other. It’s strictly platonic, for the record. He’s not my type.

JW - It needs work! A better test would be to tell the participant they need to open the door at a certain speed, from a certain angle to access what’s inside. If they get it wrong, they’ll see rock. Observe how long it takes for them to get fed up.

Communication is a real issue with all those stations. The Flame has big satellite dish, we have a tower used for communication and also a submerged station apparently involved with blocking communication.

I think the Looking Glass is the real communication hub, a communication with the other side of the looking glass, with a world that is not quite the same as the one existing on the island. But it is hidden because some people on the island believe they are still in the normal world. The pupose of the tower is to capture any radio frequency emitted by devices on the island, such as portable radios or cell phones and also to emit to these devices. But the communication itself is hardwired from the tower building to the Looking Glass where it is channelled to or blocked from the outside world (wherever or whenever this outside world is).

AC, glad to know you were joking about that, sorry but did misinterpret you! As for killing whales, that is a possibility. They are affected by sonar, so…?

Well, I’m glad to know your girlfriend gives you grief as well, now we won’t have to carry around guilty consciences. For my part, I will behave as well I can, and in the future, wait for Lojozz to arrive and give you hell while I passively watch. Can’t promise, but will try.

AC, Another great post.

In regards to the cable on the beach, I started watching Season 1 again and the cable was followed into the Jungle. It was in the episode where Hurley went off to find the French lady to ask her about the numbers. Sayid, Charlie, & Jack go after him, catch up to him, and follow the cable. They follow the cable to where it ends going into the ground. This is just before they find the rope bridge going across the ravine and Hurley & Charlie get split up from Sayid & Jack. Where does the cable go? Could there be some station at the bottom of the ravine??

I’ve always wondered why the Losties (yep, Sayid included) didn’t just chop through the damn cable.

Sayid: “Yes, Jack”

Jack: “Arooo!?”

Sayid: ” We can cut the cable, it may give us a decided advantage”

Jack: “No, no way…”

Satid: “Why Jack?”

Jack: ” I can’t risk my face”

Sayid: “Sorry Jack, it’s for our own good”…

jack: “Wah?”

WHACK

CHOP, CHOP

“Hey, take that you Dharma freaks! Just try to operate a hatch (I meant station) down there without power, O2, or communications.”

Sweet stuff as usual AC. Any speculations on possible hatches yet?

Sham, I enjoy your Jack lines here. We have “Arooo” which is my favorite. Then we have “No, no way”… he says that in every episode. “I can’t risk my face.” I don’t think he has ever said that, however, I wouldn’t want him to risk that either. Lastly, “Wah?” sums up Jack. He really is a tool, but I like him.

Yeah, he can be a tool alright. After watching him for three seasons he isn’t hard to mimic. Based on the latest sneak peaks it appears his “No, no way” skills will be honed to perfection.

AC…good post. +1 from me. A few thoughts.

“The Looking Glass emits a sonar ping that guides in submersible vehicles to the Island. Don’t ask me how that works. ”

AC, this is a fairly simple process. It is known as passive sonar. Many submerisbles have this technology, and to be honest, it is not much more complex than having a receiver locate the direction and intensity of a sound. Then, essentially, you follow the sound (and its growing intensity) to its source (like finding a talking person in a dark room).

On the flip side, the Looking Station may also be a warning station, using the sonar ping as an Active Sonar source. As Active Sonar, the Looking Glass station can detect and Inform the members of Dharma, and now the Others, that ships/submarines are approaching the island. So the ping likely serves two purposes.

“radio waves and water don’t mix. That’s good enough for me. We can put this down [Looking Glass being an underwater jammer] to an oversight on the creators’ behalf…”

Point well made. Of course, an alternative thought on this is that radio buoys are connected to/powered by the Looking Glass station. Such buoys would transmit above the water thus serving as effective jamming devices. Moreover, they would be much more difficult to disable from the island (unless you figured out the jamming was coming from the such buoys and cut the line on the beach) considering they may be out beyond swimming range. This may not be the initial intent of the writer’s (or it may have been), but provides them an easy escape.

“Dharma, naturally, must have built the Radio Tower and set up this broadcast. So isn’t it bizarre that they built a Looking Glass Station that can block signals off the Island? I mean, if you don’t want to transmit off-Island, don’t build a Radio Tower! And if you do want to transmit off-Island, don’t build a Looking Glass jammer! ”

As to this conundrum, I would likely believe that the Looking Glass was not created as a jammer to the radio tower. Perhaps the Looking Glass was built with jamming capabilities (or could be modified as such), i.e. in the event a nearby boat had spotted the island and Dharma wanted to make sure it could not broadcast a message about its sighting, (could it jam nearby boats, etc.???) but I doubt it was built with a mind to jam the Radio Tower (unless in case of an emergency — fear of being discovered).

In fact, if I am not mistaken, does not some part of Lost (either episode or experience) establish that DHARMA was supposed to (continously) broadcast the Numbers encoded, and that when broadcasts were finally sent out with changed numbers that this would signal that DHARMA had changed the core values of the Valenzetti Equation and saved the world.

This directive would seem at odds with DHARMA deliberately keeping the signal only on the island. Moreover, the fact that DHARMA was actively broadcasting the numbers off the island when it had control is bolstered by the fact that Sam Toomey (the guy who also won $$ playing the numbers) heard the numbers broadcast at his military listening post. So much for encryption I guess.

