Binary Code (theory)

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Perhaps the secret to the entire story of Lost is hinted at by the choice of the DHARMA logo, which comes from the Bagua, a Taoist symbol. The basic elements of this symbol are a form of binary code; could this be representative of DHARMA plan to control environmental factors through the binary nature of paranormal neuropsychology?

1 Origins of Binary Code & Connection to DHARMA Logo
2 Alvar Hanso: A Modern Day Oppenheimer?
3 Basis in Neurology/Psychophysiology & The Turing Model of Artificial Intelligence
4 Bringing It Back to Our Favorite Show
5 Support
6 About the Author

Origins of Binary Code & Connection to DHARMA Logo

Leibniz's original chart

Gottfried Leibniz

The idea of binary code is often credited to German mathematician (& philosopher) Gottfried Leibniz (right) in the late 1600s; he also invented differential & integral calculus. However, he only popularized the idea’s applications (which would in modern times evolve to be the foundation of all computer programming & revolutionize the Digital Age). The idea of binary code itself has been around far longer than him, with some of the earliest recognized writings by Indian mathematicians in the third century.

Where did Leibniz get his ideas? Note the uncanny similarities between Leibniz’s original chart of 64 codes, and the chart of 64 kwae determinants from the I Ching’s Book of Changes (64 here being no accident, since it is simply 2 to the 6th power)--the bagua being the very symbol used by the DHARMA Initiative in The Logos. In fact, Leibniz actually credits the I Ching as a source of inspiration in his book, Mathematical, Scientific, and Technical Correspondence. 6 vols., 1672-96.

The Swan Logo of the DHARMA Initiative is based on the bagua

In the case of the bagua, the binary code is made up of trigrams of kwae, composed of an undivided dash (yang) or a divided one (yin).

The 64 kwae of the I Ching's Book of Changes

Meanings are as follows:

“

yin-yin-yin (K’un) - earth - mother/receptive
yin-yin-yang (Kên) - mountain - third son/keeping still
yin-yang-yin (K’an) - water - second son/abysmal
yin-yang-yang (Sun) - wind - first daughter/gentle
yang-yin-yin (Chên) - thunder - first son/the arousing
yang-yin-yang (Li) - fire - second daughter/clinging
yang-yang-yin (Tui) - lake - third daughter/joyful
yang-yang-yang (Ch’ien) - heaven - father/creative

”

Alvar Hanso: A Modern Day Oppenheimer?

Einstein (L) with Oppenheimer (R)

Hanso makes an address to the U.N. in 1967, and disappears shortly thereafter, presumably to develop this concept through the DHARMA Initiative project, enveloped in secrecy. He has lofty ideals. Let’s look at this time period in the late 60’s. It was an explosive era of social change and instability, civil rights activism in the US and abroad, Israel beginning to occupy the Gaza Strip during the 6 days war; and what some would say is the start of the Cold War, with a US/USSR nuclear nonproliferation treaty signed. Utopian ideas were fast crumbling, but it was still a period ripe for some scientists to regard the “salvation of Man” as lying with technological innovation.

He was not the first scientist to find inspiration with Eastern philosophies. Einstein before him had credited this idea as influential when he came up with the Theory of Relativity—matter and energy existing in duality. Oppenheimer, the “Father of the Atomic Bomb” because he is best known for his work with the Manhattan Project (but also a significant contributor to the relativity theory & one on cosmic rays), also had a real fascination with many of the same ideas. In his case, he had invented the most powerful weapon man had ever known with all good intentions, because he believed in his heart that the threat of it would save Mankind from annihilation by conventional warfare (sound familiar?). Incidentally, Oppenheimer changed these views after Hiroshima & Nagasaki, and involvement with the project became his greatest regret—he was later in life a great social activist in the scientific & political arena.

Basis in Neurology/Psychophysiology & The Turing Model of Artificial Intelligence

How an action potential travels across a nerve axon

But our Hanso was still convinced he did have the answer, the ultimate weapon that would rescue us from war and all other causes of human strife. If you could make a code out of 0’s and 1’s, why not out of other things; biological things? This is not so crazy a concept, because DNA is really a quaternary code.

How about abstract things like thought? Again, may sound like pure science fiction. But the brain produces quantifiable energy in the form of electromagnetic fields… EMFs! That’s what EEG’s measure, after all.

The idea of brain waves being seen like binary code is not an original idea of mine. I got the idea on reading an old article in the Scientific American years ago. In the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI) development, it’s been mentioned several times. I think it was Alan Turing (a major contributor to the field of computer science) who even suggested it as early as the 40s a similar idea.

The idea is that the brain itself, though complex, can be broken down into its simplest form–a single neuron. It’s basically a simple circuit. This can have two responses to a stimulus: to fire (when its threshold potential is reached, or 1) or not fire (0). It’s only the complex interconnectiveness of a neural network (and its location in this network) that creates different actions, such as running away, or crying. And the energy with which it does so? Electromagnetic waves. In 2 dimensions, for instance, you can measure if the electrical impulse travels away or towards a dipole, and this determines if the EEG records negatively or positively. In other words, in a plane, there’s a way to record this binary code of thought.

Bringing It Back to Our Favorite Show

Walt visualizing target practice in "Special"

What has LOST been about so far? I see the major themes as being interconnections, and human choices—choices to do good and evil, right and wrong. An age-old subject explored by ancient philosophies & faiths, and philosophers such as John Locke & Jean-Jacques Rousseau. In the complexity of the human condition, good and bad exist as a duality within the same person, and the choices we make are determined by this balance, with consequences in our environments—throughout the show, every one of them has had this internal struggle and done good and bad. So our thoughts are in fact various combinations of good and evil, and other elements that exist in mutual opposition. Binary code!

Could this energy be harnessed—converted to kinetic or chemical energy for example? Or converted to matter, as per our good ole Theory of Relativity? We’ve already seen examples of telekinesis & ESP from the show, mostly from Walt, but it appears he is just the most keen & adept so far. I believe that we will see many other cases of this theme as the series evolves, and that this may explain paranormal phenomena seen on the show, such as the Smoke Monster. I believe that the DHARMA Initiative was interested in exploring the idea of using the mind as a weapon, before something went horribly wrong (and that the Others misguidedly continue their work on the Island).

Support

The writers have said on the Official 'Lost' Podcast that the overall pattern of The Logos is not significant, but that we should break down the symbol to its most basic components (yin & yang, binary).

Duality is a repetitive theme on LOST, as illustrated by black/white juxtaposition in many scenes.

DHARMA stands for Department of Heuristics and Research into Material Applications. Heuristics is a theory about using 'rules of thumb' as applied in learning, which essentially involves the use of behaviorist algorithms (most often, binary choices).