Through exposure to electromagnetism, one's consciousness travels through time. So far, we've only seen the short term effects of this with Desmond saving Charlie shortly after his visions (or really, visits to) the future. We haven't seen this happen long enough to see any long term side effects -- like memory loss that Daniel Faraday experiences.
When Faraday and Desmond meet on the island, neither of them seem to remember meeting in the past, which is problematic if you want to believe that it always happened and it's not a paradox (terminator and back to the future still blow my mind on that). I like to think of it that Desmond consciousness is split into to, with present and either past or future Desmond. No matter how important the information he gathers from these trips, he's incapable of remembering it for long periods of time -- it's akin to waking up from a dream. You remember little bits and pieces, but not the whole pictures and shortly afterward the whole thing fades away to just some weird sense of deja vu. That would explain why Desmond could only remember little flashes of the future -- Hurley picking up the wire, Jin fishing, etc. and not the entire scene start to finish.
Now, as far as Faraday, we've seen that he has issues with memory. The Faraday we met at Oxford was on the normal timelin, same as Penny and everyone else besides Desmond and Eloise. So, it should be that Faraday remembers the encounter, remembers Desmond, and is prepared for the meeting...which isn't the case. I believe that shortly after the meeting with Desmond, he either purposefully or accidentally over exposed himself to radiation/electromagnetism and started skipping into different parts of his timeline. This explains how he knew Desmond needed to be his constant -- he went to the future on the island and knew he would need him -- scribbled it down and because of the memory loss side effect later forgot about it. This also explains why Daniel cried at the Oceanic 815 footage but couldn't remember why.
In the philosophy of Hume (whom Desmond's named after), the biggest flaw of humanity is forgetting.
Also, as far as Daniel, Desmond and the cooridnates for the machine -- it's not a paradox. "The universe has a way of course correcting." Whether or not Desmond went to visit him and told him the numbers, Daniel would have figured them out himself through trial and error.
It's my belief that Jacob is a real person and was behind the 'incident' spoken of on the initiation tapes. Jacob was a subject of experiments and could speak to the dead, much like Miles can. However, maybe through an issue with the eelctro magnetism or the power of the island, something went wrong and he became trapped seemingly between worlds, allowing him to only communicated with the dead (or "special" people - walt, ben, locke) the whispers are the dead talking to one another. Jacob somehow broke the barrier so that the real world and the "after world" are co-existing on the island, throwing everything off balance. If you go to lostpedia and read the transcripts of the whispers, it's totally implied that it's Boone, Nikki, and Paulo at some point through the dialogue. Also, that's why Jacob says "Help me" to Locke -- he's trapped. He uses the dead as a vessel. Before, the dead spoke through him. After the incident, he speaks through the dead -- hence him showing up as ! Yemi, Christian, etc. etc. (Walt is a seperate story with his own psychic powers, possibly projection).
Also, I believe that Harper is Annie. The producers were slick with the pop-ups implying that Juliet looked like Annie but it just said "Ben had one childhood friend -- Annie." Which could also mean that Harper was in fact Annie, since Juliet looks nothing like her. Lostpedia also has a picture of the degree on Harper's wall, which is from the Hanso foundation. Since the purge took place when Ben was older, Annie would have been able to complete her education through Dharma and consequently Hanso and then joined the Others when Ben initiated the purge.
Theory by Kate
When Faraday and Desmond meet on the island, neither of them seem to remember meeting in the past, which is problematic if you want to believe that it always happened and it's not a paradox (terminator and back to the future still blow my mind on that). I like to think of it that Desmond consciousness is split into to, with present and either past or future Desmond. No matter how important the information he gathers from these trips, he's incapable of remembering it for long periods of time -- it's akin to waking up from a dream. You remember little bits and pieces, but not the whole pictures and shortly afterward the whole thing fades away to just some weird sense of deja vu. That would explain why Desmond could only remember little flashes of the future -- Hurley picking up the wire, Jin fishing, etc. and not the entire scene start to finish.
Now, as far as Faraday, we've seen that he has issues with memory. The Faraday we met at Oxford was on the normal timelin, same as Penny and everyone else besides Desmond and Eloise. So, it should be that Faraday remembers the encounter, remembers Desmond, and is prepared for the meeting...which isn't the case. I believe that shortly after the meeting with Desmond, he either purposefully or accidentally over exposed himself to radiation/electromagnetism and started skipping into different parts of his timeline. This explains how he knew Desmond needed to be his constant -- he went to the future on the island and knew he would need him -- scribbled it down and because of the memory loss side effect later forgot about it. This also explains why Daniel cried at the Oceanic 815 footage but couldn't remember why.
In the philosophy of Hume (whom Desmond's named after), the biggest flaw of humanity is forgetting.
Also, as far as Daniel, Desmond and the cooridnates for the machine -- it's not a paradox. "The universe has a way of course correcting." Whether or not Desmond went to visit him and told him the numbers, Daniel would have figured them out himself through trial and error.
It's my belief that Jacob is a real person and was behind the 'incident' spoken of on the initiation tapes. Jacob was a subject of experiments and could speak to the dead, much like Miles can. However, maybe through an issue with the eelctro magnetism or the power of the island, something went wrong and he became trapped seemingly between worlds, allowing him to only communicated with the dead (or "special" people - walt, ben, locke) the whispers are the dead talking to one another. Jacob somehow broke the barrier so that the real world and the "after world" are co-existing on the island, throwing everything off balance. If you go to lostpedia and read the transcripts of the whispers, it's totally implied that it's Boone, Nikki, and Paulo at some point through the dialogue. Also, that's why Jacob says "Help me" to Locke -- he's trapped. He uses the dead as a vessel. Before, the dead spoke through him. After the incident, he speaks through the dead -- hence him showing up as ! Yemi, Christian, etc. etc. (Walt is a seperate story with his own psychic powers, possibly projection).
Also, I believe that Harper is Annie. The producers were slick with the pop-ups implying that Juliet looked like Annie but it just said "Ben had one childhood friend -- Annie." Which could also mean that Harper was in fact Annie, since Juliet looks nothing like her. Lostpedia also has a picture of the degree on Harper's wall, which is from the Hanso foundation. Since the purge took place when Ben was older, Annie would have been able to complete her education through Dharma and consequently Hanso and then joined the Others when Ben initiated the purge.
Theory by Kate
