Daniel Faraday/Theories

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Theories about Daniel Faraday

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Stated as questions or possibilities (avoid question marks, "Maybe", "I think", etc). More appropriate for another article. Illogical or previously disproven. Proven by canon source, and moved to main article. Speculative and lacking any evidence to support arguments. Responding to another theory (use discussion page instead). This does not include responses that can stand alone as its own theory. Usage of an indented bullet does not imply the statement is a response. See the Lostpedia theory policy for more details.

Contents 1 Reason for Being on the Mission 2 Crying 3 Relation to DHARMA 4 Faraday's Time Machine 5 Significance of "Faraday" 6 Current Status 7 Miscellaneous

Reason for Being on the Mission

• Was selected for the mission to discover information about the island's electromagnetic properties.
• The science team members all brought along gas masks in case the task of neutralizing the tempest failed.

Crying

• Daniel has the same problem that Desmond did. He's become unstuck in time at the point of the crash. He doesnt know why he's crying because he suffered the same amnesia Desmond did. When Daniel gets to the island he finds his constant and temporarily becomes stuck back in time again. This also explains why he often pauses and takes time to answer questions that should be easily known. He's traveling between consciousnesses therefore causing the pause we see.
  • This is very possible, given how cyclical the storytelling of Lost can be. In the linear timeline that is the real world, we see Daniel crying over the discovery of Flight 815. He claims to not know why, but he may simply not want to explain it. Regardless, he knows he wants to be a part of this team. He ends up joining the team and traveling to the Island. On his way to the Island from the freighter, he has his very own Desmond-esque trip. Suddenly, he is shot back through time to some point near to where we see him crying. At that point, his memory of everything forward from that point would be reset (not to say it's not ingrained in his subconscious somehow). With that said, any time he shoots forward through time and rejoins the Island, he has no real knowledge of how he got there or where he is; he remembers nothing that happened after the point in time that he was originally sent back to.
    • This does hot make sense though, because he knew Jack's name
      • When Faraday says "Are you Jack?" after landing on the Island, it's because Naomi mentioned a Jack.
  • Conversely, the only things he knows about the "future" are those he learns when he is present to witness them. Naturally, he would figure out where he was and who the people with him were and, subsequently, why he was there in the first place. He would obviously retain this information on his next trip back. Therefore, it is very possible that he either knew, or was subconsciously aware of, the truth about news report, and that Flight 815 indeed had survivors. He may struggle with this initially, as Desmond did, but he would quickly understand and attempt to remedy it, prompting him to write in his notebook that "Desmond Hume is my constant.". He knew that, when he was shot back in time, he would have this notebook with him, helping himself to stabilize and stop his "yo-yo ride" through time.
  • That could explain why Daniel was so spooked on the helicopter, like Desmond was, only he was less afraid because he was aware of these possible "side effects", having actually met Desmond several years earlier.
  • He was exposed to massive amounts of radiation, just as Desmond was exposed to massive amounts of electromagnetism. When Desmond was on the SAT phone in the sick bay, Daniel had asked if he was exposed to massive amounts of either of those forces.
  • Alternatively, Daniel may have memory problems because Desmond is actively changing his past, and certain events in his past are changing/not defined yet. He will have these problems until he makes Desmond his constant or until Desmond finds his constant. This may explain why Daniel's memory is making progress on the island (once he has met Desmond) but is still shaky (since Desmond has not found his constant).
• He is a psychic with empathic abilities just like all the members of his team and Walt have some psychic abilities yet to be explored.
• He is one of Libby's ex-husbands and knew she was on the plane.
• Daniel really doesn't know why he is weeping, but this is a premonition and deja vu in one; Daniel's soul is stuck in, what for him, is a tragic timeloop wherein he dies as an innocent. The airing of 815's finding is the first link in the chain of events that eventually leads to his death on the island.
• The reason he was crying was because he knew Libby and that she was on the plane. He has been described as 'mental' also the producers said they will explore Libby through other characters' flashbacks.
  • Will be shown in a flashback with Libby at the mental institution, possibly having met Hurley previously - they haven't yet met on the island.
• Was crying because he feels guilty about already taking part in an Oceanic 815 cover up or simply being involved.
• He's crying because he believes that everyone on the flight is dead, but he knows that's not how it's "supposed" to happen, so he's crying out of frustration.
• He's crying because when Desmond came to see him in "The Constant" he told him about the plane crash or at least what he had gathered about it from the survivors. He also told him about Dharma and the Island and thus his (Daniel's) importance on the island. You notice in "the constant" that Daniel is a respected member of the Oxford staff. After his meeting with Desmond it seems like he tried to warn people but just like Hurley, he was labeled crazy. So now getting back to the point of him crying. He knew that this was going to happen and I have a feeling that he warned people about this and therefore he is crying because he was right, and what Desmond told him was right. Thus proving that he wasn't, and crazy. I believe the statement that he "doesn't know" why he is crying is irrelevant. This is based on the idea that time is relative in the past so even after Desmond is stabilized in the future it can be assumed (which I understand is a dangerous thing) that he and Daniel stayed in touch. And thus creating a new past, which is partly explained with the "Desmond Hume is your constant" that is written in Daniel's journal at the end of the episode.

