A theory about LOST

OK, listen up. If you’re interested in seeing the show LOST, but haven’t yet, please don’t read anything on this page. There are a lot of spoilers about the show, and a number of theories I have about the show on this page. If you don’t want to read spoilers, and don’t want to listen to some guy on a blog spout off about why he thinks he’s figured out what’s happening on a popular TV show, just go to Google and look for something more interesting to read….Still here?

I can sum up what I’m about to say with Arthur C. Clarke’s Third Law:

“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”

All the spooky things that are going on? Disabled people walking again? Weird things happening?

Yesterday and last night, I was exchanging e-mails with Warren Bell after he made a post about LOST over on a blog he posts to. He’d seen the logo near the back fin of the shark that had been circling Sawyer and Michael. I wrote to see if he’d seen “the numbers” on the drug that Desmond was injecting himself with, and a couple of other weird things.

In the exchanges of e-mail, I wrote about what I thought was going on in the show. The more I thought about it, the more I liked the theory I’d come up with. It explains a lot of things that have happened on the show. Not everything, but a lot of things.

It’s all technology. More specifically, nanotechnology and genetics. Nano-technology is (very basically) very very small machines that work together to achieve a certain goal. Right now, people are working on nano-tech that can do things like repair arteries. Glenn Reynolds (the Instapundit guy) has written quite a bit about nano-technology. Take a look at what he’s written.

I know you’re already thinking that nanotechnology is a recent idea… but it’s not. It was first suggested by Richard Feynman in 1959 in a lecture entitled There’s Plenty of Room at the Bottom.

This is going to skip around a lot, so bear with me here.

First of all, the people on the island are making a lot of assumptions about monsters…the “security system”, the sickness that Danielle (the French woman) says her companions all died of. Assumptions that I think are all wrong.

The polar bear

What the heck is a polar bear doing on a tropical island? A popular bear probably couldn’t survive very long in an environment like that. What if the bear had been genetically altered to survive in that environment? It’s probably not the only bear on the island either. Danielle (the French woman) told Sayid when he was captured that there were more bears on the island. A big tip-off to this was the shark with that logo near it’s back fin. That would be the sort of thing you’d see on animals scientists had been experimenting on.

The “security system”.

Danielle told Jack that the weird (and loud) thing on the island was a security system, that was protecting the island. At the end of last season, we finally get to see part of what might be attacking people. It looked like black smoke, but behaved like a swarm. A swarm of what?

The “disease”

Everyone’s been making the assumption that since Danielle refers to people “getting sick” that it’s a disease that infected the rest of her party on the island. She never specifically said that it was some sort of disease. She just said they got sick, and that she shot the rest of her party when “It took them”.

She also said:

DANIELLE: “It took them… One after the other. I had no choice. They were already lost.”

SAYID: “You killed them.”

DANIELLE: “What would have happened if we were rescued? I couldn’t let that happen. I won’t!”

What if it’s not really a disease that’s infecting people?

What if the swarm and the disease are releated somehow? What could that be?

My guess is that several types of nano-technology have been set up to guard the island, or that got loose on the island. The swarm is really just a large number of very small machines that are guarding certain parts of the island.

The “disease” really isn’t a disease at all. It’s nanotechnology that invaded people’s bodies.

Sarah and Locke regaining use of their legs

We’ve seen two instances now of people that were unable to walk regain the use of thier legs. Locke, and Sarah. (Sarah was the woman at the hospital that Jack operated on, and eventually married). What if these two things were releated?

Think about this: Jack operates and thinks he failed to help Sarah regain the use of her legs. He goes running, and meets up with Desmond who said he studied to be a doctor, but now is training for a race around the world.

JACK: I told her — I made her a promise I couldn’t keep — I told her I’d fix her and I couldn’t. I failed.

DESMOND: Right. Just one thing — what if you did fix her?

JACK: I didn’t.

DESMOND: But what if you did?

JACK: You don’t know what you’re talking about, man.

DESMOND: I don’t? Why not?

JACK: Because with her situation that would be a miracle, brother.

DESMOND: Oh, and you don’t believe in miracles?

What if Jack really didn’t have anything to do with repairing Sarah’s legs so that she could walk? What could have helped her?

Nano-technology. It repaired her legs.

The implications of THAT are pretty impressive. How could Desmond get into the hospital to do that? He wouldn’t have done it just on a whim, right? There probably had to be some sort of organization behind it. More on this in a minute.

