Separate Universes by ceti

If we are to assume that a divergence in the timeline was spawned by the atomic explosion in 1977 which sunk and "killed" the Island and not by any other event, we must also consider that ALL interventions made by time-travelling post-1977 visitors to the Island have been nullified.

As such, changes made to the timeline pre-1977 figure prominently and we must consider what would happen if:

- Faraday had not disabled and interred Jughead in 1954 (although the Dharma Initiative may have done so when they came to the Island)
- Locked never told Richard about his own specialness, thus Richard never visited him in the real world
- Jacob never visited or intervened in the lives of the Losties (except maybe with Sawyer whose parents died before the Incident -- then again Jacob could have visited him from any future point as well)
- Sayid never shot Ben
- Hawkings died, erasing Faraday (although Richard said he saw the Losties die, which may have allowed time for an evacuation)
- Dharma Initiative disbanded, but possibly reconstituted to refind the Island
- etc...

And the big one -- our heroes never learned about the Island, never returned to the past, never had anything to do with the atomic explosion, etc. This fact alone creates a massive unresolvable paradox.

As such, the initial assumption of this post must be wrong -- that "Whatever Happened, Happened" must still hold true, that Miles was right. Our flash-sideways are actually glimpses of a parallel universe that does not causally touch on our own.

In the parallel universe, 815 didn't crash, and thus none of the time-travelling took place. As such, Radzinsky's drilling was continued to proceed unhindered, and indeed, it was hitting the pocket energy that sunk the Island. In our universe, the Island -- as well as our timeline -- was saved by the failsafe of the atomic detonation.

So was Inman's attempted escape that drew Desmond out for an extended period part of the plan? Or maybe it is Jacob's death, not the Incident, that has multiverse spawning consequences? And is this why Desmond is Faraday's constant?