If I may poke my head over the 4th wall for a moment, Jesse Heiman (who plays Dan Bronson in the ARG) has his own FANCLUB on Facebook.

Only the super cool need apply.

Given that the word 'Panopticon' entered the vernacular of many LOST fans after it was discussed at Comic-Con last week (when Damon and Carlton verified it as one of the reasons that Locke was given the pseudonym Jeremy Bentham), I thought it was time to delve into the real Bentham's design and analyze how it relates to our vanishing island.

In 1785, philosopher Jeremy Bentham designed a circular prison building called a Panopticon, featuring a central observation tower surrounded by jail cells; all inmates were to be monitored around the clock without knowing who was watching or when. Bentham was inspired by a Parisian military school, with manageable supervision in mind.

He did not live long enough to see his vision come to life, but there are several modern variations in various countries (Arnhem, Breda and Haarlem: Holland, Carabanchel Prison: Spain, Chi Hoa prison: Vietnam, Caseros Prison: Argentina, Huron Historic Gaol: Canada, Millbank Prison: England, Mount Eden Prisons: New Zealand, Old Provost: South Africa, Palacio de Lecumberri: Mexico, Presidio Modelo: Cuba, Round House: Australia, Statesville Correctional Centre: Illinois, Twin Towers Correctional Facility: California).

Here are Bentham's thoughts about the system, as expressed in 1798's Proposal for a New and Less Expensive Mode of Employing and Reforming Convicts:

"A building circular. The prisoners in their cells, occupying the circumference; the officers in the centre. By blinds and other contrivances, the Inspectors concealed...from the observation of the prisoners: hence the sentiment of a sort of omnipresence--the whole circuit reviewable with little, or... without any, change of place. One station in the inspection part affording the most perfect view of every cell."

Replace a few words from the LOST world, and...

"An archipelago isolated...the passengers on the beach, occupying the circumference-the Hostiles in the center. By monitors and other contrivances, the Others concealed...from the observation of the passengers: hence the sentiment of a sort of omnipresence-the whole island reviewable with little, or...without any, change of place. One man/one company in the inspection part affording the most perfect view of every hatch."

French philosopher Michael Foucault compared the Panopticon to modern society, and cautioned that 'visibility is a trap.' While that warning can be applied to the island's location and Ben and the Others' modus operandi, it is also quite appropriate for whomever or whatever Jacob may be. Whoever created and implemented the hatch system for a variety of experiments also shielded their true identity from those they were studying.

The structures at the Presidio Modelo in Cuba strongly resemble above-ground, inverted hatches:

Additionally, there are similarities between the aerial view of the Panopticon layout and the Swan hatch blast door map:

There are myriad literary and film references to Bentham's design as well. George Orwell's character Big Brother in Nineteen Eighty Four is an obvious nod to the Panopticon; the hatches and surveillance cameras on the island smile in both directions. And The Truman Show presents a modern day Panopticon. [If I had to venture a guess, Sayid will be Truman...the first among the Oceanic 6 to uncover exactly who 'produced' their entire experience; who was watching them, for how long and why.]

Theorize away. This is my debut post on DocArzt, so feedback and theories are welcome!

A few inquiries to get the ball rolling...

Is Ben Linus the central observation system on the island? Was Jacob his predecessor?

Was Widmore present when the original hatches and housing were built?

Were either Widmore Industries or Paik Heavy Industries involved in the design of the
Dharma stations?

Were the passengers of Flight 815 all specifically pre-selected and brought to the island to undergo Panopticon-style observation as a group for their various crimes and behaviors?

Was the Santa Rosa Mental Institution, where Hurley, Libby and Locke's mother were all patients, a Panopticon being utilized by those responsible for their current conditions and whereabouts?

Hey guys, Tapdawg here!

So I've been stuck on one comment from Damon and Carlton at Comic Con. They said that for this season both flashbacks and flash-forwards would be used for story telling purposes but they also alluded to a third time of story-telling device which we haven't seen really. They gave us an example of the Jin-Sun centric episode in season 4 in which Jin's portion is a flashback and Sun's portion is a flash-forward. This got me thinking about what exactly the new format will look like... and then it hit me!

I believe the new story telling device will be episodes with no flashes at all... and the audience will have to figure out when and where in the grand story scheme the story is taking place. Similar to how we were unsure what was going on with Jack in the season 3 finale until the end when we found out it was the future...  but in these episodes we might not find out the timing of the episodes until the season finale or when the DVD comes out.

