So far, there have been three different types of TT shown on LOST.
#1) Physical TT to the past or future via a certain bearing on entry/exit to The Island.
#2) Physical TT to the past or future via The Vault in The Orchid.*
*It's likely that the FDW used the same Exotic Matter as The Vault as thus Ben's TT was achieved in a similar way.
#3) Mental TT between the present and the past via exposure to EM radiation.**
**This exposure is what also caused Desmond's entire life to flash before his eyes, including events from the past, present & future.
Each of these methods of TT are governed by different rules and in some cases even a temporal policeforce!
#1) It's my belief that in LOST no physical TT can alter events in the past or the future, if they travel to the past or the future then there has only ever existed a past or future in which their actions are already accounted for and a part of future history.
In this way, LOST seems to apply the Novikov Self-Consistency Principle...
"Stated simply, the Novikov consistency principle asserts that if an event exists that would give rise to a paradox, or to any "change" to the past whatsoever, then the probability of that event is zero."
Following quote taken from Notion of the Past & Can we change it?
"I. Novikov: What has really happened cannot be undone'"
If this is true then no matter what date Richard Alpert left The Island to play the Panchen Lama and test a young John Locke there would never, and could never, have existed a past in which Alpert's visit did not take place.
In this way physical time travellers are unable to alter events and history remains safe.
#2) We've seen physical TT via The Vault in The Orchid Orietation outtake video, when Bunny#15 appeared over Halliwax's shoulder before he sent it!
The only place Bunny#15 could logically have come from is the future and thus it sets up a causality loop or a predestination paradox in which Halliwax must place the Bunny#15 he is holding into The Vault and send it back into the past, cause and effect are reversed but logic is preserved; Halliwax must put the bunny in The Vault because he does put the bunny in The Vault because he did put the bunny in The Vault, if he does not/had not/has not then Bunny#15 would never have appeared over his shoulder.
"In physics, the Novikov self-consistency principle proposes that contradictory causal loops cannot form, but that consistent ones can. In a physical sense, a self-consistent causal loop of this kind is not actually a paradox because it produces a logically consistent result rather than a contradictory one. It is only perceived as a paradox because it goes against conventional expectations and assumptions about causality."
"HALLIWAX: In our first demonstration, we will attempt to shift the test subject 100 milliseconds ahead (in) four-dimensional space. For the briefest of the moments, the animal will seem to disappear, but in reality..."
During the shift the test subject would experience nothing, in the example above they would instantly arrive 100ms in the future, when they would seem to reappear, in Ben's example he skipped over ten whole months in an instant, he lost time, Mittelos.
In this way LOST borrows from BTTF...
"DOC: He's fine, and he's completely unaware that anything happened. As far as he's concerned the trip was instantaneous. That's why Einstein's watch is exactly one minute behind mine. He skipped over that minute to instantly arrive at this moment in time."
We can also look to BTTF for an explanation of why two objects made of the same matter cannot occupy the same space, as Halliwax was so concerend about in the outtake film...
"HALLIWAX: ... the hell?! Don't let them near each other! When did you set the shift?"
"DOC: I foresee two possibilities. One - coming face-to-face with herself thirty years older could put her into shock and she could simply pass out. Or two - the encounter could create a time paradox, the results of which could cause a chain reaction that would unravel the very fabric of the space-time continuum and destroy the entire universe. Granted, that's the worse case scenario. The destruction might, in fact, be very localized, limited to merely our own galaxy."
What LOST does not borrow from BTTF is the ability of physical TT to alter the past or future and in doing so create alternate 1985's or whenever, that's what rule#1 was for!
#3) Mental TT, people whose consciousnesses are the travellers through time, can change the past, Daniel Faraday was experimenting in this field and may also have been thinking along these lines, one of the things scribbled on his blackboard was...
"Kerr might work!, Can it pass Hawking's Chronological Protection Conjecture?"
When Desmond's mind was in 1996 he made changes, he did buy the ring and presumably he could have altered the course of his destiny, with disastrous consequences for the rest of us...
"MS. HAWKING: Well, I know your name as well as I know that you that don't ask Penny to marry you. In fact, you break her heart. Well, breaking her heart is, of course, what drives you in a few short years from now to enter that sailing race -- to prove her father wrong -- which brings you to the island where you spend the next 3 years of your life entering numbers into the computer until you are forced to turn that failsafe key. And if you don't do those things, Desmond David Hume, every single one of us is dead. So give me that sodding ring."
That's what Ms. Hawking is IMO, a temporal policewoman or a chronology protection agent, it's why and where she gets her name...
"Stephen Hawking: It seems that there is a Chronology Protection Agency which prevents the appearance of closed timelike curves and so makes the universe safe for historians."
And those are the Rules of TT in LOST as presented by the show so far.
IMO, of course.
