On May 10, 3:43 am, Kevin Reilly <use...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> Alternatively, if we're dealing with single reality, but one in which
> certain characters can know the future either through time travel or
> parapsychological means, then someone who knew of Michael's certain
> survival up to particular future date could feed him all these stories
> about "the island" wanting him alive and not have to worry about the
> details. Michael's survival WOULD be the result of a bizarre series of
> coincidences, but a series of which the long-term outcome was already
> known. An absolute certainty with an extraordinarily unlikely
> probability is not impossible under these cir***stances.
>
> It would be like going back in time a week and telling the known lottery
> winner he was about to win. What you end up with is staggeringly low
> odds, but with an absolute guarantee of fruition. It seems like a
> contradiction but it's not; it works because there's more than one
> observer.
The same sort of thing could resolve the "What if I kill my
grandfather?" problem for time travel. If time travel is really
possible, and there's one reality, then if we *try* to do something
like this, then the gun will jam, or it will turn out to be a guy who
merely *looked* like our grandfather, or a medical miracle will
happen, etc, etc.
> Of course this being LOST the real truth could well be somewhere in
> between (or indeed somewhere miles away). The only certainty is that
> there'll be a lot of Lindelhof / Cuse interpretation thrown in along the
> way.
>
> What I hope it ISN'T is a literal island "consciousness" that can reach
> out across space and/or time and manipulate previously unforeseen events
> as and when they threaten its plans. That's too far beyond paranormal
> and into the realms of pure fantasy for me.
Knowing the future in a way that makes current events *inevitable*
would be, to a large extent, as fantastic as what you fear, I think
(reminiscent of that "X-Files" episode, "Clyde Bruckman's Final
Repose") -). Given the many series-of-unlikely-events that have
happened on "Lost", it seems that manipulation is happening
SOMEWHERE. Maybe it's done by carefully controlling how information
is imparted to the past (as when past-Desmond contacts Daniel). I'm
thinking of something like an interference pattern, where a certain
outcome is reinforced, while others are suppressed.
-Doug Elrod (dre1@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
)
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