Full fathom five thy father lies; Of his bones are coral made; Nothing of him that doth fade
Those are pearls that were his eyes:
But doth suffer a sea-change
Into something rich and strange.
The Tempest. Act i. Sc. 2
From the Lost Diaries, Day One:
"Remember sucking wind and noise - deafening noise. Head still ringing."
Danielle in "Solitary":
"I remember the terrible sound"
Imagine a deafening noise capable of guiding a plane to a safe landing, the French castaways to shore, Locke to his boar.
Imagine a technology so clean, so natural, so transparent that it leaves no trace behind.
Imagine the sound.
The sound within
Imagine descending into an Alice-in-Wonderland canyon where the echo that returns when you shout "hello" sounds like "olleh." No such sound-reversal canyons exist in nature. However, physicists in Europe and the United States have recently been creating environments in the laboratory and underwater that exhibit reversed echoing. ...
Such setups refocus sound with remarkable precision. When a person sings
out "hello" in such an environment, the sound not only comes
back reversed but it also beams specifically to the vocalist's head, and
nowhere else.
These traits make time-reversed acoustics, as this technology is known,
promising for a wide range of uses, including ... broadcasting different
translations of a speaker to listeners sitting side by side.
Many environments bend and bounce signals around so much that they become severely distorted. ... [But] an environment with many sound-bending and sound-reflecting obstacles actually improves a time-reversal mirror's projection of sounds back to a specific location. The more reflecting surfaces there are in the environment, the wider the spatial spread of the components of sound the mirror gathers. And that provides the mirror with more precise guidance for targeting the echo.
Mathias Fink of the University of Denis Diderot in Paris, France and some other scientists also expect that the same techniques may work in the electromagnetic realm, perhaps increasing the signal-carrying capability of wireless communication systems...
Getting more practical, scientists are considering such uses as auditorium systems that could simultaneously transmit completely different sound streams to people sitting right next to each other. This concept could be applied, for example, at the United Nations, where speeches must be simultaneously translated into many languages for different listeners. Instead of donning headphones, however, the UN delegates would simply hear the appropriate translation where they sit.
Similarly, family members traveling in a car might simultaneously listen to different radio stations.
Reversed echoes may fight disease and foster communication
The sound that heals
For many years, scientists have been investigating the use of inaudible, high-intensity ultrasound for incision-free surgery but the hodgepodge of tissues in the human body distorts acoustic signals, making it difficult to precisely aim the acoustic energy.
That's where time-reversal mirrors can come in. For more than a decade, Fink's group has been developing versions of ultrasonic devices, known as lithotripters, for destroying mineral stones that can form in the kidney and gall bladder. First, the lithotripter's time-reversal mirror broadcasts unfocused sound into an organ to create reflections that reveal a stone's location. Then, the device sends a time-reversed form of the reflections, but greatly amplified, to shatter the target.
.... Emad S. Ebbini and his colleagues at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis are also showing how such mirrors might be applied in medicine. They are investigating time-reversed ultrasound for two procedures: knocking out heart tissue that misfires electrically and destroying tumors.
Time-Reverse Acoustic Research Promises Medical Breakthrough
The sound that searches
Another acoustically noisy environment where time-reversal methods are drawing attention is the ocean. ... William A. Kuperman of Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla became interested in time-reversed acoustics in the mid-1990s while working on a Navy-funded ocean-modeling project. His challenge was to devise computer models of ocean acoustics that would make it possible to take signals received at underwater listening posts and trace them back to their sources, for instance, enemy submarines. The advantage of doing it all on computers, he notes, is that no sonar pings are generated, so there would be nothing to tip off a target that it's being stalked.
The test results have been "spectacular," Kuperman says. "Time reversal is undoing the complexity of the ocean." From a distance of 10 kilometers, for example, the team refocused a sound pulse into a spot only a few meters in depth. ... Now that Kuperman and his colleagues have established how well ocean-based time reversal can work, they're investigating how to exploit time-reversed acoustics for detecting submarines and mines, developing a better understanding of the ocean environment, and communicating between undersea vehicles.
One of the nifty features of this communication scheme is that the information is covert, Kuperman says. "Off the focus, you get [only] rumbling."
