Saturday, February 21, 2009

Hawking-Faraday Points


"The room we're standing in was constructed years ago over a unique pocket of electromagnetic energy. That energy connects to similar pockets all over the world. The people who built this room, however, were only interested in one."
- Ms. Hawking, episode 5x06 "316"

Maybe they were that narrow-minded, but we need not be. This is pretty interesting.

Lagrangian Points: New Scientist | Wikipedia

There are five “Lagrangian points” in space where the Sun’s and Earth’s gravitational fields cancel each other out. It feels very reminiscent of these places Ms. Hawking refers to. Which, incidentally, is a theory with a long history on Lostcampia. I’m confident that those other spots will come into play before this is over.

We know of two: the island, and the church in L.A. It’s also possible that the spot in the desert where Ben finds himself in 4.09 “The Shape of Things to Come” has some significance; there is no such thing, after all, as a magnetic monopole. The island could be the "north pole" of the magnetic field, and the desert could the "south pole". 

(The Earth's magnetic field isn't actually quite so simple as one north pole, one south pole. Rather, there are, apparently, tons of poles which happen to currently be aligned. There's a spot, for instance, off the southwest coast of Africa where compasses point south. Thank you, 8th grade CSP. :))

So. We know those places. Let's try to think of others.

1. The poles & the center of the Earth

The only three meaningfully unique points on a spinning sphere, I figure. We know Penny has an Arctic listening post.

2. Eden

There’s a ton of Eden symbolism in Lost. (Most notably, Adam and Eve.) If the island itself isn’t Eden, it may yet play a meaningful role.

3. Bethlehem

There was some interesting talk of Jesus in 316, and there's certainly been plenty of symbolism throughout the show. Maybe these special points can be associated with special people

4. Shangri-La

Because we needed something less Judeo-Christian-centric on this list. :) “In the novel Lost Horizon, the people who live at Shangri-La are almost immortal, living years beyond the normal lifespan...” -Wikipedia

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Alternately, these places could be meaningless. The church in LA doesn't seem all that special, after all. And surely there's a reason the Dharma Initiative set its sights only on the Island. But hey, it's fun to think about. So: what do you think? :)

4 comments:

  1. Shangri-La and Dharma are connected BTDubs. Shangri-La is based on the Tibet Buddhist kingdom of Shambhala, and Dharma is one of the primary ideas in Buddhist teachings.

    Also interesting, just on the Dharma subject as a whole:
    "Alternately, "dharma" may be seen as an ultimate and transcendent truth which is utterly beyond worldly things, somewhat like the Christian logos, seeing the dharma as referring to the "truth" or ultimate reality or "the way things are"."
    --Yes, it's from Wikipedia.

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  2. Hah, thanks Liz. No need to yell....

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  3. Maybe the island IS Shangri-La. Which is why Dharma was searching for it so hard. But I don't have time to do the Wikipedia research, haha.

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