The fine structure constant is defined by the universe, whereas the duration of a second is arbitrarily defined by scientists and has no significance to the universe. Therefore 137 seconds is insignificant.

I am finding FlashForward barely tolerable. I find the mystery intriguing, but every other aspect of the show is so very mediocre.

And I'm not one of these hates-everything-angry-nerd types, either. It has really poor writing, terrible use of music and very bad camerawork. I would much rather just rewatch Lost. Season 3 of Lost. *Shudder*

Please let it not be aliens, or worse, angels! I do like the idea of this being a test Flash Forward and that someone is trying to prevent a worldwide catastrophe years into the future. Hopefully this can be done without getting preachy. BTW, terrible promo pic poses Fiennes and Cho!

I like the kangaroo theory, but only because I think it'll play itself out as sign or symbol of things. Similar to seeing a wolf during the travels of Dr. Who (that is the British Sci-Fi show I'm thinking about right? lol.)

BTW why no Retweet feature?
#SGU SGU

J.

She did it. They should have listened.

Beware of the kangaroo.

This week's preview showed someone claiming to know why it happened and in the scene he threw a book about bird migration onto a table. I think what caused it was the north and south pole swapping places, which will mess up bird migration. How this affects time or why it only takes 137 seconds is anyone's guess.

Just an idle thought...

If we're really seeing six months into the future, wouldn't the most likely thing to see in most people's visions would be a whiteboard filled with Dos and Don'ts for the next six months? I mean, everybody would know it's coming, almost everybody would strive to stay awake, etc.

If they are talking about bird migration and the 137 seconds, they are referring to the poles switching and screwing up the earth's magnetic field. For a further explanation, watch the first 15 minutes of The Core

Speaking of the kangaroo, was only human consciousness supposedly affected?

@spacechampion - uh, no. The fine 'constant' is not inviolable, and a second is merely a measure of time, which is marginally flexible in context (spacetime), but hardly arbitrary. For any one setting, shuch as the planet Earth, the numbers are consistant and, therefore, valid and relevant (though perhaps not for the plot of this particular TV show).

The advertisers did it. 137 seconds is the minimum amount of time for a commercial break with station identification.

The man in the stadium is one of many people, all from 6 months in the future, who have come back in time to head off an end-of-life event. Their arrival caused the blackout -- but they knew it would.

In fact, some of our heroes are going to be among those that come back in time. There are two of them now.

Thanks for including my take on the possible explanations for the "black out". The premise of my theory is based entirely on the fact that more "black outs" take place, so I guess we'll find out soon. However I really like the kangaroo theory!! Its intriguing :))
137 seems to be a big part of the story, and I made a couple of predictions regarding this number, check out my blog entry for further details:
http://murdon.wordpress.com/2009/10/02/flashforward-137-and-bioprogrammers/

ok ill throw out my 2 coppers, what if, that this is an edge of a paradox? were seeing the ripple affect of things going wrong as others try and race to correct them? as the series goes forward we are gona be hit by more flashes a if the possiblities come closer to working or ultimaly failure? i like what kevin said that those who are suspects are those trying to solve the problem. and possibly creating it?
time travel phenom has really been popular. its not to unbelieveable to think if they could try and get awaywith it on a world wide scale. im not sure but that is my take on this series.

What suprises me is that people see events from several months in the future. Yet, no one has tried to avoid aspects of that future from becoming reality.
Like the friendship-bracelet for the main character.
Can they even change their own future in whatever small aspect, or are they destined to run a prepared course.
Pre-determination vs free-will.
What will it be?

perry i think they were trying that to some small extent on 2nd show bracelt got tossed into fire at the home towards the end ..

Acts 2:17 says: 'In the last days, God says,
I will pour out my Spirit on all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy,
your young men will see visions,
your old men will dream dreams.

In the first episode, the length of time quoted was 2min17sec. Now they have shifted to 137 seconds.

What if another Hadron Collider or some sort of machine has been built in Austraila, and gives people a look into the future, but gave everyone in the world a view six months into the future. I'll contiue next post.

Six months into the future something wrong must occur, and they rewire the machine to send living subjects into the past. Like a test subject: the kangaroo. The people still awake durring the 2:17 period are from the future. Next Post.

In the last episode, it showed the fake D. Gibbon guy say something about repeating the mistakes that cause the future. I can't remember his exact words, but I'm sure this guy is expecting something bad to repeat. Next Post.

I'm not sure all the people from the future are good. The FBI guy's daughter said D. Gibbon's was a bad man. So, maybe they're the bad guys. Many theories. Some good. Others . . . Next Post.

I'm sure time must be repeating in some endless loop, and I'm expecting the show to move to Austrailia for a few of episodes.