Theory by Richardstone
#1) Physical TT to the past or future via a certain bearing on entry/exit to The Island.
#2) Physical TT to the past or future via The Vault in The Orchid.*
*It's likely that the FDW used the same Exotic Matter as The Vault as thus Ben's TT was achieved in a similar way.
#3) Mental TT between the present and the past via exposure to EM radiation.**
**This exposure is what also caused Desmond's entire life to flash before his eyes, including events from the past, present & future.
Each of these methods of TT are governed by different rules and in some cases even a temporal policeforce!
#1) It's my belief that in LOST no physical TT can alter events in the past or the future, if they travel to the past or the future then there has only ever existed a past or future in which their actions are already accounted for and a part of future history.
In this way, LOST seems to apply the Novikov Self-Consistency Principle...
"Stated simply, the Novikov consistency principle asserts that if an event exists that would give rise to a paradox, or to any "change" to the past whatsoever, then the probability of that event is zero."
Following quote taken from Notion of the Past & Can we change it?
"I. Novikov: What has really happened cannot be undone'"
If this is true then no matter what date Richard Alpert left The Island to play the Panchen Lama and test a young John Locke there would never, and could never, have existed a past in which Alpert's visit did not take place.
In this way physical time travellers are unable to alter events and history remains safe.
#2) We've seen physical TT via The Vault in The Orchid Orietation outtake video, when Bunny#15 appeared over Halliwax's shoulder before he sent it!
The only place Bunny#15 could logically have come from is the future and thus it sets up a causality loop or a predestination paradox in which Halliwax must place the Bunny#15 he is holding into The Vault and send it back into the past, cause and effect are reversed but logic is preserved; Halliwax must put the bunny in The Vault because he does put the bunny in The Vault because he did put the bunny in The Vault, if he does not/had not/has not then Bunny#15 would never have appeared over his shoulder.
"In physics, the Novikov self-consistency principle proposes that contradictory causal loops cannot form, but that consistent ones can. In a physical sense, a self-consistent causal loop of this kind is not actually a paradox because it produces a logically consistent result rather than a contradictory one. It is only perceived as a paradox because it goes against conventional expectations and assumptions about causality."
"HALLIWAX: In our first demonstration, we will attempt to shift the test subject 100 milliseconds ahead (in) four-dimensional space. For the briefest of the moments, the animal will seem to disappear, but in reality..."
During the shift the test subject would experience nothing, in the example above they would instantly arrive 100ms in the future, when they would seem to reappear, in Ben's example he skipped over ten whole months in an instant, he lost time, Mittelos.
In this way LOST borrows from BTTF...
"DOC: He's fine, and he's completely unaware that anything happened. As far as he's concerned the trip was instantaneous. That's why Einstein's watch is exactly one minute behind mine. He skipped over that minute to instantly arrive at this moment in time."
We can also look to BTTF for an explanation of why two objects made of the same matter cannot occupy the same space, as Halliwax was so concerend about in the outtake film...
"HALLIWAX: ... the hell?! Don't let them near each other! When did you set the shift?"
"DOC: I foresee two possibilities. One - coming face-to-face with herself thirty years older could put her into shock and she could simply pass out. Or two - the encounter could create a time paradox, the results of which could cause a chain reaction that would unravel the very fabric of the space-time continuum and destroy the entire universe. Granted, that's the worse case scenario. The destruction might, in fact, be very localized, limited to merely our own galaxy."
What LOST does not borrow from BTTF is the ability of physical TT to alter the past or future and in doing so create alternate 1985's or whenever, that's what rule#1 was for!
#3) Mental TT, people whose consciousnesses are the travellers through time, can change the past, Daniel Faraday was experimenting in this field and may also have been thinking along these lines, one of the things scribbled on his blackboard was...
"Kerr might work!, Can it pass Hawking's Chronological Protection Conjecture?"
When Desmond's mind was in 1996 he made changes, he did buy the ring and presumably he could have altered the course of his destiny, with disastrous consequences for the rest of us...
"MS. HAWKING: Well, I know your name as well as I know that you that don't ask Penny to marry you. In fact, you break her heart. Well, breaking her heart is, of course, what drives you in a few short years from now to enter that sailing race -- to prove her father wrong -- which brings you to the island where you spend the next 3 years of your life entering numbers into the computer until you are forced to turn that failsafe key. And if you don't do those things, Desmond David Hume, every single one of us is dead. So give me that sodding ring."
That's what Ms. Hawking is IMO, a temporal policewoman or a chronology protection agent, it's why and where she gets her name...
"Stephen Hawking: It seems that there is a Chronology Protection Agency which prevents the appearance of closed timelike curves and so makes the universe safe for historians."
And those are the Rules of TT in LOST as presented by the show so far.
IMO, of course.
Theory by Richardstone
