The Casimir Effect [spoilers S4 finale]

[Klaus]

So here's a link to an article about it that is at least somewhat accessible:

http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/print/9747

It's basically the way the vacuum energy inherent in even "empty" space at a quantum level to be multiplied back on itself:

I think this is the most pertinent to our situation:

An important physical quantity when discussing the Casimir force is the "field radiation pressure". Every field - even the vacuum field - carries energy. As all electromagnetic fields can propagate in space they also exert pressure on surfaces, just as a flowing river pushes on a floodgate. This radiation pressure increases with the energy - and hence the frequency - of the electromagnetic field. At a cavity-resonance frequency the radiation pressure inside the cavity is stronger than outside and the mirrors are therefore pushed apart. Out of resonance, in contrast, the radiation pressure inside the cavity is smaller than outside and the mirrors are drawn towards each other.

That's why putting the metal objects in the booth was the way to get an explosion big enough to blast open the tunnel to the wheel which Dharma had covered up behind w/the teleporter... as designed the chamber multiplies the force enough to send a person, but when reflected back on itself inside all those metal surfaces it generates a much greater level of power.

The "exotic matter" is the power source [perhaps somehow altering the fabric of space-time to greatly increase the amount of vacuum energy present] and the Casimir effect is used to focus and multiply it for Dharma's transporter.... without them knowing the same power source was the key to moving the island.

That's one way that keeping the "Accident" at the Swan from spreading really could have been a save-the-world scenario... if whatever kind of quantum state change they're doing spreads, it could destroy and remake all of space-time throughout the universe... something a few folks thought some of the recent supercolliders could do -- and the scientists said "No, we don't have enough power."

What Des did by turning the key was shed that buildup of vacuum energy and stop the catalyst point from being reached -- in this case permanently by imploding the Hatch... Dharma must have been too afraid of the all-or-nothing consequences of that method so they went with the computer instead.

Does that make sense?

 

[Temis the Vorta]

I guess it kind of makes sense. As much as anything ever does.

So just because the Swan went kablooey, why isn't the "world" still in danger from whatever Desmond was keeping at bay? Or is the world still in danger? Just imploding the hatch doesn't strike me as a very permanent thing. It's like trying to use concrete to cap a volcano - it might work for a while...

 

[Darth_Daver]

I guess it kind of makes sense. As much as anything ever does.

So just because the Swan went kablooey, why isn't the "world" still in danger from whatever Desmond was keeping at bay? Or is the world still in danger? Just imploding the hatch doesn't strike me as a very permanent thing. It's like trying to use concrete to cap a volcano - it might work for a while...

No, it's not. They didn't DAM the energy, they destroyed the floodgates (the swan being the electric dam). The correct analogy IMHO is like venting the pressure from the volcano's chamber... That's pretty permanent for that particular volcano...

 

[Temis the Vorta]

So Desmond did by accident what Dharma could have done on purpose but didn't because they were scared to try?

Eh, that's pretty contrived plotting. But the Lost writers can't be good at everything. It's a good enough explanation, since that aspect of the story has been left in the dust. Even a contrivance is good enough, even if I was hoping for something more clever.

 

[Captain Fine]

Or cleverer if you're British :P

 

[McCoy]

The "destroying the world" thing was probably a lie to keep some poor bastard running through this ridiculous button-pushing routine every 108 minutes for 3 years with no reasonable explanation.

 

[Darth_Daver]

So Desmond did by accident what Dharma could have done on purpose but didn't because they were scared to try?

Eh, that's pretty contrived plotting. But the Lost writers can't be good at everything. It's a good enough explanation, since that aspect of the story has been left in the dust. Even a contrivance is good enough, even if I was hoping for something more clever.

Maybe now they (or the Dharma, if they were still there) can't use the magnetic energy for whatever strange experiment they want to... Or, by doing this they reactivated the exotic matter inside the Orchid, so now weird time travelling stuff happens... (Like you know, the doc washing up...)

edit: Or like giving Desmond time travelling powers... No wonder noone wanted to break the dam, noone wanted to get unstuck.

 

[Mallet]

A few things...

One) Out of all the Other's it seems only Ben would know what would happen if the button wasn't pushed. All the rest of them seemed surprised by the sky going purple and communications (possibly) being disrupted. Even Eye-patch said that there was no communications with the outside world since the "sky went purple" and he seemed angry about it. But... there were guide books in the communication station to all of the dharma stations so you would think Eye-Patch would know more about what was going on.

2)Ben had to know about the button/Desmond, etc... since he could watch/spy on the Swan hatch from the Pearl Station.

3)Whatever the button did was not important enough for Ben to try and intercede and take over the Swan and have his own people push it. yet he did put two people in an underwater hatch to watch a blinking button, keep Eye-Patch in the com center, have people over in the hydra station, etc... So the Others (under Ben) made use of a lot of hatches, but for some reason they never bothered with the Swan hatch. Why?

Ben must not have thought pushing or not pushing the button was very important, since he left it up to strangers to push even though some of them had committed suicide in the past and they were not very dependable and with only 108 minutes to press the button even if he found out something had gone wrong in the hatch (maybe eye patch was keeping an eye on them?) they would never have reached it in time enter the numbers.

So what does this all mean?