# Lost 2.3: "Orientation" **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 5, 2005, 6:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-2-3-orientation/324852 "2005-10-05T06:24:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 9
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2005, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-2-3-orientation/324852/161 "2005-10-06T18:49:06Z")
> [@Ass For A Hat](#): > > Regading Walt’s supposed backwards talking warning about “the button”…has anyone here actually played this backwards and heard it for themselves? What evidence do we have that is really what he said? I have. It’s very clear. ---
**Author:** ![Monstre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e274bd/32.png) [@Monstre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monstre)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2005, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-2-3-orientation/324852/162 "2005-10-06T18:57:44Z")
> [@panamajack](#): > > What’s going to happen when Shannon finds out that they ‘pushed the button’? Probably not much , unless she was listening to Walt backwards. Interestingly, if Walt was saying that the button is bad, don’t press it – then that seems to go against what he said to Locke last season… about the hatch. “Don’t open it”. To NOT open the hatch would mean to just maintain the status quo – Desmond keeps pushing the button. To open the hatch gives them the opportunity to STOP pushing the button. (Although on the other hand, it does set up the opportunity for Locke and Pals to become mindless button pushing drones like Desmond. So maybe Walt was foreseeing that eventually Desmond would die if the hatch remained unopened and the button-pushing would stop naturally…) ---
**Author:** ![Monstre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e274bd/32.png) [@Monstre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monstre)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2005, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-2-3-orientation/324852/163 "2005-10-06T19:03:04Z")
> [@N9IWP](#): > > Possible hint to other bases on island (or nearby): The logo on the shark looks to be different. Yeah, I noticed that when I backtracked last week to get a look at the shark logo. Same boundary figure, but different inside – wasn’t the “swan” (which I thought was maybe a snake at the time). ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2005, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-2-3-orientation/324852/164 "2005-10-06T19:09:18Z")
> [@Ass For A Hat](#): > > I’m overanalysing a bit, but why did Sawyer have the gun? Michael had it last when he shot the shark, right? Yes, and he left it behind on the falling-apart raft when he switched to the pontoon. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2005, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-2-3-orientation/324852/165 "2005-10-06T19:24:55Z")
> [@duality72](#): > > There’s also the possibility the machine is actually [an Apple II clone](http://www.apple2clones.com/) with a similar case, one that does get power through the monitor and/or have an execute key. There’s way too many clones to look through, though, so I’m just going to go with the artistic license thing. One thing that I noticed is that there’s no way that little puppy is running at 2Mhz like an Apple II – after each keypress, the cursor is redrawn at 8 interstitials between the entered character and the blank space, instead of just advancing instantly to the next space on a 24X40 grid. (I’m sure that this is just because it was easier to mock up the archaic-looking screen using an animation proggy on a modern computer than to find a working Apple II and import its video output into the project – but it looks a little off.) ---
**Author:** ![Fiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e274bd/32.png) [@Fiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiver)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2005, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-2-3-orientation/324852/166 "2005-10-06T19:38:07Z")
> [@Larry Mudd](#): > > One thing that I noticed is that there’s no way that little puppy is running at 2Mhz like an Apple II – after each keypress, the cursor is redrawn at 8 interstitials between the entered character and the blank space, instead of just advancing instantly to the next space on a 24X40 grid. > > (I’m sure that this is just because it was easier to mock up the archaic-looking screen using an animation proggy on a modern computer than to find a working Apple II and import its video output into the project – but it looks a little off.) I bet you’re s stitch at parties. ---
**Author:** ![MrsMonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8e8cbc/32.png) [@MrsMonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrsMonkey)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2005, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-2-3-orientation/324852/167 "2005-10-06T20:01:34Z")
> [@Monstre](#): > > To open the hatch gives them the opportunity to STOP pushing the button. (Although on the other hand, it does set up the opportunity for Locke and Pals to become mindless button pushing drones like Desmond. So maybe Walt was foreseeing that eventually Desmond would die if the hatch remained unopened and the button-pushing would stop naturally…) Or… Walt was just trying to save them from becoming the mindless button pushing drones like Desmond. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2005, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-2-3-orientation/324852/168 "2005-10-06T20:06:18Z")
