Unification Attempt For LOST Theories (My Opinion) by reversechapter

None of this is original…..I am just trying to put on paper some of what I have read over the last few months that I think holds water.

1. Next season we (along with the Losties) will see the original timeline during which all men and women on the planet are killed due to a catastrophic, mad-made event.
2. The Island is “Ground Zero” for the destruction of humankind.
3. Certain people were originally responsible for causing the end of the world; maybe all of the central characters are the ones who are involved in the destruction, or some are handpicked for different reasons by Jacob because he thinks they can change or delay the outcome by protecting the island.
4. Jacob and MIB have been time travelling a long time trying to prevent the end of Man; one of them has given up and thinks humans are destined to become extinct in a few years. He is sick of putting it off and kills Jacob to try and stop his efforts. Obviously, Jacob is putting all of his eggs in one basket for this last attempt, since he was willing to die. Of course, he has Hurley to help him continue to communicate, which tells us why Hurley is so important.
5. If a person time travels, they do not age until they reach the point from which they left; so Richard is really not all that old, ironically, but from the future. While Richard has been helping Jacob for a long time, I think there may be a point where he changes his mind and begins to tire of putting off what may be inevitable.
6. Dharma tried to determine how the world will end in an attempt to stop it. Jacob and MIB may have originated from there, or one or both could even be someone we already know (I think that would be going over the top a little, so I hope not).
7. The “smoke monster” course-corrects destiny. This magnetic energy force was a result of an experiment gone-wrong, and not something created intentionally.
8. Ben is not an “original timeline” person, hence, Widmore’s reference “I know who you are - WHAT you are, Boy.” Ben obviously knows a lot more than he is letting on even now, and his ambivalence about people living or dying comes from the knowledge that most people in the world are completely irrelevant to the larger picture. Jacob has also demonstrated this behavior, by not saving people like Nadia, for example. Killing someone like Cesar or the unknown passengers on Ajira 316, who are less important or totally unimportant, might be done without a second thought (note Ben’s odd comments and actions).
9. If someone like Alex is partially responsible for the mass destruction originating on the island in the future – meaning she lives that long naturally in the original timeline - then killing that person in an alternate timeline is “against the rules.” Kidnapping them and raising them differently, however, might be perfectly fine. Either way, if Alex is changed or killed and prevented from fulfilling her original destiny, the “monster” will try to find a substitute in order to course-correct.
10. Until Inman made a break for it, time on the island was set in a loop to put off certain events – or occupy certain individuals, or both - as one way of stopping what happens temporarily.
11. Saving civilization will involve a combination of individuals making the right choices to protect the island while following the “rules” being maintained by the smoke monster (destiny).
12. The “Losties” will somehow (in the Temple, perhaps) flash to the original timeline to see and understand what happens there so they will get on board Jacob’s effort to save mankind; or not. They cannot choose that original route – that path has already been changed.