What if the same thing had happened to Locke on the island? What if stray nano-tech had found him, entered his body and repaired his legs?

Remember how Danielle cautioned Sayid to watch people to make sure they’re not acting strangely?

No one been acting more strangely than Locke has. What if the nano-tech were controlling him to some extent? He started to lose the use of his legs in one episode, and then regained them, if he had nano-tech inside him, that might be the answer.

The really bad implication of this would be that Locke might be doomed because of it. That’d be a shame, because he’s a good character.

Jack’s Dad

What if Jack’s father knew all about it already? What if Jack’s father had been on the whole nano-technology testing, and had given permission for Sarah to be injected so that the nano-tech could repair her legs? That could mean that Desmond and Jack’s father actually knew each other. It would explain why, of all places, that Jack’s father headed to Australia.

Jack’s father died of a heart attack, and Jack wanted to get his father’s body on the plane. Jack follows a mysterious man in a dark suit around the island, only to discover it might by his father. At the time I thought that Jack was hallucinating, but what if he wasn’t? What if Jack’s father was killed by having the nano-tech injected into him, and when his body got back on the island it re-animated? It helped Jack find the fresh water supply, but the body ended up missing. I don’t like the implications of nano-controlled dead bodies. I hope that’s not part of the story line.

The numbers

I have no idea what’s going on with those numbers. The only thing I can think of is that once the number sequence is stated or used, it has to be used over and over again, or bad things continue to happen. That might be why Hurley is having such bad luck, and the reason that Desmond needs to keep repeatedly entering those numbers into the computer.

The numbers on the bottle Desmond used

You might have noticed that “the numbers

52 thoughts on “A theory about LOST”

  1. I’m up to Season 2 – Episode 4 – We now know that Desmond talks of being on the Island as part of some kind of prviately funded experiment. My thoughts surround the fact that some of the key people’s lives have crossed in some way prior to the crash. Are they all part of some human mind control experiment?

  2. i def like this theory but one problem…There is no way that jacks dad is being controlled by the nano-tech stuff, because otherwise the nano-tech would have taken control of Danielle’s crew when she killed them and the situation would have grew much more worse. Same with Ethan, the FBI guy, Arstz, and anyone else that died.

  3. i think your all totally wrong and off track
    as you know every single eppisode the actual
    running though of the eppisode has 3 twists
    for instance something happens so you expect
    the following, it doesnt happen something
    totally different twists the scene then when
    you think you’ve totally understood the scene
    it twists again to something you just could’nt ever expect to happen.

    dont get me wrong i like how you’ve laid
    all your theory’s out but dont you see
    if there is so many twists and turns to
    every epp/scene you not think they are trying
    to actually make you belive you’ve got it?

    i don’t think their will be an ending to this
    because after all… think about it
    this is a hit show and i mean HIT show
    they will leave this puppy open but in a way
    that will have so many different idea’s
    floating through your head it will be unreal

  4. I’m not happy, i’m completely hooked on the show but live in the UK (still series 1) I hear lots of storey’s in particular that there all dead!! – I don’t believe this, however how did locke get his legs back? and what the hell did he put onto boths head to make him see his sister die??

  5. Don’t believe all the stories you hear; the creators of the series have said that the people on the island aren’t dead, or living some sort of dream when the series started.

  6. One I’ve been hearing is they’re all dead, stuck in between Heaven and hell (purgatory) – and Locke is Satan :S

    Makes no sense to me, after the producers denied it. AAND I think it’d be a poor ending to the show…

  7. Really like the theory!!!! Why would Danielle not be “infected” with the “disease” though?

  8. Also – there were lots of people killed in the plane crash… wouldn’t they be “alive” again?

  9. I think whether or not people got “infected” might depend on how their bodies handle it; sort of an immunity.

    As for the people getting killed; it might be that if your body is pretty much intact, you could be brought back. If there’s something radically wrong (like a gunshot wound, or severe blood loss), you couldn’t.

  10. Interesting theory. I remember an earlier episode where Locke was confronted with the so-called monster but then we see Locke again with a fresh killed boar. If Locke was infected with nano-tech it might explain why the swarm didn’t attack him back.

  11. WOW! This has to be one of the greatest theories I have read yet.

    How about this angle (to go along with yours). Perhaps “the incident” was the accidental release of some virus or even “bad” nanites into the wild.

    Somehow a field was created to keep the nanites on the Island. But some escaped in Hanso/Dharma personel or whatnot. So “good” nanites have been spread into the world to manipulate things to bring all those carrying the bad nanites to the island.

