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In the first and second parts of this series, many of the
fantastic events written into the "Lost" television show were brought to light
from an engineering perspective. In this
final entry, I'll wrap it up with just a few more.
 Moving the Island
When Locke initially discussed moving the island, I assumed
that he meant geographically re-positioning the land – which in and of itself
would have been quite the feat. It later
became clear, however, when they wound up back in the 1950s that he was
actually moving the island in time. But
the donkey-wheel underneath the island does even more than mere time travel. It
manages to "skip" or "flash" the island through time as if it were a scratched
CD. Dr. Emmett Brown (from "Back to the
Future") would be so proud! Although
research in the field of string theory has come a long way in recent years, it
is still not a likely means of time
travel - yet.
Bomb Detonation
The characters on the island finally figure out a way to
make the flashes through time stop – by blowing up the site of the wheel with a
bomb. After carefully preparing it, they
drop it down a deep hole into the ground where it smashes on the rock. Unfortunately, Juliet also falls down the
same hole (despite Sawyer's desperate attempts to save her) and finds herself
lying next to the undetonated bomb.
Upset that all their trouble was for nothing, she proceeds to hit the
bomb with a rock in an effort to smash it.
When the flash of white light comes, we know that she was
successful. This situation baffles me
along with the rest. If the bomb did not
detonate on its way down the long, hard tunnel, I don't believe her helplessly
striking it would force it to blow either.
Any demolition experts out there?
A Sixth Sense
Each character was well-developed and had his or her own set
of personality traits that made the character very different from anyone else
on the island. Miles, a member of the
team sent by Whitmore to find Linus, had one of the most exceptional abilities
– he could speak to dead people. While I
initially questioned whether he was truly capable of what he claimed he was
performing, he did successfully acquire information on the deaths of people on
the island. There have been scientific experiments
involving telepathy, of course, but communicating with the dead is generally
the stuff of spiritualists rather than scientists.
 The viewers also learned that before his mission to the
island, Miles used this skill to help several clients and to con others. Regardless of Miles' ability in the show,
though, I'm doubtful that this quality is present in today's world. Just think of the criminals we could catch
and the catastrophes we could remedy if someone like him were among us!
Never Quite Over the
Hill
Despite the situations in various time periods on the
island, one man never seems to change.
Jacob gives Richard the facility to remain the same age. But don't take this decision lightly; it is
probably better that this is a fantasy and an impossibility for us in our
modern times. It may seem like a
blessing, but it does manage to take a toll on his relationships. So consider this when reading advertisements
about the wonders of anti-aging drugs.
What do you think are some of the other unusual occurrences
of the Oceanic Six and the various groups they met?
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Re: Scientific Anomalies in “Lost” (Part 3)
