Accept for a small moment that the Island is sentient. Just as your mind and thought process is contained within nerves and electrical signals, the enormous energies gathered within the island act as its mind, storing and manipulating information. The Island then is in essence the brain of the planet, and as such is aware of life and the general course of history up until any given point. But it can not only store information and consider it thoughtfully, but also use this energy source to project its thoughts and carry out certain small acts of time distortion. Notice I didn’t say time travel.
Using these abilities to protect itself, just as your brain is protect the island is able to spin itself through a small time loop of somewhat less than a day, hence Mrs. Hawking’s statement that the Island is always moving. The movement however is always centered around the present.
Think of the island’s small spinning time loop as a cake with for a bunch of slices. The cake is sitting on a turn table and spinning, while each slice that spins by you represents a length away from the present. So you as an observer in the present watch the cake spin. The first slice that comes by represents one hour into the future, the next slice 2 hours, then 3 and so on. But with limited slices the cake eventually spins through a few hours of the past and eventually to the present. Thus you are only in the same time as the cake for the one slice that exists in the present, and thus the island is almost always hidden, because it rarely exists in the present.
A couple of quick additional thoughts. If there were less than 24 slices, say 20, then the island would rotate faster through a day and the tides would rise and fall more quickly as Sayid noted. More importantly the islands short time loop is relative to the present real world time, and consequently people on the island don’t experience events over and over. They continue to move forward at the same pace as the outside world, but the difference of time between the outside world and the island is always moving. That is why you see Doc Ray show up before he died, and the missile show up well after it was fired.
Skip this if you want, but an additional gratuitous thought relating to the cake analogy. If you are Doc Ray and the cake of island time is spinning in front of you, and you reach out and touch a piece that happens to exist 3 hours in the past, then you are instantly transported to the time and likewise exist both on and off the island at the same time. His dead body breached the radius, touching a point 3 hours in the past relative to the present real world time. These connections to the slices are made through wormholes. When the missile arrives it hits a slice or wormhole connected to a point just in the future.
So this short time loop was the island’s initial defense. After the rise of Humanity however, the island thought it would be best to nurture protectors. Using its ability to project images or thoughts by use of the Island’s energy source, it drew a group of ancient peoples who it could mold into a force that would defend it. Richard may have been one of the originals, or a descendant, but in either case the island used its enormous power source again to grant the leader of these peoples long life so that the person it trusted most could always be there.
For ages things were well, but the island came to realize however that not only was it spinning in the manufactured time loop, but the life of the entire planet was spinning, as Daniel suggested, a record might. Time was moving forward, but at the end of any record the needle will fall of the track forever.
Aware of this the island revealed the dilemma to the ancients who it instructed to build the donkey wheel. The island could spin itself through a short window of time using its energy source, but it needed help to throw itself further back in time in order that it might use the extra time to correct the inevitable end of everything.
Turning the wheel though, meant that the entire island would be sent back through time relative to the real world’s present. It would no longer be attached to the present, but would relive an entire past history from the point it landed. Things that had been built up to the island would be sent back as well, people who had come to live there would be sent back. But it had to be done in order to avoid the end.
The goal of the island after making this decision to go back would be to fix the future. It would have to gather the right people to do this, but at the same time it couldn’t create paradoxes. The decision was made to move the island into the past in order to build a future, but the decision to move the island couldn’t be undone in the process.
So a man named Jacob volunteered and the island was moved sometime after 2008 into a distant past. He was sacrificed and frozen in time. He became the link the island needed to have, the constant it needed to jump the gap between the destined of the world and the new future it had created.
Now once in the past the island knew that it had to seek additional help. It couldn’t continue to rely on sacrifices sending it through a large time loop over and over. The problem of it moving to the end of the record had to be fixed.
So it brought a new breed of people to the island, the Dharma Initiative to try and use their science to solve the problem. Dharma themselves may not even be aware that they are there at the request of the island, but their stated purpose is to find a way around the Valenzetti Equation.
Richard meanwhile wasn’t a fan of this. He had come back with the island and understood the consequences but he still felt that the technology brought by Dharma was obscene. The island agreed but knew but believed that it was necessary and so Richard and the Island fell into somewhat of a disfavor. The island still trusted Richard to protect it, but needed someone else to carry out its will in this case. It needed a representative that understood science, somebody within Dharma.
As Jacob was the island’s constant, it had the ability to channel him, from the future that was yet to exist. He used the spirit of Jacob who also knew what had to be done to relate their needs to their new chosen representative within Dharma. Naturally a person of science would be skeptical and a human figure would be much easier to relate to. And then the Island found Ben.
But the island knew that it would need others. And way before Ben’s arrival it began to seek out in the real world people who would best be able to help it accomplish what needed to be done to avoid the end of the record.