    This could explain all the weird coincidences and what not in the back stories.

    Well, It sounded a lot better in my head.

  12. This theory is very interesting. One thing that i saw in the fisrt few episodes was a relation in the numbers, 4,8,15,16,23,42 to where people sat on the airplane. Locke sat on row 15, the doctor sat on row 16, and katie and the cop sat on row 23, and the lady that invited the doctor to sit in the back of the plane with her during the trip back to california sat on row 42 (i believe). i don’t know what the relationship means but i bet that this has to do with something in the plot later on in the series.
    The one thing that i saw in the episode with the background story with walt and his dad is that when walt’s dad was saying bye for the last time, he handed walt a stuffed animal, a polar bear. Why did michael give walt a polar bear? Does that have some relationship to nano theory?
    One last thing to add with the people who have injured legs, locke, sarah, and so on. There are some other people who have problems with their leg(s). Michael was cut by locke’s knife in the leg, Boone was about to have his amputated, and the guy with nathan’s group broke his leg and died from infection. (Boone died because his leg caused problems too)

    Just some things to talk about.

  13. Great minds think alike (and, I know, fools seldom differ!!). I thought about nano-technology last season as well, especially when I saw the security ‘swarm’. It seemed really familiar to me, but I couldn’t put my finger on it until recently. I realised that some of the Lost plotline (especially the ‘swarm” seems to mirror a Michael Crichton book called “Prey” which concerns nano-technology. Strangely enough the hero from that book is also called Jack, who is stuck in a research facility in the desert fighting a swarm of nanites that have been released into the wild. People around him start acting strangely etc, etc. Probably a coincidence, but if you’ve read the book you’ll know what I mean.

    “An original idea. That can’t be too hard. The library must be full of them.”- Stephen Fry

  14. Yea I do like your therey but I don’t think this is what the things about.I’m in the uk and I’ve seen season 1 and 2 (God bless the internet)and the more I watch the better it get.And to have and ending like this would just be a real bummer to me.And some one said something about purgatory and locke being the devil,and they said it wasn’t a good idea.I think it would be! though I know that this isn’t it,I just like the idea.What I think is some sort of magical thing is going on.But not like harry potter magic.The monster being invisible and the black cloudy swarm thing are kinda weird.There’s one question I wanna ask though.When Locke and the rest blew open the hatch,and kate looked at the hatch and it said quarintine,why was it in the inside of the hatch and not the outside???

    I know i went completely of course here but I just wanted that question answered.

  15. i see some problems w/ this how come boone died?why isn’t sawyers bullet wound healing? oh!the teddy bear was owned by the boy in the tail!!!I LOVE SAWYER!!!

  16. I believe if there’s too much tissue damage to someone (like the guy that handcuffed Kate, Boone, Arntz, and likely Shannon…we’ll see tonight) there’s no hope of the nanotech “correcting” the death. As for Sawyer, we’ll have to see about him. He does have a bullet wound in the shoulder, but we’re not completely sure how serious it is. If it starts getting better for no apparent reason, that’ll be a sign.

  17. Maybe the quarantine sign was on the in side of the door because the harmful stuff or damger was on the outside?

  18. I really like the nano-tech theroy, it seems to fit what has happend do far and especially with the “security system” on the island. I also like the bit about desmond having a twin. . that would be very interesting. If desmond does have a twin, what if the twin wasn’t ammuned to the nano-tech bug and became diseased, escaped from the hatch by going up the ladder, and breaks it on his way out to trap desmond inside??

  19. I think the twin idea is a no go because Desmond definitely recognizes Jack. I thought it was weird that he just ran off. I wish everyone on the island would just combine their info! They’d probably start figuring things out. How do “the others” coincide with the nano theory? It is a good theory, but still has so many unanswered questions. I think that Walt is one of the key players though.

  20. Not so sure such a popular show would use such an explanation as nanotech. However, I think this may be some type of parapsychology experiment and that there may be some connection between the manifestation of subconscious thought and the “forces” magnetic and otherwise on the island. Also, I have not heard anyone mention the fact that “John Locke” was a philosopher credited with the theory that we are a “tabula rasa” or blank slates at birth…..comments?

  21. Anyone think it could be something to do with stem cell research… like thats whats “Fixing” people?

  22. HOW ABOUT THIS THEN?!?!?!

    THEY’RE ALL DEAD! they all died in the plane crash and are now ghosts on what some may see as a ‘heavenly’ island, in essence this is their hell.