Applications of TR to Underwater Acoustics
The sound that burns
Thermoacoustics (TA) is the study of the conversion of acoustic energy - compression waves in a gas (sound) - into heat energy and vice versa. Acoustic energy can be harnessed in sealed systems and used to create powerful heat engines, heat pumps, and refrigerators.Thermoacoustic devices use these compression wavesÊto replace mechanical pistons, crankshafts, and valves, reducing the number of moving parts in their design and making them simple, reliable machines. Thermoacoustic cryocoolers generally have two major sections to their design: an electroacoustic transducer (like a loudspeaker) and a coldhead.
Los Alamos Thermoacoustics Page
drabauer
dr: My most important question is: What on earth were you researching that you stumbled upon something like this?
I get the general drift of it. So what implications do you see for us? Do you think the entire island is a staging operation for these types of experiments? That perhaps the technology is uncontrollable? Do you think the experiments are being conducted even now?
We have strange sounds. If they're caused by this kind of experimentation, why do the effects seem so devastating?
I can't begin to imagine how something like this would be involved with such far-ranging consequences. It almost seems like a "gentle" technology. What's on your mind? Do you see something I don't?
JacksGirlfriend
An intriguing line of speculation I agree. I knew of the kidney stones and heat uses. Knew about using reverse sound for cancellation of noise; headphones that block out machine noise but let in conversation are one of the results. However, broadcasting multiple signals to individuals in a crowd would be highly cool. Think of the interactive uses for gaming; say a murder mystery party or adventure hunt. Sweet.
This would also give a rational explanation for the "whispers" Danielle and now Sayid are hearing, though Danielle should have known the source if the French castaways were the creators of it.
Further, I doubt the writers know about this so I think it'll be unlikely that sound is the cause of this. Though a huge version of the kidney stone zapper could be used to create "sound stair steps" which could explain how the tail got ripped off and then the plane lowered step by step, though again, not really likely either. Why would the plane have been targeted? Wrong place, wrong time or someone or something on board that TPTB wanted them/it?
Still it is amazing that even now, strange and wonderful things are still being discovered even for something thought to be so thoroughly "understood" as acoustics.
ChanceGardener
Thank you Chance! That is a lovely consideration of possible implications. JacksGirl, I don't really have any answers at this point. As someone for whom "sound" is a constant preoccupation, I have merely noted how important it seems to be at evey dramatic moment (with the notable exception of Jack's hallucination). I just wanted to put these ideas out there and see if they percolate for anyone.
More on this later . . .
drabauer
I agree, dr. Sound is very important in the show. I guess I just didn't understand how what you posted, which seems to have such good implications, could in our world create such fear and chaos.
As usual, I'm hoping Pin will drop by because he's got the kind of mind that will be able to see a connection if there is one. I emailed him. Hope he shows because I'm interested to see if he spots something. (You know darn well I won't see it.)
JacksGirlfriend
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hope he shows because I'm interested to see if he spots something. (You
know darn well I won't see it.)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
AH you underestimate yourself JG!
A bit of a downer: saw my brother, an aerospace engineer, for the holidays. He told me he stopped watching Lost when he saw the flashback with the tail ripped off because there is absolutely no way the writers could EVER rationalize that!
drabauer
Quote:
------------------------------------------------------------------------
JacksGirl, I don't really have any answers at this point. As someone for
whom "sound" is a constant preoccupation, I have merely noted
how important it seems to be at evey dramatic moment (with the notable
exception of Jack's hallucination).
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Does this mean I might have to get a better speaker system or I might
miss this stuff?
Hope I get a good bonus this year....
Yorke
Quote:
------------------------------------------------------------------------
A bit of a downer: saw my brother, an aerospace engineer, for the holidays.
He told me he stopped watching Lost when he saw the flashback with the
tail ripped off because there is absolutely no way the writers could EVER
rationalize that!
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Your brother sounds like a lost cause if he would stop watching a show for such a stupid reason, but listen to this. I was watching a TV show about urban legends yesterday and it was talking about some urban legend where the window of a plane comes off and the person gets sucked out or something and they were trying to figure out if that ever happened. The answer was no, BUT, there was a time on a small plane where, just like on Lost, the fuselage depressurized, there was some engine malfunction and a piece of the back of the plane ripped off!!! I was like Holy Crap, that's EXACTLY what happened on the show! Not the most reliable source, I'll admit, but as far as I know, neither is your brother.