Relation to DHARMA

• If Widmore is affiliated with Dharma (as his owning and sending the second Dharma protocol with the Kahana crew seems to suggest), then Faraday was sent because of Widmore's knowledge of the strange magnetic properties of the island - something Dharma was obviously familiar with (i.e. the stations' capacity to discharge electromagnetic energy).

Faraday's Time Machine

• According to the information available as of The Constant, Faraday's machine and its proper configuration do not exist in a single timeline without paradox. When was the time machine invented/made operational if Desmond gives Faraday the vital figures through contact with the "future"?
  • Since Faraday was the one that provided Desmond with the correct settings, it would mean that the proper configuration does exist in a single timeline, only the settings originally weren't figured out until later - after the time of Desmond's visit but before Faraday got to the Island.
  • If Faraday has sporadic moments of total amnesia, he could have forgotten the information Desmond provided in 1996 and continued his experiments until he perfected the machine again.
  • Faraday's machine may "peel back" the shroud of ignorance that obscures human minds from observing the universe without a limited, singular time-frame. In some interpretations of Taoist thought and quantum physics, the unidirectional notion of time is a method of ordering data and not an actual description of the universe. In tis interpretation, the events that make up the universe happen "all at once" and are ordered by human or human-like consciousnesses into the familiar pattern. If time is illusory, cause and affect may be as well--ideas that David Hume speculated upon. If this is the case, then determinism may be the ultimate shape of events in the universe.
    • Determinism explains a great deal of the coincidences seen in the show, and provides an excellent mechanism for Desmond's flashes of insight.
• Eloise provides an interesting thought experiment that we will likely never see play out: if Faraday did not have a chance to teach Eloise how to run the maze before she died, how did she make it through on her first try? Either Faraday taught her to run the maze while Desmond was in 2004 (although the time-frame seems to rule this out), Eloise was flashing forward to a different her that hadn't died (unlikely, given that the show has established and stuck to a single self-correcting timeline) or her timeloop was exceptionally short--she traveled seconds into the future, observing herself passing through the maze that first time.
  • Daniel intended to teach Eloise how to run the maze an hour after meeting Desmond. Desmond's consciousness was gone for 75 minutes, more than an hour (60 min).
    • If Eloise was displaced an hour into the future and learnt how to run the maze then Daniel wouldn't in reality have taught her an hour later because she already knows, therefore the consciousness that Eloise was displaced to no longer exists and she wouldn't have the knowledge of the maze. Paradox much?
      • Its unlikely that he has any relation to DHARMA however, he will find the orchid station on the island and discover inside the station similar equipment to his experiments back in 1996 and probably know what they were trying to do on the island, and rectify any problems.

Significance of "Faraday"

• Daniel notices that "light scatters different here"... this is due to the "Faraday Effect", in which a magnetic field will rotate a polarized light source. The strong magnetic field in the island has this effect on the light. This could explain why the island is "invisible" to outsiders...light scattered through the earth's atmosphere is (partially) polarized...if the light being reflected by the island is rotated by the magnetic field, then its possible that the island is difficult to view until you are within the range of the magnetic field. This is also why the sky turned "purple" during the discharge event (due to light scattering effects). Also, a strong magnetic field can rotate radio waves as well. This effect is how the Looking Glass station "jammed" radio signals off the island.
  • Seems likely, considering most names on the show are chosen for a very exact reason, and Daniel's last name is of course Faraday. Faraday - Faraday Effect.
  • Unfortunately, light travelling through the atmoshpere is minimally polarized. For all intense purposes, it's not. Hence why photographers and videographers use polarizing filters on their lenses, so they can control how the light "scatters" in a sense.--LostLocke 23:10, 8 July 2008 (PDT)
• Living relative of Michael Faraday English Physicist and Chemist.

