Thinking about time travel on Lost can be very confusing, especially when you try to think of time as linear, or in line form. Here’s a way to think about it without hurting your head (hopefully):
Think about Lost in terms of iTunes. I’m assuming that most of the people reading this are familiar with iTunes, so if you are not, I apologize. When you go to an album in iTunes, the songs are listed in an order that is represented by a corresponding number (#1 for the first track on the album, and etc.). This is how time is typically considered. From one person’s perspective, 1 would be considered the beginning of time and the last number on the album (for our sake we’ll say 10) is the end of time. Everything in between falls in what we call ‘chronological’ order; that is, they occurred one after the other. For the Losties, 1 is their first experience on the island in chronological order, which (for Sawyer, Juliet, and Crew), is waaay back when the giant statue was still pieced together. Number 2 would be their experience in 1954, Number 3 would be 1974, etc. until we get to 2005 or so, which would be the last track, since it is their last memory of time in chronological order. However, the Losties are no longer experiencing time in chronological order. If this were iTunes, you could say that they were browsing through time by artist, or maybe by album. When you click on artist or album in iTunes, the order of the songs changes. But, if you notice, the corresponding numbers of each track are kept in place. This is the way the Losties are now seeing time. Their number 4 (1977) is where they are currently, but all of their time flashes, each with their corresponding number, are now behind them. So, in theory, the order could be 9, 2, 3, 4, 1, 7, etc. I’m just throwing these numbers out there to make a point. To them, suddenly the item at the top of the list in iTunes, isn’t the first chronological time experience. The beginning of the list starts at 10, now, even though it should be at the end. They went jumped from number 10 to number 4, making this the new linear timeline. It is still linear, even though the times are no longer in chronological order.
With this is mind, next think of a playlist. You drag the songs you want into a playlist. You can put this playlist into any order. However, you may decide that you don’t want a song in there. When you delete the song from a playlist, the song is not erased from the album, where it exists in chronological order. Keep in mind that for someone other than the Losties (such as Hurley’s dad, for example), time is still moving in chronological order. Thinking about deleting songs helps when you make a playlist can help when thinking about death. If someone were to die in that person’s present (what they are currently experiencing), they wouldn’t just disappear from the chronological order, in the same way that a song won’t be deleted from an album just because you took it off of your playlist. However, if you were to delete the song from the album, then you wouldn’t be able to put it on the playlist because it doesn’t exist in the library anymore. This is what would have happened if young Ben had died. Young Ben exists in chronological order, at least up to a certain point. But if you were to delete young Ben from your library, then you could never drag old Ben into your playlist.
Now, you take and you shuffle your album. The new order is an example of the new chronological order that the Losties are experiencing. You could still drag a song from the shuffled album into the playlist, and you could still delete it from that playlist. Therefore, if, in 1977, Hurley (again, for example) was killed, he was only deleted in that playlist. Hurley (in his shuffled new version of chronological order) still exists. This may get a little complicated. This is Hurley’s new shuffled timeline: Hurley is born in, let’s say 1979. He grows up and winds up on the island in 2004. He eventually gets off the island, and in 2007 he goes back. When he gets back to the island he is in 1977. Therefore, Hurley’s new ‘chronological’ order is 1979, 2004, 2007, 1977. The numbers don’t increase, yet this is time as Hurley experiences it. Therefore, if Hurley were murdered in 1977, he would still be born in the 1979, even though it was ‘technically’ after his death. He would still go to the island in 2004, and he would wind up back in 1977, where he were killed. Then, in 1979, he would be born. If you think about it, it’s kind of a cycle, where Hurley has a specific beginning and a specific end, but instead of time being numbered increasingly, the numbers are shuffled.
Theory by Kenny
Think about Lost in terms of iTunes. I’m assuming that most of the people reading this are familiar with iTunes, so if you are not, I apologize. When you go to an album in iTunes, the songs are listed in an order that is represented by a corresponding number (#1 for the first track on the album, and etc.). This is how time is typically considered. From one person’s perspective, 1 would be considered the beginning of time and the last number on the album (for our sake we’ll say 10) is the end of time. Everything in between falls in what we call ‘chronological’ order; that is, they occurred one after the other. For the Losties, 1 is their first experience on the island in chronological order, which (for Sawyer, Juliet, and Crew), is waaay back when the giant statue was still pieced together. Number 2 would be their experience in 1954, Number 3 would be 1974, etc. until we get to 2005 or so, which would be the last track, since it is their last memory of time in chronological order. However, the Losties are no longer experiencing time in chronological order. If this were iTunes, you could say that they were browsing through time by artist, or maybe by album. When you click on artist or album in iTunes, the order of the songs changes. But, if you notice, the corresponding numbers of each track are kept in place. This is the way the Losties are now seeing time. Their number 4 (1977) is where they are currently, but all of their time flashes, each with their corresponding number, are now behind them. So, in theory, the order could be 9, 2, 3, 4, 1, 7, etc. I’m just throwing these numbers out there to make a point. To them, suddenly the item at the top of the list in iTunes, isn’t the first chronological time experience. The beginning of the list starts at 10, now, even though it should be at the end. They went jumped from number 10 to number 4, making this the new linear timeline. It is still linear, even though the times are no longer in chronological order.
With this is mind, next think of a playlist. You drag the songs you want into a playlist. You can put this playlist into any order. However, you may decide that you don’t want a song in there. When you delete the song from a playlist, the song is not erased from the album, where it exists in chronological order. Keep in mind that for someone other than the Losties (such as Hurley’s dad, for example), time is still moving in chronological order. Thinking about deleting songs helps when you make a playlist can help when thinking about death. If someone were to die in that person’s present (what they are currently experiencing), they wouldn’t just disappear from the chronological order, in the same way that a song won’t be deleted from an album just because you took it off of your playlist. However, if you were to delete the song from the album, then you wouldn’t be able to put it on the playlist because it doesn’t exist in the library anymore. This is what would have happened if young Ben had died. Young Ben exists in chronological order, at least up to a certain point. But if you were to delete young Ben from your library, then you could never drag old Ben into your playlist.
Now, you take and you shuffle your album. The new order is an example of the new chronological order that the Losties are experiencing. You could still drag a song from the shuffled album into the playlist, and you could still delete it from that playlist. Therefore, if, in 1977, Hurley (again, for example) was killed, he was only deleted in that playlist. Hurley (in his shuffled new version of chronological order) still exists. This may get a little complicated. This is Hurley’s new shuffled timeline: Hurley is born in, let’s say 1979. He grows up and winds up on the island in 2004. He eventually gets off the island, and in 2007 he goes back. When he gets back to the island he is in 1977. Therefore, Hurley’s new ‘chronological’ order is 1979, 2004, 2007, 1977. The numbers don’t increase, yet this is time as Hurley experiences it. Therefore, if Hurley were murdered in 1977, he would still be born in the 1979, even though it was ‘technically’ after his death. He would still go to the island in 2004, and he would wind up back in 1977, where he were killed. Then, in 1979, he would be born. If you think about it, it’s kind of a cycle, where Hurley has a specific beginning and a specific end, but instead of time being numbered increasingly, the numbers are shuffled.
Theory by Kenny