By making these plans, and setting them in motion, wormholes to future events allowed the results to filter back into the past, allowing Jack and co. to arrive in Dharma time, fully prepared to do what was necessary. Ben of course had no idea these people were actually from the future, but the events that were now moving forward made their arrival on the island unavoidable.
The island chose Jack for his mind and John for his faith, each guiding each other to a middle ground, and when they were ready, it brought them to where they needed to be. The others were brought for various reasons to guide the main players into place. Kate and Claire however do hold a larger reason as Aaron is going to be needed to preserve the integrity of the original future. So long as the path of the original future is not destroyed then no paradox is created, and the earth can continue to exist. In the rerun of time, Jacob must continue to desire to make a sacrifice for the island, and Aaron’s roll is going to be key in consolidating the original future with the new one.
Ben became selfish. He understands and defends the island but he is not subservient to hit, and so he imprisoned Jacob and his influence with the Cabin. Since the Island had put its trust in Ben, communicating with him solely since Richard was not helpful in allowing Dharma to work, Ben was able to go on as though nothing were happening. With Jacob imprisoned, he could not call out to Richard for help.
Widmore, like Richard was against Ben’s influence, but unlike Ben was unwilling to simply listen to the Island. Widmore was not an original as Richard was, and not subservient, which is why the Island had chosen Richard as it’s immortal protector in the first place.
Widmore decides that he will take action where Richard won’t, but Ben outsmarts him, using his previous connection to the island and wit to oust Widmore, and at some point destroy Dharma as well, consolidating his power over the island.
In truth though, Ben is not evil, but simply wanted his whole life what was taken from him at birth. His mother. Soon after the island claimed him, but denied him a motherly figure or wife, and Ben became resentful. He still protects the island, but he is not willing to follow it’s every order, and while the island is now unable to explain the consequences to Ben, it’s subtle hints have gone ignored by him. The Island needs to be saved, but can’t say so without ruining the future. Ben just wants a family.
So the island knowing it may need others, or perhaps having gone through this series of events a second time, knew that it needed others. As previously mentioned our losties were influenced to come, but without being able to alter every detail of the future, Ben now knows what their purpose his. He ousted Widmore, but now he has other challengers that the Island is seeking to influence in the desperate need to save all of humanity.
Jacob is still out there, waiting to connect the present to the future that the Island is trying to build. Jack, our hero, has been converted, and is there now waiting to be influenced. A sacrifice will be needed this time, just as was originally made, but this time, the sacrifice will connect the island to a future that was destined to run out.Theory by Locke4God
Using these abilities to protect itself, just as your brain is protect the island is able to spin itself through a small time loop of somewhat less than a day, hence Mrs. Hawking’s statement that the Island is always moving. The movement however is always centered around the present.
Think of the island’s small spinning time loop as a cake with for a bunch of slices. The cake is sitting on a turn table and spinning, while each slice that spins by you represents a length away from the present. So you as an observer in the present watch the cake spin. The first slice that comes by represents one hour into the future, the next slice 2 hours, then 3 and so on. But with limited slices the cake eventually spins through a few hours of the past and eventually to the present. Thus you are only in the same time as the cake for the one slice that exists in the present, and thus the island is almost always hidden, because it rarely exists in the present.
A couple of quick additional thoughts. If there were less than 24 slices, say 20, then the island would rotate faster through a day and the tides would rise and fall more quickly as Sayid noted. More importantly the islands short time loop is relative to the present real world time, and consequently people on the island don’t experience events over and over. They continue to move forward at the same pace as the outside world, but the difference of time between the outside world and the island is always moving. That is why you see Doc Ray show up before he died, and the missile show up well after it was fired.
Skip this if you want, but an additional gratuitous thought relating to the cake analogy. If you are Doc Ray and the cake of island time is spinning in front of you, and you reach out and touch a piece that happens to exist 3 hours in the past, then you are instantly transported to the time and likewise exist both on and off the island at the same time. His dead body breached the radius, touching a point 3 hours in the past relative to the present real world time. These connections to the slices are made through wormholes. When the missile arrives it hits a slice or wormhole connected to a point just in the future.
So this short time loop was the island’s initial defense. After the rise of Humanity however, the island thought it would be best to nurture protectors. Using its ability to project images or thoughts by use of the Island’s energy source, it drew a group of ancient peoples who it could mold into a force that would defend it. Richard may have been one of the originals, or a descendant, but in either case the island used its enormous power source again to grant the leader of these peoples long life so that the person it trusted most could always be there.
For ages things were well, but the island came to realize however that not only was it spinning in the manufactured time loop, but the life of the entire planet was spinning, as Daniel suggested, a record might. Time was moving forward, but at the end of any record the needle will fall of the track forever.