> [@Fiver](#): > > I bet you’re s stitch at parties. Hey, I figure if we’re going to spend time thinking about Desmond’s computer as though it were real, we might as well go to hell with the joke. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Baldwin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baldwin/32/7264_2.png) [@Baldwin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baldwin)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2005, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-2-3-orientation/324852/169 "2005-10-06T20:09:35Z")
We could posit that the computer in the underground dome, although it looks like an AppleII, could actually be a custom-made job, perhaps with more advanced technology than commercially available computers at the time. (Now that I think of it, an AppleIIc was the first home computer I ever used.) I wonder what Jack will make of the mysterious drug or serum that Desmond was injecting. I like the theory about Locke’s bastard of a father being the original Sawyer. ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2005, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-2-3-orientation/324852/170 "2005-10-06T20:14:52Z")
I actually didn’t think it WAS an Apple…I figured it was a terminal for the mainframe like collection of odds and ends (I figured this was the writers concept of what a ‘mainframe’ would look like) in the background. I distinctly saw a tape reel to reel unit in the back (for loading programs) and what looked like a FEP to the side IIRC…so I just thought they were using a terminal input device to connect to the mainframe. -XT ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2005, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-2-3-orientation/324852/171 "2005-10-06T20:30:26Z")
> [@cbawlmer](#): > > I think the most obvious reason for her reaction is she saw the gun and thought, “Huh. Somebody, possibly these guys, got a gun past securty and onto the plane and then it mysteriously crashed. I wonder if there’s a connection?” Because, of course, in this show the most obvious reason must be the answer. ---
**Author:** ![SenorBeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senorbeef/32/2220_2.png) [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2005, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-2-3-orientation/324852/172 "2005-10-06T20:38:00Z")
> [@xtisme](#): > > Definitely. And maybe thats part of the plan, another route to perhaps push latent para-normal abilities…maybe as a control group or something (i.e. some get the drug, some get pushed to their limits via sleep depravation, maybe there is a third control group that gets neither…or the other stations have other stresses or other things happening). But the video (and the bunk bed) said there were two people, and that they should take alternating shifts to remain fresh. So the sleep deprivation aspect wasn’t intended. > [@Sam Hell](#): > > Is it possible to insert subliminal images into a projecter film like that? Sure, why not? Some of the original subliminal message experiments were done at movie theaters… anything where you can slip in modified frames here and there would work, I’d think. ---
**Author:** ![fifty-six](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@fifty-six](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fifty-six)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2005, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-2-3-orientation/324852/173 "2005-10-06T20:47:34Z")
Hurley’s old mate at the Looney Bin kept muttering the “magic” numbers. I am willing to be that he was once in the hatch and it drove him crazy. I suppose, if I am correct, there is a way off the island. I am also intrested in the HANSO FOUNDATION’S intrest in remote viewing. Major Ed Dames the famed remote viewer came to mind. Anyone who listens in on Coast to Coast AM or Art Bell will know a little or alot about this prophetic activity. If they are good at it they know an event will happen. Dharma Industries and the Haso foundation does not need to do anything, upgrades or whatever not because they have not remotly viewed a spike in the timeline. Or maby they did and sent the plane in to continue pushing the button. New theory just in… Problems where witnessed by the remote viewers. With a little bit of nudging and fiddleing they where able to get the folks they needed on the plane and island. Engenners, Doctors, guns, ect. ---
**Author:** ![phungi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/phungi/32/395_2.png) [@phungi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phungi)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2005, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-2-3-orientation/324852/174 "2005-10-06T20:49:23Z")
a quick check of [Hanson’s URL](http://66.132.217.121/) on [SamSpade.org](http://www.samspade.org/t/whois?a=66.132.217.121;server=auto) yields “[BigSpaceship1.com](http://BigSpaceship1.com)” cue Twilight Zone theme… ---