What do you guys think? Agree, disagree, have an idea of your own? Post your thoughts in the comments below and if I like you're idea I might just ask you to write and article for us on your theory!

The Ho Hos from the beginning of season 4 are at it again, this time hidden in the new and improved Dharma Initiative logo.  MILOCAMPO has pointed out that the letters H and O opposite from each other in this shiny new emblem. (Image Source: Lostpedia.org) 


HO appeared a few times in the first episode of season four "The Beginning of the End."  The letters were shown when Charlie appeared to Hurley in the gas station (he was standing next to a rack of Ho Hos), H and O was all that Jack and Hurley went to in their game of Horse, and the elemental symbol for Ho was a sculpture at the mental institution.

From Doc's article a few months back:

"Originally dubbed "Element X" by Jacques Soret and Marc Delafonatine, who discovered it, Holmium (chemical symbal HO) is said to possess "the highest magnetic moment (10.6µB) of any naturally-occurring element and possesses other unusual magnetic properties."

...H is the 8th letter in the alphabet and - you guessed it - O is 15!  HO=815!"

Is this all just pointing to something grand or is it just a coincidence?

So much information has been revealed to us in the last 5 days, I thought I would try to collect it all into one article. First off, I would like to thank Tapdawg for all his wonderful work bringing us "on the floor" reports, videos and information from Comic Con 08.

 

Here is a list of theories and summations that I have gleaned from the new Dharma video,  Dharma Wants You website, comments of other Lost fans and some research.

 

 

 

1) On the online sign up page of the Dharma Wants You website, the default date populated in the birth date field is the date that the new Dharma video was filmed, that date being July 17th, 1978. That would co-inside with Chang's dialog which says that the video was film 30 years ago.

2) Chang mentions the Kerr Metric, which if you look on Wikipedia, the following paragraph could relate to what happened to the Island. "Even stranger phenomena can be observed within the innermost region of this spacetime, such as some forms of time travel. For example, the Kerr metric permits closed, time-like loops in which a band of travelers' returns to the same place after moving for a finite time by their own clock; however, they return to the same place and time, as seen by an outside observer." I suspect the Island will return to the same place and time as it was when it vanished, yet days, months or years may have passed for anyone on or near the Island.

3) It was Faraday filming the video, possibly during the time that the Island was "gone."

4) In regard to Chang's statement "Jennifer, take him out of here..." in reference to a crying baby on the video, we will find out that that is HIS baby and it is Miles.

5) One of the reasons Miles is on the Island is to contact his dead father, Pierre Chang.

6) Chang knows a LOT more about the future of the Dharma Initiative than just the upcoming purge in 1992. He looks at his arm in the video and touches it. We have seen him in other videos with a prosthetic arm and possibly a glass eye. This indicates that it is possible that research done on the Island after July 1978 was in effort to "change" the future, even though Cheng is aware that it's not possible.

7) Season 5's story telling technique will be to show what's happening on the Island's "now" and the rest of the worlds "now," even though they are 30 years apart.

 

Input?

 

WLN

Thanks to bcs7583 for letting us know that the newest email had another secret message in it. This time, the message was a link to a youtube video of the hacked dharma video. Enjoy!

Here is the audio of the background music of the Octagon Global Recruiting Test.

Download (right-click, save as)

UPDATE: Translation by Ridley from the Fuselage

"Those who come to the Dharma Initiative will have to travel a long way across the sea at a considerable speed. Work will include being outdoors and physical labor. You may also experience some [instability of time along the way]. Hopefully you, like many others, feel that your social duty is more important than your personal safety."

Here are the images from the first test. The first ten questions showed an image and asked you to click the word which best related what you thought. The last seven questions asked an interesting question in which you had to respond with one of the four given choices. You can click the pics below for full size images.

The Octagon Global Recruiting site is now active.  Here is something interesting to note while you plunge through the Dharma recruiting process, during the registration process the date of birth is already set at July 17, 1978.  What could it mean? Is it just a fluke?

Check it out:  http://www.dharmawantsyou.com



Note to Comic-Con attendees who have an ID card: It appears you currently can only take the test when it asks you too after you enter your code. If you choose to register and not take the test, you can not take the test. Once again, if you have an id number from Comic Con, enter your id number and take the test immediately, do not register until after taking the test.