Current Status

For theories/theorizing on Daniel Faraday's current status, see:

There's_No_Place_Like_Home,_Parts_2_&_3/Theories#Zodiac_Passengers

Miscellaneous

• The game he was playing with Charlotte was not a memory game, but a test of psychic abilities. Charlotte didn't show him the cards before she turned them over, and Daniel had to guess the cards with psychic powers.
  • Daniel in the past figured out more about the time sickness and found some way to harness it without bleeding out/having an aneurysm. He has the ability now to jump back and forth to some extent, and possibly at will, but there are obviously consequences in his confusion, memory loss (if it is that), lack of social skills, etc. He still thinks he needs a constant now, because he either just doesn't remember his harnessing of the sickness from before, or when he wrote that, his consciousness was in between visits to the storyline's present.
  • Charlotte did specifically say "Let's see what you can remember"
  • "Let's see what you can remember" could also be interpreted as him traveling a short time into the future where he saw the cards and is "remembering" them from what he saw there.
  • Is the statement that Charlotte had not shown the cards to Daniel an observation or an assumption?
  • There's quite a few things that can cause autism-spectrum behaviour, and still leave the person social. Some sort of PDD-NOS can't be ruled out.
    • While Daniel is certainly friendly, he is also extremely awkward and tends to be confusing in his behavior, so he is certainly not sociable in the same way as someone like Jack is.
  • The "savant"-aspect is also supported by the fact that he immediately recognized Jack, standing a couple of feet away from him in the dark. But it should be noted that every one on that team seems to have memorized all passenger from flight 815 and expected Jack to be there because he was one of the few the freighter crew had talked to.
• Daniel's sporadic memory loss may be a result of not using head protection during his many experiments involving radiation at Queen's College, which was noted by Desmond during his visit. ("The Constant")
  • Depending on your interpretation of timeline(s), Faraday's memory loss may coincidentally also be a temporal "course correction", that is, the time machine itself is already determined and Faraday's memory loss is an essential quality of it. When speculating on a fluid, but singular (or finite and unbounded, to borrow terms from discussions of the shape of the universe) time-space, causality is an illusion created by consciousnesses that exist in only one timeline and only move linearly. Under this interpretation, coincidental occurrences may in fact be instrumental for something to be properly defined dimensionally.
• Daniel developed a memory problem after 1996. This is the universe's way of "course-correcting" to ensure that Daniel does not recognize Desmond when they meet in 2004. The memory problem has served its purpose and is no longer necessary. Charlotte is correct and Daniel is in fact making progress. The healing properties of the Island are the reason for this.
• Is the LOST equivalent of DR. MANHATTAN from the WATCHMEN comic series. The producers have cited WATCHMEN as a huge influence on the series, and Faraday shares many similarities with the DR. MANHATTAN character; Manhattan was a shy and awkward scientist who conducted experiments with electromagnetism/time and through an accident was transformed into an omnipotent being capable of experiencing time in a non-linear fashion. Note the vague allusion to the Empire State Building (NY, Manhattan?) in the TV image seen in Faraday's crying scene.
• Daniel, like Richard Alpert, has been on the island before so he doesn't age. That's why in the flashback is hair is longer, but he doesn't look younger, and in his crying scene the same applies.
  • If a dramatic event happens in your life, you would age slightly (hence the "turned your hair grey" rule people say when they are under stress). But nothing like that has happened to him, and as everyone already knows, he obviously has been under loads of stress just on the island.
  • Except that Aaron clearly has aged. If he does not age, it is not simply because he has been on the island before.

Theories about Minor Characters (Non-Survivors & Non-Others) v • t • e
Kahana	Charles Widmore • Matthew Abaddon • Captain Gault • Naomi Dorrit • Miles Straume • Frank Lapidus • Daniel Faraday • Charlotte Lewis • Regina • George Minkowski • Ray • Omar • Martin Keamy • Brandon
Others	Henrik • Mathias • Penelope Widmore • Tovard Hanso