It's probably not the first time that good ole frozen donkey wheel skipped its axis, and since we are all still here I imagine the ancients that built it probably had a protocol of sorts to realign it should it happen. What DHARMA didn't realize when they tapped into the "near limitless" energy supply is that they would be subject to the same problems as the wheel, namely paradox.
Just like Eloise the rat, a paradox can occur when you become privy to some future data that could negate the need to ever send you said data. Imagine you stumble upon a simple temporal device that allows you to send one email to yourself one year in the past. What do you send? How about stock market data, allowing yourself to make billions? Of course, your success in the market actually changes the market, so when it comes time (again) to send that email, the data is different. Or you don't even find the device because your too busy doing coke off of Evangeline Lilly's backside. Regardless, you’ve got yourself a full fledged paradox capable of destroying the universe (However, the destruction may be very localized, limited to merely our own galaxy.)
The reason the wheel jumped its axis when Ben turned it is because some sort of paradox occurred (or will occur, spooky right?). Locke had to come along and right it (he’s special after all). After studying the wheel, the DI created its own updated version in the Orchid station not realizing that the “skipping wheel” wasn’t a technology problem but a temporal one. The DI starts running experiments and eventually one of those experiments triggers a paradox. Being super smart scientists that they are, they probable had a “pull here in case of paradox” lever that would undo the prior experiment or somehow negate the paradox. But not seeing the big picture, they didn’t realize that negating the paradox also negates the need to pull the lever, and we are back at square one with a big giant black hole where Earth used to be. (Technically, a really tiny singularity with a great big event horizon, but I digress)
So what do these scientists do? Well an incident like that would mean DI would need to implement its own de-paradox-ing protocol. But you can’t just have scientists around waiting for a paradox to occur to pull that lever. No, that lever must be pushed periodically regardless of whether there is any hint the universe is about to blow up. With a couple of shills inside the swan cya’ing every 108 minutes, the DI is free to attempt to solve Valenzetti’s equation again without any annoying world ending destruction. After all, if you set out to prevent the end of the world but end up causing it instead, you’d be sorry too.
And no theory is complete without some real-world (well, lost-world anyways) implications:
Ben turned that wheel (even though he probably knew he wasn’t supposed to) for one reason: revenge. Just as soon as his daughter was killed, Ben knew he was leaving. It was very convenient that Locke was gullible enough to let him use the exit. Ben succeeds in killing Penny or does something paradox worthy and the wheel starts skipping. John rights the wheel and pops up. Now Ben has a way back to the island too! Ben had no immediate plans on killing John, only Ben didn’t count on John knowing about Hawking. So long as Ben was controlling John, he would make Hawking send him back to the island too. But once it was clear that John would make his own way to Hawking, Ben had no choice but to kill John and used his body as collateral to get back. Apparently it’s more important to Hawking that John goes back than it is to keep Ben from returning too.
Just like in backgammon, there are two sides or factions vying for control over the temporal device. Each side is playing a temporal game against the other, with seemingly minor events taking on significant importance when viewed as a whole. Of course, each side has the ability to course correct whenever the other side makes a change, so it’s a veritable stalemate. (And explains why some people can’t die or even kill themselves) It also explains why some of the hostiles are exceedingly ready to lay down their own lives or take the lives of their comrades, as they fully expect course-correction to undo it.
One final thought. Go back to Eggtown in season 4, where Charlotte and Daniel are using cards. The scene starts with CS saying “time” and then Daniel guessing the cards, of which he gets 2 out of 3. (They ended up being three six queen, but he guessed three ten six. Or 316?!?!) We all assume it’s a memory game, and it is but not how the audience expects. He’s trying to use the island time-dilation in the same way Ben is capable of. Knowing how long to wait because of his rocket experiment, when CS says “time” she is actually *starting* the countdown, not ending it. Just like how Eloise would run the maze before she learned it, Daniel is “guessing” the cards 31 minutes before CS shows them to him. (time it took the rocket to travel from ship to shore)
Recap: Pushing the button in the Swan was the Dharma equivalent of someone putting the FDW back on it's axis. Because you can't undo a paradox without negating the need to undo the paradox (thus causing a paradox) the folks stationed there were tasked with pulling the lever periodically. But with the station gone (and along with it the auto-de-paradox-ifier) turning the wheel is dangerous again, because it might jump it's axis and unless someone was "going to push the wheel subsequently" anyways, you'd have a full blown unbreakable paradox capable of ending the world as we know it. Theory by Albert Awol
Just like Eloise the rat, a paradox can occur when you become privy to some future data that could negate the need to ever send you said data. Imagine you stumble upon a simple temporal device that allows you to send one email to yourself one year in the past. What do you send? How about stock market data, allowing yourself to make billions? Of course, your success in the market actually changes the market, so when it comes time (again) to send that email, the data is different. Or you don't even find the device because your too busy doing coke off of Evangeline Lilly's backside. Regardless, you’ve got yourself a full fledged paradox capable of destroying the universe (However, the destruction may be very localized, limited to merely our own galaxy.)