    OR

    the whole island becomes submerged under water and the hatch is the way to be safe, the island is the LOST City of Atlantis

  23. If they’re all dead, then perhaps no-one survived the crash. =O

    When the plane was incoming, it was electromagnetically (EM) scanned and as many people as possible were recorded.

    After the impact, they were recreated through EM holography. They’re being maintained on the island via EM fields, but are not really there. So they can never leave…

  24. About the nanites: check the pilot film. There is this scene where the turbine explodes. If you go to slow motion, you can see three different swarms of black nanites flying around in the sky at the same time. This is not something I detected, but another “proof” for the theory.

  25. I am in the UK and i have only seen the whole of series one and none of series two, so this theorie may be incorrect;
    Maybe the crash survivers have been the participents, unwillingly of a reality TV show. Each time someone dies they are “voted off”.

    Or again unwillingly they are “guinipigs” for a scientific experiment to find how people recreate a civilisation in their situation. Also how people react to differnt temperatures eg. the drastic weather on the island. I have heard from friends who have seen series two about the dharma iniciative etc but i believe the US governtment know aboput the island after all it is far to huge for only the scientists to know it’s existence.

  26. It’s great reading all these theories. I am totally hooked on the programme, and although I am in the UK I get regular updates from my cousin in the US.

    I believe that the characters are dead, and that they are in purgatory stuck between heaven and hell. Whatever they achieve as individuals on the island will be the outcome of whether they go to heaven or hell.

    Also each character seems to be the cause or around when another character has died in their background story eg. Walts Mum, Hurleys Grandad, Boones nanny, Saiyid’s high school friend, Jack’s Dad?? This could just all be a coincidence though.

    Whatever happens its a damn good show and outshines anything on tv(in UK) since X-Files. Well with the exception of 24.

  27. I have another theorie i have elaborated on my reality tv show thorie;

    All the characters have signed up to be on a reality tv show and the plane crash is a simulated hologram or something like that, they had part of their memories erased so they dont remember signing up to be on the show.

    When anyone dies the are voted off but dont die, just get back to reality the island is just a hologram at the end of lost there will be just 3 left or 4 because this is one of the “BAD” numbers. The last survivers or “contestents” have a task maybe fighting the “others”. The people in 4th 3rd and 2nd place all die and get to go back to reality. The winner also comes back and they win the prize.

  28. Why do the others want Walt?, And take the children? I wonder what they did with the group they kidnapped? I believe Walt has something significant to show in the series, remember strange things happned like the bird hit the window when he was reading. How come he was soaking wet when shanon saw him and then again with saiyid. When hugo was on the plane the comic he was reading had a picture of a white polarbear on the front, i wonder what thats about. I think something bad is going to happen to the others and its going to be because Walt is cursed with something.

  29. Great theory. I would love it if its true since I am a nanotechnology student.

    I think its interesting that Locke and Mr Echo had the exact same reaction to the swarm. None of them were afraid at all. Why?

  30. Interesting theory you have. Is there any way of me being kept informed for future posts on this blog? That would be greatly appreciated.

    Cheers,

    Wayne.

  31. The only way is to keep watching the blog. I should have another post before the next show tomorrow.

  32. I love this theory its the best one ive read, im in the UK so the second seris hasn’t been on yet. But i have seen clips from the second series and loving it!
    I think that Ethan isn;t dead because when they buried him he was breathing and i think he was on of the others so i think they have like super powers and can;t die or something, coz that guy Zeke sawyer shoots him and then sawyer gets hurt its weird an di ve bookmarked this page coz i love it so much!! xx

  33. This show has hooked me line and sinker!
    Australia starts Season 2 this week.
    Thanks to the internet I am up to episode11.
    Interesting points in here.
    Walt definately does have some ESP powers. eg he told Locke not to open the hatch, when he held is arm. We know he is special.

    The hispanic police woman from the other side of the island kills the imposter in season2. The imposter told her that they only take the good ones. (Good what? Souls?)
    Are “the others” related to the Clan that kidnapped Walt?
    The bit with the magic numbers freaks me out. Now to learn they are linked to the aircraft seat row numbers…like WOW.
    As for Locke and walking… the trauma of the collision could have been enough to allow him to walk again… So not sure about the Nano Technology theory. If I was a scientific organization, why would run experiments with nano technology on an island? Its only a machine not a disease. It would be expensive and too far out of the way. However, experimenting on Animals like eg Island of Dr Moreau? sounds more feasible.
    Im dying to find out more about Clares baby. What did the pyschic see, before he sent her on the doomed flight815. Something about her child we dont know.

