Pop Culture's Time Travel Theories: Lost And Primer Explained With Pokemon

Today, I had a discussion about the movie Primer with a friend over Facebook. I had watched Primer for the first time last night and, while enjoying the plot, I was even more intrigued by the time travel theory presented throughout the movie. My friend was confused with how this was different from the time travel theories of Lost, so I decided to not only explain the differences between Lost and Primer, I'd also throw in Star Trek and Heroes and explain it using Pokemon action figures.


Lost - Whatever Happened, Happened

Daniel Faraday, the time studying physicist of Lost, explains to the characters that "Whatever happened is going to happen and we cannot change that." Further, Daniel explains that you can go back in time, and the past you are experiencing as your present is their present. You can die going back in the past because you are experiencing the present. However, characters in the past cannot die, because that all has already happened, unless it was supposed to happen. Here, we have Charmander meeting Jolteon in a battle. We are currently in present time, 2010. Then...

Bam! The superior Venusaur kills Jolteon. Jolteon is dead, he is no more. Since Jolteon was the friend who always came over when you did not want him to ever come over, Charmander and Venusaur decide that they want to get rid of him in the past - 1980 - so that they never have to deal with him again. However, as Lost explains....

Whatever happened, happened. Even if Venusaur and Charmander were not born in 1980, Jolteon experiences them as his present. Jolteon will always survive this attack, because he was alive in 2010. He also experienced this in 1980. He experienced two time travelers coming back in time from 2010, before they were born, to attack them. Jolteon will always survive, he will always be friends with Charmander and Venusaur, and he will always be betrayed by them in 2010. However...

They can both die in 1980. 1980 is their present. "Time is like a string. You can move forwards and backwards, but you can never make a new string." For the duo, they will always survive up to 2010, they will always go back in time before they were born to 1980, and they will always die by the barbaric, teething feline.




Primer - Reverse Engineering A Perfect Moment

Primer suggests that time travel can only exist for as long as the technology has existed. Furthermore, you can only travel for as long as the box runs and you are in "the box" (noted as "Time Travel Box" in the picture). With this idea, the curious, mischief-driven feline puts the Pokemon in the box for 12 hours. What this means is, when they run it at 10 A.M.,  they will come out at 10 A.M. if they leave the box 12 hours later. Their original selves will exist in the normal timeline, but they will experience themselves as doubles 12 hours behind - in Primer, they use this to cheat the stock market and intervene on events in their lives, since they knew before going in the box what stock rose the highest and what happened that day.

They exist from the box, knowing what's going to happen that day. They are now "Charmander2, Jolteon2, Marill2, and Venusaur2." They experience themselves as they are at 10 A.M., as the devil cat intended. They know everything that is going to happen that day - they know that stocks will rise a certain amount, and they can see themselves going about their day. If Jolteon were to go home at 11 A.M., he would see himself playing Parasite Eve still. So...

Venusaur2, mad that he had to naturally evolve because Charmander lost the rare candy, uses a pair of screwdrivers and kills Charmander2 while Jolteon2 and Marill2 are too busy paying attention to playing SkiFree (yes, that really is SkiFree running). Charmander1 still exists. However, there's a twist!

Venusaur2 thought he killed Charmander2, but since Charmander2 wanted to kill Venusaur2, he baited Charmander1 into taking his place at the SkiFree competition and watched. Once Jolteon and Marill get distracted and start lurking in the 4chan forums, Charmander2 steps in...

...traps them inside a set of cups...

...kidnaps Venusaur2 with "escape rope..."

...and drowns Venusaur2. Since Charmander2 knew what was going to happen later that day, knew where Venusaur1 would be, and Venusaur2 is unable to warn Venusaur1 what happen since he inhaled water...

...Charmander2 ends Venusaur1's sight seeing trips and pushes him into the garbage disposal.










I hope this clears things up. Special thanks to the cat for cooperating.

RE: Video Games Were Invented By The Devil

http://themomblog.freedomblogging.com/2009/12/27/video-games-were-invented-by-the-devil/42149/

When I was only three years old, I taught myself to read. That's right. Guess how I did it? Video games. I had shared a room with my brothers and watched them play games all of the time. Eventually, I figured out that when I would manipulate the controller, the character would react accordingly on-screen. My brother had a subscription to Nintendo Power and he would leave the games he was playing on, as well as have a controller diagram in the issue opened up and laying out on the floor. I learned that A made Mario jump, and I learned to associate "jump" with leaping in the air. Obviously, there are many applicable examples to this, but the bottom line here is that my parents had to do little work in the teaching department, thanks to video games.


"Frumpy Middle-aged Mom," which is the safe term for "Soccer Mom," states, with a tall, tall glass of ignorance, that children cannot effectively think if they play video games. Any child who plays a video game turns into a zombie that cannot get away from the game.


I'd like to first point out the humorous - she states that Isaac Newton would have been playing a DS if he had one, and thus would not have noticed the apple falling from the tree. Aside from the fact that I am sure he would have noticed the effects of dropping his DS, her argument is false because the apple story is a myth. He discovered the laws of gravity by developing basic rudimentary laws of motion that coincided with gravity.


To toss a blanket statement on games is pure ignorance and faulty logic for someone writing for the OC Register. I have a good amount of gamer friends who are excellent problem solvers, analytical thinkers, and extremely social people. They seem to be doing pretty fine. I developed my interest in computer science because I was a gamer. I was fixing computers by the time I was 7, and wrote my first BASIC computer program by age 9. I know many stories like this where people had developed a fascination in their career because of video games - I'd go so far as to say that the people who wrote her blogging code likely had a gamer on staff.