Aware of this the island revealed the dilemma to the ancients who it instructed to build the donkey wheel. The island could spin itself through a short window of time using its energy source, but it needed help to throw itself further back in time in order that it might use the extra time to correct the inevitable end of everything.
Turning the wheel though, meant that the entire island would be sent back through time relative to the real world’s present. It would no longer be attached to the present, but would relive an entire past history from the point it landed. Things that had been built up to the island would be sent back as well, people who had come to live there would be sent back. But it had to be done in order to avoid the end.
The goal of the island after making this decision to go back would be to fix the future. It would have to gather the right people to do this, but at the same time it couldn’t create paradoxes. The decision was made to move the island into the past in order to build a future, but the decision to move the island couldn’t be undone in the process.
So a man named Jacob volunteered and the island was moved sometime after 2008 into a distant past. He was sacrificed and frozen in time. He became the link the island needed to have, the constant it needed to jump the gap between the destined of the world and the new future it had created.
Now once in the past the island knew that it had to seek additional help. It couldn’t continue to rely on sacrifices sending it through a large time loop over and over. The problem of it moving to the end of the record had to be fixed.
So it brought a new breed of people to the island, the Dharma Initiative to try and use their science to solve the problem. Dharma themselves may not even be aware that they are there at the request of the island, but their stated purpose is to find a way around the Valenzetti Equation.
Richard meanwhile wasn’t a fan of this. He had come back with the island and understood the consequences but he still felt that the technology brought by Dharma was obscene. The island agreed but knew but believed that it was necessary and so Richard and the Island fell into somewhat of a disfavor. The island still trusted Richard to protect it, but needed someone else to carry out its will in this case. It needed a representative that understood science, somebody within Dharma.
As Jacob was the island’s constant, it had the ability to channel him, from the future that was yet to exist. He used the spirit of Jacob who also knew what had to be done to relate their needs to their new chosen representative within Dharma. Naturally a person of science would be skeptical and a human figure would be much easier to relate to. And then the Island found Ben.
But the island knew that it would need others. And way before Ben’s arrival it began to seek out in the real world people who would best be able to help it accomplish what needed to be done to avoid the end of the record.
By making these plans, and setting them in motion, wormholes to future events allowed the results to filter back into the past, allowing Jack and co. to arrive in Dharma time, fully prepared to do what was necessary. Ben of course had no idea these people were actually from the future, but the events that were now moving forward made their arrival on the island unavoidable.
The island chose Jack for his mind and John for his faith, each guiding each other to a middle ground, and when they were ready, it brought them to where they needed to be. The others were brought for various reasons to guide the main players into place. Kate and Claire however do hold a larger reason as Aaron is going to be needed to preserve the integrity of the original future. So long as the path of the original future is not destroyed then no paradox is created, and the earth can continue to exist. In the rerun of time, Jacob must continue to desire to make a sacrifice for the island, and Aaron’s roll is going to be key in consolidating the original future with the new one.
Ben became selfish. He understands and defends the island but he is not subservient to hit, and so he imprisoned Jacob and his influence with the Cabin. Since the Island had put its trust in Ben, communicating with him solely since Richard was not helpful in allowing Dharma to work, Ben was able to go on as though nothing were happening. With Jacob imprisoned, he could not call out to Richard for help.
Widmore, like Richard was against Ben’s influence, but unlike Ben was unwilling to simply listen to the Island. Widmore was not an original as Richard was, and not subservient, which is why the Island had chosen Richard as it’s immortal protector in the first place.
Widmore decides that he will take action where Richard won’t, but Ben outsmarts him, using his previous connection to the island and wit to oust Widmore, and at some point destroy Dharma as well, consolidating his power over the island.
In truth though, Ben is not evil, but simply wanted his whole life what was taken from him at birth. His mother. Soon after the island claimed him, but denied him a motherly figure or wife, and Ben became resentful. He still protects the island, but he is not willing to follow it’s every order, and while the island is now unable to explain the consequences to Ben, it’s subtle hints have gone ignored by him. The Island needs to be saved, but can’t say so without ruining the future. Ben just wants a family.
So the island knowing it may need others, or perhaps having gone through this series of events a second time, knew that it needed others. As previously mentioned our losties were influenced to come, but without being able to alter every detail of the future, Ben now knows what their purpose his. He ousted Widmore, but now he has other challengers that the Island is seeking to influence in the desperate need to save all of humanity.
Jacob is still out there, waiting to connect the present to the future that the Island is trying to build. Jack, our hero, has been converted, and is there now waiting to be influenced. A sacrifice will be needed this time, just as was originally made, but this time, the sacrifice will connect the island to a future that was destined to run out.Theory by Locke4God