    I thought the movie was heading in the same direction as “The Others” with Nicole Kidman. Where the main characters were actually dead. But if the producers claim this is not the case then im truly stumped.

    Great Site! I will be watching.

  34. pretty good theory, but if thats the meaning of this whole lost series il be pretty mad! No one knows whats going on. One theory i thought up was that thhe plane never crashed, although you see the plane take off in real life, the crash is flashbacks. Going along with a science approach, what if the oxygen masks that came down from the plane were gas masks and they had the whole experience implanted in their brain. They were then put on an island with a plane crash.
    The point in this is for experimental purposes, human behaviour etc. Maybe this is a top secret experiment and the numbers that have to be entered into the computer keep the magnetic field running, and if they stop entering them the field will stop – therefore the island will show up on radar as before the radar would have bounced of the magnetic field and literally been lost.
    Could it be that they could save themselves by simply not entering the numbers?
    Who knows, i don’t think even the producers do to be honest, though i think it is all sceintific, it does have an element of fate and spritualism which seems unlikely to have been set up.
    how will it end? something along the lines of it was all a big set up, or they actually are on a mysterious island. However it ends you will never get the answer your looking for. In honesty i think it will end with the group from the plane crash becoming the others and another set of people being “brought to the island” who knows? like to hear wat ya’l think

  35. Sounds feasible to me Ben.
    Somehow a 777 breaking up at 33,000 feet in the middle of the pacific at 950km per hour wouldnt leave any survivors.
    Then the fact that it shouldve been just on nitefall. You do the math.
    Depart SYD 14:55. 12 hour flight time to LAX.
    They crash 6-7 hours later. It wouldn’t be very sunny now would it.
    I reckon the crash site was all setup.
    Also if you saw the way the tailend hit the water. No one could survive that collision.
    Not from 33,000 ft.

    Also, How does a light plane from Nigeria travel across the Atlantic over American continent and then crash on an island in the middle of the Pacific? To run herion? Doesn’t sound feasible to me either. I smell something fishy.

    What do you think?

  36. You may be right, as there’s an episode in season 2 i think its between 10 and 12 where hurley says to the girl he likes cant remember her name anyway and i quote “have we met” and she says “before the crash?”. It’s like he’s forgetting things. In addition in the latest episode seiyd says to charlie that john and jack are forgetting what happened about charlie being strangled and it leaves you with soya asking charlie do you remember what happend?

    So are people forgetting things, are people really dead from becoming ill and shootings etc. Would a science project allow people to be killed.

  37. Watch the movie Forbidden Planet.

    Walt is the key.

    Walt is the one making things happen, and making things appear, polar bear, “the monster”……….etc

  38. I think a nano tech theory is right in this case but there’s still something missing, and it probably has some conection with the theory of the time machine or time traveling and also with clonation.
    And what about the big black cloud, the shadow that contain’s images and moves around by it self, when Mr Echoe confront it in the jungle????????????????????? What is that??

  39. well i can see you have a good theory here, and you have explained it well
    but i feel there is more behind the island than technology, and i think its to do more with, i hate to say it but limbo.

    because as you see the 3rd series last episode,
    jack makes the call to the boat and bens says on the lines of this, ‘if you make that call every single person on this island will die’, however we see a flash forward of jack and kate,
    so does this mean they are ‘living’ at the moment.

    also, who is jacob? is it jack in the future? asking john for help
    or is it the jacob in the bible and so on

    any ides?

  40. also do you realise end of season 2,
    when that guy phones penny (shows snowy scene)

    the man looks like jack
    but with glasses and a hat?

  41. The tv show LOST is subliminal mind control designed for espionage in the tech and science industry. We are at war folks and you have no freaking clue what is going on. The technology out there is so advance now, 99.8% of the world doesn’t even have a clue. The science channel is out to date by 40 years. Lost is used for mind programming and psyops.

  42. @ amyyyy :
    agree with you, there’s much more to it then technology only.
    the best lost theories squidoo lens lists a few of the greatest theories ( imho)

  43. This is very simple. this is the theory of “Parallel Universe”. You can explain anyrthing according to that theory but Island. Island is a uniqe island which is connected (Special bond) with earth magnetic field. that magantic feild is respons for the stability of island. according to this you can explain anything you want in the LOST.

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