Not only does she accuse video games of being problematic, but her research is clearly flawed as well. Has anyone ever marketed Grand Theft Auto to be a "socially conscious educational game?" Grand Theft Auto IV was never meant to be educational. The game uses crime as a story telling device, with themes of betrayal, greed, power, etc. Many stories before Grand Theft Auto were not only graphically worse, but contained similar themes. If the parent in the story that she cited is concerned that the child is playing Grand Theft Auto, here is some basic parenting advice: don't buy it in the first place.


Furthermore, she states that, because she read all of the time, she was able to "actually learning stuff about the world, in a way today's kids never will. I was also learning to think creatively, spell and build my vocabulary to the point that I was able to get a job as a professional writer, where people pay me to ride on fire engines, go on ride-alongs with cops and insult the makers of video games." I refuse to sink to her level and write her off based on stereotypes of people who read, but feel that her position needs to be attacked.


Kids playing videos games learn things about the world in a way you never will, Soccer Mom. They learned problem solving by figuring out one of the insane logic puzzles in the Professor Layton series. They developed teamwork by learning how to capture the flag effectively in Modern Warfare 2. They developed social skills playing Left 4 Dead. They were inspired to pick up the drums after developing their rhythm skills on Rock Band. They learned how to tell a story and learn the various philosophical viewpoints, hit the deepest emotions, and connected with characters in story heavy games like Final Fantasy, Shadow Of The Colossus, and Uncharted 2. A commenter even states that his daughter is a web design student because she learned how to write HTML because of Petz. I developed my love for writing because I wanted to tell a story that weaved so many parallel ideas together like Metal Gear Solid. I developed how to plan ahead and utilize available resources because of StarCraft. I was able to develop a quick mind because of hours upon hours playing Tetris. I, as well as many others, learned in ways you never will as well.


The problem seems to me that she, like many parents, love to take credit when they do something right (my kids play outside), but when they fail, they blame the external agents. Honestly, any parent who simply cannot evaluate what their children are doing and fail to step in to turn off a video game to the point where they resort to calling 911 needs to re-evaluate their methodology of parenting. Everything and anything can be abused to extremes. Alcohol, reading, internet, movies, sports, eating, television, sleeping, you name it, it is suspect to abuse. Blame the parent, not the agents. 


Change is also an agent of fear to parents of her type. Books were banned because people assumed that they were inventions by the devil - people were burned over this viewpoint. Books were looked at as nothing but propaganda by the devil, and anyone who read them diluted their own intelligence. Funny that, years later, books are seen as one of the highest mediums of educational intake. Change is brewing, and video games are becoming a relevant medium. They are the next rock and roll, the next Elvis Presley, the next violent movie - the current scapegoat to blame for bad parenting.


Soccer Mom, if you ever read this, I hope that you reconsider your position on video games. I highly doubt you will, but you must know that for every argument, you must research the other side. Many of your statistics are bloated and/or wrong, your research is faulty, and your arguments are built on faulty towers of paper logic. Learn to look at yourself and blame yourself for your parenting mistakes instead of other external items, and stop making blanket statements over subjects you have clearly put little research into.

Best Games of 2009

16) Wii Sports Resort

15) Torchlight

14) Plants Vs. Zombies

13) Dragon Age: Origins

12) New Super Mario Bros. Wii

11) The Beatles: Rock Band

10) Machinarium

9) Assassin's Creed II

8) Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

7) Punch-Out!!

6) Shadow Complex

5) Street Fighter IV

4) Resident Evil IV

3) DJ Hero

2) Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

1) Demon's Souls

I cannot speak highly enough about this game. Demon's Souls is now one of my all time favorite games ever made and I have no problem saying that statement. This game has given me hope in the RPG genre that I believed was near death. Demon's Souls is also one of the most difficult games I have played in my long gaming career (this is harder than Contra - I said it). Every battle in the game has meaning, and every enemy refuses to go down without a fight. Many times, I have caught myself thinking I could whisk through parts of the game, only to find myself dead at the hands of enemies I believed to be "easy."

Demon's Souls rewards patience and offers zero compromises to the player. You will die in this game, and you will die a lot. When you do, you start all the way back at the beginning of the level. No checkpoints here. You also lose all your souls, which is the game's currency, and all of the enemies that you killed are repopulated. The game does not fail when you die - all of your deaths are your fault and your fault only. But if you stick with it, you will literally be trained by the sheer amount of attempts taken to defeat the level, and the experience of defeating just a single boss is extremely rewarding. If you're connected online, you might find a note that a player left behind that gives you tips on how to pass through. You can even summon others into games to co-op a boss battle, or even have someone end up on the other side of the battle as a Black Phantom.

The game plays like an action RPG, but feels so much more like a survival horror game - dark dungeons and hallways are illuminated only by the light around your avatar, silence leads to a swift death moments later, and sounds in the distance alert you that you are probably facing death when you enter the next room. The world of Boletaria is bleeding with death, certain to remind you that you will be part of the blood that pours out of itself, but given time, the bleeding becomes beauty, and the 30 attempts you give one level goes beyond compelling. Repetition, in the negative sense, does not exist in this world; only death offers up negatives, and if you can surpass death, the reward is far greater than any game can offer this year.

I cannot recommend this game enough to anyone who is willing to push through the pain, because once you do, you unravel one of the best gaming experiences you'll ever have. Atlus, be proud for creating one of the best games in a long time.

Didn't play, but wish I did (and will, in 2010): Little King's Story, Flower, Silent Hill: Shattered Memories, Might And Magic: Clash Of Heroes, House Of The Dead: Overkill