Fail-safe/Theories

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Theories about Fail-safe

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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.

Function

• The Island is an anomalous energy field on the earth (as alluded to by Isaac of Uluru). The Swan station is a large capacitor storing the island's energy for experimental uses. In activating the fail-safe, they would be releasing all of the collected energy at once (like a camera flash does with a capacitor), whereas the numbers entered every 108 minutes would discharge small amounts of stored energy, so as not to "overload."
• The fail-safe does not cause the discharge, but actually terminates it, much like a machine shop has an emergency panic switch. This is supported by Charlie, who seemingly has not seen the discharge, although he was leaving the Swan when the fail-safe was activated.
• When the button is pushed, it releases little bits of electromagnetic energy that is building up to (presumably) keep the island cloak and continuing using it for experiments. When the numbers run down, the fail-safe acts a manual substitution in the case that the computer doesn't work, at which point the fail-safe ends the already occurring discharge, which uncloaks the island.
• Another reason why there was a fail-safe was in case there was an intrusion by the hostiles (like The Flame), so if activated, it would become unable to be used by the Hostiles.
  • Every station may of had it's own intrusion stopper, we only know of two so far.

• The Failsafe was designed to do two or three things:
  • 1) Transport the island through time, probably backwards.
    • Direct exposure to say, 10 years worth of sunlight in the span of 30 seconds explains the harsh, bright light in the sky, as well as the disorientation and "buzzing" the humans on the island experienced during the time travel event. Watch the Season 2 finale again, you'll see what I mean. I also expect a physics geek to back me up when I suggest the purple color was a result of time dilation. Or maybe ultra-violet light would be visible at that level of concentration. Not sure about that one detail.
      • "10 years worth of sunlight" probably would have burned everyone exposed to it, including, but not limited to Jack, Kate, Sawyer and the Others.
  • 2) Harness the full power of the anomaly to teleport the SWAN station away from the island, thereby draining the anomaly for much longer than 108 minutes; presumably years at a minimum.
    • The protocol would then (if you follow my logic) have been put in place to assure the availability of the energy for some other purpose. Perhaps the Dharma Initiative was created to figure out the anomaly's practical applications. By having a human in the hatch they could be much more assured that if something unusual happened it wouldn't result in a disaster. Additionally they had the fail-safe in place, which also required a human to be present and make a decision.
    • If the Swan was teleported away, it would also explain why no one got hurt, and why Desmond (who was immediately atop whatever mechanism caused all of this to happen) was exposed to the massive amount of radiation which dislocated him in time. After all, violating the first three dimensions suggests skipping up to number four wouldn't be all that taxing to a massive energy source.
  • 3) It's possible the fail-safe's last instruction was to send a message to someone in Dharma. I have no proof of this, but it seems both practical and plausible to notify the head honcho that the fail-safe was just executed. I mean that's serious business right there. Josiwe 18:43, 15 April 2008 (PDT)
  • P.S. Feel free to wikify my prose if this isn't deleted out of hand. I don't really understand how to display the structure I want to my argument without using the bullets... :)

Kelvin and Desmond's Conversation

• The conversation between Kelvin and Desmond is almost entirely euphemisms. Notes:

• Perhaps "the only other way out" refers to "out of the experiment"
• Not necessarily the station, but perhaps the reason the scientists are on the island goes away.
• The machine's function is to generate electromagnetism specifically for this unique location. It may be shaping the field, or it might be utilizing it like a power generator.
  • At the end of the initial fail-safe scene, Kelvin refers to a water dam. This could be a casual parable reference, but dams are also used to provide hydroelectric power. Later, as The Swan Countdown Timer has reached zero and Desmond is about to go under the flooring towards the Fail-safe, he tells John that he is going to "blow up the dam".

• Kelvin didn't let Desmond finish his sentence, "Why makes us do it, push the button. If we could just---". Kelvin thinks Desmond is suggesting going ahead with the failsafe, and pre-empts him by questioning his courage. However, perhaps Desmond was about to say "if we could just automate the process somehow then we could leave." Why the venting of the magnetic energy is not an automated process, requiring the push the button procedure remains a mystery.
  • An automated procedure would run up against the bad luck generated by the numbers. If a machine tried to automatically enter the numbers, it would probably have a series of mysterous failures.
    • There is nothing suggesting that only machines run up against the bad luck associated with the numbers. Previously, we have seen humans suffering from the bad luck as well.
  • Possibly Dharma expected (or hoped) the numbers would change at some point?

Divergant Realities

• When turning the key, Desmond created 'save point' of the universe, similar to a computer. When the sky turned purple, the universe backed up the original copy so that the survivors could 'return' if they want to. It could explain why the Oceanic Six want to return so badly, perhaps Desmond still remains the key to undoing this. This could be why Charlie acted so strange after the implosion and why his ghost persists in bothering Hurley. If they return to the point of the fail-safe, Charlie will live and they will never be rescued.