**Author:** ![Flutterby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Flutterby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flutterby)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2005, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-2-3-orientation/324852/175 "2005-10-06T20:56:17Z")
> [@SenorBeef](#): > > As the film was listing the purposes of the various research facilities, they said “zoology” and the image was of two polar bears fighting. I completely missed that part! Damn and I didn’t tape this episode. (Mom wanted to tape Martha Stewart) > [@John Mace](#): > > [The Hanso foundation web site.](http://www.thehansofoundation.org/activeproject.html) > > I believe these types of sites are created by ABC, and might in the future contain addtional clues. Note that you get “access denied” if you try to link to any details about the projects. Maybe if you enter “The Numbers” somehow, you get access! There’s also [Dharma Industries](http://dharmaindustries.com/) as I pointed out way back in post 88 😛 > [@McDeath\_the\_Mad](#): > > On another note, CTV the network which broadcasts “Lost” in Canada always has quick promos of the stars of the current show interacting with a large CTV logo (each letter is inside a large ball). It sounds pretty cheesy (and it is, believe me). Anyway in last nights “Lost” they had Jack, Jin and Walt in one of these promo’s! He definitly looked older and different (but I’m pretty sure it’s the same actor). I haven’t seen that one, but the one I see has Walt jumping up on the C. > [@lachesis](#): > > 1. something doesn’t add up with Desmond. he’s been there in the hatch for 3 years (he says). he appears to have a routine that includes giving himself a daily (at least) injection from the Mystery Serum Bottles, complete with Mystery Number Series ™. there’s a supply in the cabinet that looks like it’d be good for a couple decades at least. **yet when he bugs out because he thinks the computer is trashed, he doesn’t bother taking this medicine stash with him???** if the injections are indeed vital to his health, wouldn’t that be the FIRST thing he’d lunge for before bookin’ out the door? and if they _aren’t_ important, why did/does he bother injecting himself? He grabbed the meds. There was a pretty clear scene of him running around grabbing stuff. He grabbed a couple handfuls of the meds and a few things from the pantry. > [@Ass For A Hat](#): > > Regading Walt’s supposed backwards talking warning about “the button”…has anyone here actually played this backwards and heard it for themselves? What evidence do we have that is really what he said? [Here you go, listen for yourself.](http://lost.cubit.net/audio/walt_audio.wav) ---
**Author:** ![Broken\_Wind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Broken\_Wind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broken_Wind)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2005, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-2-3-orientation/324852/176 "2005-10-06T22:21:01Z")
Maybe, Don’t Push the Button = You Must Have Left Your Post = Set the Monster Free to Reclaim You Just a thought. ---
**Author:** ![middleman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9a140/32.png) [@middleman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/middleman)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2005, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-2-3-orientation/324852/177 "2005-10-06T22:21:18Z")
> [@SenorBeef](#): > > But the video (and the bunk bed) said there were two people, and that they should take alternating shifts to remain fresh. So the sleep deprivation aspect wasn’t intended. But you are assuming that the experiment actually began in the 70s. What if the button part of the experiment only began with Desmond? The island, we believe, has been there AT LEAST 16 years, but that doesn’t mean that someone has been pushing the button that long! But I do have a question: could this island be so big that all the people on it would not have known a plane crashed on it? CFL seemed to have no clue! ---
**Author:** ![SenorBeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senorbeef/32/2220_2.png) [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2005, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-2-3-orientation/324852/178 "2005-10-06T22:26:34Z")
> [@middleman](#): > > But you are assuming that the experiment actually began in the 70s. What if the button part of the experiment only began with Desmond? > > The island, we believe, has been there AT LEAST 16 years, but that doesn’t mean that someone has been pushing the button that long! > > But I do have a question: could this island be so big that all the people on it would not have known a plane crashed on it? > > CFL seemed to have no clue! Well, if the underground facility was built less than 16 years ago too, it’d be pretty hard to miss all the mining equipment and the huge construction crews. ---
**Author:** ![middleman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9a140/32.png) [@middleman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/middleman)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2005, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-2-3-orientation/324852/179 "2005-10-06T22:34:04Z")
Maybe they used that particular part of the Skinner box for something else! ---
**Author:** ![MaxTheVool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@MaxTheVool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaxTheVool)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2005, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-2-3-orientation/324852/180 "2005-10-06T22:40:04Z")
> [@Finagle](#): > > The weird deadman setup only makes sense if you wanted to know when the inhabitants were dead or sick so you could send new ones. I was assuming that the idea was more that there’s some super-dangerous experiment with mind altering para-rays going on on the island. If it gets out of control, the guys in the bunker will go insane, not be able to enter the code, and kablammo, island is reduced to radioactive fragments. Or something vaguely along those lines. By the way, and this is the MOST important unsolved issue, what’s up with the “S” in the opening title? Is anyone else constantly distracted by the pixellation on it right when it comes into focus? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-2-3-orientation/324852.md?page=8) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lost-2-3-orientation/324852.md?page=10)