So it seems to me that DHARMA likely was not jamming the radio tower, and was not intent on only keeping such broadcasts on the island (unless in case of an emergency). However, as you said, ultimately the transmission of changed values of the Valenzetti equation would signal the success of DHARMA.

My take: After gaining control of the island, the Others (or a faction thereof) rigged the Looking Glass to block all radio transmissions off the Island (or permanently kept its jamming features on). This served to (i) further cut-off the off-island Dharmites from any contact/knowledge of the occurrences on the island, and (ii) for Ben, and his faction, allowed them to exert even more control upon the remaining Others on the island as those Others believed that they were now effectively cut-off as well.

AC, ProfOzone would like to be in touch with you off site. If you go to his profile, he has a website where you can contact him via his e-mail. Thanks!

Thanks for being the go-between, Dab! I feel like I’ve been summoned to the headmaster’s office… :o)

Igs - thanks for taking the time to comment so thoroughly.

When I said I didn’t know how to explain the sonar I was meaning more how sonar was necessary to guide people into an Island that is really plain as day and ought to be accessible like any other Island - but apparently the sonar is essential. I don’t know how that works!

I like the thinking about radio buoys, but then I think more cables stringing up from the Station (and bobbing around the surface) would surely have been noticed by Charlie and/or Des. So valiant effort to explain a ‘problem’, but doesn’t work for me.

I also don’t believe Dharma were broadcasting the numbers off Island. Sam Toomey and Rousseau’s science team almost certainly heard the broadcast after ‘the purge’, where I believe ‘the hostiles’/The Others had taken over and turned the jammer off. (This raises a question as to why The Others allowed Rousseau’s message to continue playing; they knew about the Radio Tower, why not just switch it off?)

I am with you on your last point. Ben was probably the one that switched the jammer on to block all signals to stop people finding and/or leaving the Island. The key questions, I guess, would be when did he do it, and why?

AC, sry in advance for a long reply. But I think you raised some valid points and questions, so let me reply and see if I can convince myself along the way.

As to the sonar, I think there is a valid point here for the sonar acting as a guiding mechanism. Sounds waves travel much further through water than air. Assuming that the electromagnetism of the island disorients compasses and other mechanisms for locating the island (satellite imagery, etc.), the island would be difficult to locate when you weren’t close enough to actually see the island via the naked eye (which isn’t easy on a submersible unless you surface, esp. as periscope range is quite limited). Thus, a sonar blip could inform far-off submersibles of the direction of the island when they were too far to see via the naked eye, and it would have the benefit of doing so through equipment based upon simple sound waves, rather than thru other technologies which are distorted by electromagnetic fields.

As to the buoys, I understand the difficulty of additional lines. But to be honest, the reality (esp. the longer these lines are) is that they would likely be fairly thin lines and, especially in the ocean (even in good water) would be difficult to see (think fishing line). And, if strung along the bottom for any distance would be virtually invisible. And if set up properly, the buoys would be strung far apart, making it likely that approaching the LG from any one direction, you might only have 1 line near your direct line of site. Considering we have only seen the exterior of the Looking Glass a few brief times, I don’t believe it’s much of a stretch to buy the buoys but to each his own on that one.

As to the radio tower broadcasts, my belief is that the broacasts were far more frequent, if not continuous. As in my last post, I indicated that this was said somewhere b4 in the Lost world, but I can’t remember where. Lostpedia seems to support my position but does not tell me where it got this info from either: [Radio Tower entry]

“Built around the time the DHARMA Initiative arrived on the Island, the radio tower’s purpose was to broadcast the core numerical values of the Valenzetti Equation (the Numbers) until such time that one of the research projects on the Island had managed to change one of the values - broadcasting to the their backers on the outside that “the one true way” had been found, and that the Equation can be changed. The tower was to broadcast the signal on a secret frequency in an encrypted format known only to the backers of the Initiative on the outside.”

This to me indicates a more continuous broadcasting and also has this encryption thing I mentioned. Take it for what you will.

BTW, not trying to be argumentative, just trying to figure this darn show out. I really have enjoyed each of your posts on the various stations!!!!

AC, Too funny! But accurate! lol

Igs, you make an awful lot of good points, it is icing on the cake!

“Headmaster’s office” LMAO!

AC is off to meet Jacob.

Angelo, +1 for another great one! Sorry it took me so long to post, I’ve been hit with a killer cold.

As you know, I try to keep things simple, so about the cable… Although I’m sure it has other very important things running through it, I’ve always been under the assumption that it’s main purpose was to tether TLG to the island.

I hope the Headmaster wasn’t too hard on you!!!!

Igs - thanks for that quote about the Radio Tower - it’s pretty much what I think, I just didn’t realise that idea of mine was more ‘official’. Heartening stuff.

No need to apologise and I certainly don’t consider you argumentative. You bring smart points; valid and plausible. You’re as likely to be as right as I am (but likely we’re both wrong, knowing Lost!).

Anne - no problem. Flu virus is spreading around the UK, too. I’ve been nurse to my girlfriend for the weekend (but, naturally, when I get ill it lasts about a day and then goes away so I don’t get to ‘get nursed’… Pah!)

I got fifty lashes, BTW.

Quick Q Angelo - can’t the oversight re: hydrostatic pressure and moon pools be attributed to Charlie rather than the writers? Charlie was unlikely to be aware that he and Desmond would have been able to survive the grenade attack in the way that you explain, especially given he was in a pretty stressul situation and thought he was going to drown down there anyway