Differences between pushing button and turning key
Hey guys,
I don't understand the difference between pushing the button and Desmond turning the failsafe key.
As I come to understand it, the island emits electromagnetism of some kind. Now, this would build up over time and pushing the button would discharge it, yes? This had to be done eveery 108 minutes to keep the magnetism in check. When the button didn't get pressed, it freaked out and started sucking everything in.
Now, Desmond said that when he turned the key it discharged the magnetism. How is that different than just pushing the button? Clearly it imploded the hatch and did something else, but from what Desmond said in "Further Instructions" I didn't see a difference between that and what was explained as just regularly 'pushing the button'
Hey guys. So something about this key turning business always confused me. I asked Gregg about it and I've posted his reply below. I'm extremely grateful to him for answering this in as much detail as he did, but I'm honestly still a little confused. Rather than burden him with a clarification question, I thought I'd offer it up to y'all to expand on what he said, on what we all think it means exactly, and so on...
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Anyway...
From what Kelvin explained, I think this is it: the Dharma scientists were studying the island's electromagnetic properties and performing experiments on it. They messed up and created the button-pushing scenario. If the button wasn't pushed, the EM force would become destructive. They wanted to continue studying the properties without correcting the mistake. Pushing the button allowed them to do this. Turning the failsafe key corrected the mistake, and now things on the island are as they once were.
I think.
I could be wrong.
I have had four vodka tonics and nothing to eat.
No, I'm kidding...
...but about what?
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So, the way I understand this...
*the island was as it is now
*dharma scientists wanted to study the electromagnetism
*dharma scientists did "something" that (concentrated?) the force?
*something happened
*EM force so strong it will now be destructive. two options: cancel experiment and return things to way they were or push button every 108 minutes to discharge the EM
*they pushed the button so they could continue their experiment
*desmond turned key when computer broke
*island returned to "normal"
so....i don't understand why dharma couldn't study the island as is....as it was...as it is now. And I don't understand what this "accident" is that Gregg's referring to. Or was it an experiment and not an accident. Did they concentrate the EM force? Hmm....
Re: Differences between pushing button and turning key
Good questions. It's confusing, but here's my understanding:
-DHARMA did something to concentrate the EM or manipulate the fields in certain areas. There was, as Kelvin put it, "a leak" -- I think this was the "incident" Candle refers to in the Orientation film. I think that it killed people and possibly destroyed some of the DHARMA stations. They wanted to continue the experiements they were doing, and the experiments used the electromagnetism (maybe Cerberus was one of them), so they cobbled together a band-aid solution: the button-pushing protocol, which released an amount of EM every 108 minutes and prevented it from building up or bottlenecking. The Swan became a station used just for this protocol, so whatever they were doing elsewhere must have been pretty important. So now, with the failsafe releasing the built-up EM all at once and also destroying the Swan and the check and balance mechanism, the island has been returned to the pre-DHARMA state, which would also have a detrimental effect on the experiments, were they still continuing (I think they were or Kelvin would have turned the failsafe years ago).
Does that seem to make sense?
Re: Differences between pushing button and turning key
Yes, I think it has been explained pretty much the same way I understood it.
Just to reiterate, as explained by the great Gregg Nations himself:-
1) The island was discovered to have unusual Electromagnetic properties;
2) Dharma scientists used the island's properties to conduct experiments;
3) During the course of these experiments, something happened to make the
electromagneticity unstable;
4) The scientists had a way to return the island to its original state but, rather than do
this, they wanted to continue with experiments with the island as it was;
5) To prevent disaster, they created the button which, when pushed every 108
minutes, discharged the electromagnetic charge that built up;
6) The fail-safe key was a permanent solution. Turning this returned the island to it's
original state.
7) The scientists would prefer not to turn the fail-safe as experiments were easier to
conduct with the island 'unstable'.
and
and 