Side note: I really wish I lived 50/60 years ago when people weren't SO OBSESSED with realism in things like film and tv. Filmmakers had the luxury of being able to get away with very sensational, over-the-top FUN things, even just for effect if they wanted, and in the end, I think this luxury ADDED to the art form. Realism in today's film industry, in my opinion, only takes away from the overall quality of the movies/TV Shows that are coming out, because when a film is sensational, it's necessarily ABOUT that sensation, which is always less interesting than if a sensational universe is simply ever-present in the film world.
http://www.teegerschiller.com/lost-philosophy
SelfProjectRealized
Thanks SelfProject. Having just returned from "The Incredibles,"
I can only agree whole-heartedly! What matters is whether a fictional
creation is true to the parameters of the world it sets up, and is written
well enough to draw us into that world.
drabauer
From episode one
Quote:
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Remember sucking wind and noise - deafening noise. Head still ringing.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Wasn't that refering to the sound from inside the plane as it was crashing? Like when the tail section came off? I don't think that has anything to do with "what's" on the island at all.
I guess I could be wrong, but it doesn't feel like it.
leftofpunk
This really is a cool theory and it does seem like sound is importaint.
Wynter Zera
Bringing this thread back to life, as I've a question.
When the monster was savaging the shrubbery (monster is the Knights of Ni????) it seemed the sounds being made were different this time around, compared to the first airing of the episode.
Is there a way to check to confirm/rebuke such a thought?
Oh, not a sound thing so I'll post more fully in the GD forum on the Pilot later, but it seemed to me the trees were going down by something "low", say no more than 10 ft high. Don't know if this was an intentional part of the special effects or an unfortunate side effect. Then again, perhaps my perceptions of the trees motions are too highly influenced by my own special frame of subjective perception that I cannot be considered an objective observer of such events.
But it looked like the Mach 5 was motoring around after Speed pressed the H button (it was the H button that activated the blades wasn't it?). Maybe the sound was the Mach 5 engine?
ChanceGardener
Sorry, Doc, if this sounds grandiose, but I have to disagree with your
brother. Catastrophic failure is rarely predictable since it generally
results from engineers thinking that they have everything accounted for:
"O-rings? It will never get that cold at the cape." Just a few
years ago a MD-80 went down off SoCal because engineers mis-prescribed
the preventive maintanence required on the horizontal stabilizer jackscrew
assembly.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
I must admit that I am stumped as to how a tailless airliner could descend from 30,000 ft to a few hundred and then break apart nose section from middle in a non-woogie universe. I think that this must just be one of those "suspension of disbeleif" moments that are required for the shows premise. I have already mentioned on the chat board why it is necessary for the tail to be the first thing gone, but I'll say it here for all to read. The CVR and CDR, the "black boxes" (actually they are hi-viz orange) are put in the tail section because that is the place where they are most likely to survive. With the tail breaking away first they are most likely in deep water which muffles EM emissions above 10hz or so. Therefore, searchers are not going to be able to find the plane by tracking the black box transponder. Since our castaways are over 1000 miles from where they are supposed to be, rescue is not bloody likely. Voila... Series Premise is born.
TheBigCat
Quote:
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Aparently you're smart enough to not go on and on about things that you
have no idea of, so i'd say "no".
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Was that a slam? I think that was a slam. I think the feline suffering
from an excess of avoirdupois slammed us.
Well Tom, I'm not a smart man. (H2 reference there for anyone who watches
that - best running gag in some time)
I have no doctorate in physics of any kind, this is true. Simple calculus
strains me as well, though I've not revisited it for awhile now; maybe
I should and see if 3rd times the charm? Those pesky integrals.
But.
I do know that sound is a wave. And a wave can be made to interfere with another wave in such a way that interesting things can be made to happen at the intersections and interferences. Since sound can move objects (heck light can move objects) it stands to reason that sound can support objects.
How?
See not physicist above.
But even this not quite smart enough sophont can envision such a thing. A sound generator that can lift, hold, lower objects with enough power (cable running to the ocean tied to a thermoelectric power grid say?) supplied to the generators.
Perhaps sound generators to create a hovercraft, with an ooooeeeooooo sound that knocks down trees so you don't crash as you tool around the island tracking polar bears?
Bet it would sound bitchin' gnarly if they found it and Hurley hooked his Walkman to it dood.
Besides, since I am experiencing cellular senescence, I have precious little else to do but post inane unresearched theories extrapolated from real world examples present in the world around us today. Please, I need your pity.
And your inane ideas
ChanceGardener