The reason the wheel jumped its axis when Ben turned it is because some sort of paradox occurred (or will occur, spooky right?). Locke had to come along and right it (he’s special after all). After studying the wheel, the DI created its own updated version in the Orchid station not realizing that the “skipping wheel” wasn’t a technology problem but a temporal one. The DI starts running experiments and eventually one of those experiments triggers a paradox. Being super smart scientists that they are, they probable had a “pull here in case of paradox” lever that would undo the prior experiment or somehow negate the paradox. But not seeing the big picture, they didn’t realize that negating the paradox also negates the need to pull the lever, and we are back at square one with a big giant black hole where Earth used to be. (Technically, a really tiny singularity with a great big event horizon, but I digress)
So what do these scientists do? Well an incident like that would mean DI would need to implement its own de-paradox-ing protocol. But you can’t just have scientists around waiting for a paradox to occur to pull that lever. No, that lever must be pushed periodically regardless of whether there is any hint the universe is about to blow up. With a couple of shills inside the swan cya’ing every 108 minutes, the DI is free to attempt to solve Valenzetti’s equation again without any annoying world ending destruction. After all, if you set out to prevent the end of the world but end up causing it instead, you’d be sorry too.
And no theory is complete without some real-world (well, lost-world anyways) implications:
Ben turned that wheel (even though he probably knew he wasn’t supposed to) for one reason: revenge. Just as soon as his daughter was killed, Ben knew he was leaving. It was very convenient that Locke was gullible enough to let him use the exit. Ben succeeds in killing Penny or does something paradox worthy and the wheel starts skipping. John rights the wheel and pops up. Now Ben has a way back to the island too! Ben had no immediate plans on killing John, only Ben didn’t count on John knowing about Hawking. So long as Ben was controlling John, he would make Hawking send him back to the island too. But once it was clear that John would make his own way to Hawking, Ben had no choice but to kill John and used his body as collateral to get back. Apparently it’s more important to Hawking that John goes back than it is to keep Ben from returning too.
Just like in backgammon, there are two sides or factions vying for control over the temporal device. Each side is playing a temporal game against the other, with seemingly minor events taking on significant importance when viewed as a whole. Of course, each side has the ability to course correct whenever the other side makes a change, so it’s a veritable stalemate. (And explains why some people can’t die or even kill themselves) It also explains why some of the hostiles are exceedingly ready to lay down their own lives or take the lives of their comrades, as they fully expect course-correction to undo it.
One final thought. Go back to Eggtown in season 4, where Charlotte and Daniel are using cards. The scene starts with CS saying “time” and then Daniel guessing the cards, of which he gets 2 out of 3. (They ended up being three six queen, but he guessed three ten six. Or 316?!?!) We all assume it’s a memory game, and it is but not how the audience expects. He’s trying to use the island time-dilation in the same way Ben is capable of. Knowing how long to wait because of his rocket experiment, when CS says “time” she is actually *starting* the countdown, not ending it. Just like how Eloise would run the maze before she learned it, Daniel is “guessing” the cards 31 minutes before CS shows them to him. (time it took the rocket to travel from ship to shore)
Recap: Pushing the button in the Swan was the Dharma equivalent of someone putting the FDW back on it's axis. Because you can't undo a paradox without negating the need to undo the paradox (thus causing a paradox) the folks stationed there were tasked with pulling the lever periodically. But with the station gone (and along with it the auto-de-paradox-ifier) turning the wheel is dangerous again, because it might jump it's axis and unless someone was "going to push the wheel subsequently" anyways, you'd have a full blown unbreakable paradox capable of ending the world as we know it. Theory by Albert Awol