I wonder about the show - if the flash forward is only six months ahead in the future, what happens in S2-S7 with their plans. If they would like seven seasons and have a plan for it, there will need to be more flash forwards, because people will become bored in S2 and S3 if they're still trying to solve S1E1 flash forward.
But I do like the show.

I think it was two alternate realities that somehow smashed together like two bubbles colliding... that's what caused the initial blackout and the visions of themselves with a "different" future. They were seeing themselves in this other world. The kangaroo and person walking around may have come from the other world or reality and was somehow thrown into this world that we are veiwing things from.

Brannon Braga is a producer on the show and is obsessed with throwing time travel and anomlies in all his work.

I did it! I admit it! I planned to see the future six months from now and intend to spend that time collecting winning lottery numbers so I can spend that time memorizing as many as I can!

Now to write down...

Wait! What were those numbers again? I know there was a two in there...

The numerical value of the Hebrew word Kabbalah has the value of 137

we think it being a planned event is the most logical explanation

">FlashForward: Was the Blackout Planned?

we think it being a planned event is the most logical explanation

">FlashForward: Was the Blackout Planned?

Although the "Kangaroo did it" theory seems very plausible, I might have a more comprehensive answer. http://murdon.wordpress.com/

Given the writers and producers penchent for misdirection these days, what if the title of the show is misleading? What if rather than flashing forward, people are actually going BACK, retaining only a small snapshot of their previous memories? Why and how they are doing this is what could be unfolding (perhaps it's so humanity might have a second chance?).

Isn't speculation wonderful!

Apparently there are 22 episodes at the moment. I suspect that the final episode will be transmitted on or shortly after April 29 or April 30, 2010 allowing for Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year intermissions. Neat coincidence or what!?

Food for thought... They're stuck in a loop. Each season starts on Oct 6 2009, but with an altered future because, with each loop, their actions have changed because their visions have changed. They just need to figure out how to stop it because each jump back to Oct 6 grows steadily worse, but each memory of the "future" is longer.

I dont think the show revolves around time travel at all i think it is a group of people wo have ganged to gather over the years maybe scientists or somethin and have planned and created this somehow?

I think there will be a correlation between some event that actually happened in the world on the day the show premiered, and the show's story line. Need to run a search and see what happened that day.

If I had a flash forward to 10pm, April 30th from about the time I woke up on that day of my flash forward I would be UBER-aware of my actions. Ex: Airport security guy now KNOWS that in his future he will be checking in the German that he saw in his flash forward. Wouldn't they both just greet eachother as old chaps if they knew it was coming on the actual day of the flash forward? Instead they act as if they have never met. In the future portrayed in the mass flash forward people aren't aware that they have arrived at the time of the flash forward....

2 Wacky Theories, you were warned:

- Either Future Mark or Future Dimitri Who Somehow Survived, is Suspect Zero.

- On that other theory site, someone posted this:

Book of Acts: Chatper 2 Verse 17: ‘In the last days, God says,
I will pour out my Spirit on all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy,
your young men will see visions,
your old men will dream dreams.

What if that's actually more true than just a Bible reference?

The young (kids like Charlie) prophesise by seeing info about important events, people or things ("D Gibbons is a bad man" "I had a bad dream. I dreamt there were no more good days")

The bulk of us (older kids> younger adults) saw visions of our own futures at a fixed date 6 months from now.

Older men and very-older men saw their most heartfelt dreams or hopes come to life (Mark's pal saw his very-much-dead daugher alive in a fire-lit out-of-focus afterlife-esque place - even though we know she's buried)

I shoud have noted that Chaper 2 Verse 17 = 2:17, the length of the blackout (no, it's not just a random bible reading ;))

The fine structure constant is approximately 1/137, but as others have noted, it does not have units of seconds. However, the team who set off the effect could have chosen the duration based on the fine structure constant, or the Bible verse, or the Hebrew word, anything else, just to throw people off.

The man saw his daughter lying down. She had lost her legs in an explosion, and those were the only "remains" returned for burial. He mentioned earlier that they only weighed 37 pounds.

The time travel is the most likely, I think, of all the possibilities. I think the kangaroo is just to throw people off. It was being transported from one zoo to another when the blackout happened. The vehicle crashed and the kangaroo escaped.
Something happens in the future. We dont know what yet, but people are being sent back in time to try and stop it. John Cho was not in the vehicle after the flash forward because he was one of the people that traveled back in time. He did not die he was wearing a bullet proof vest, but the person that did the shooting got away. That person (D Gibbon) has something to do with whatever future event he is trying to stop. D gibbon is not responsible for the flash forward but instead is responisible for the event that the time travelers are trying to stop. since time travel is possible the future many people are trying to travel back to this time to try and change events. each time someone travels a flash forward to that time in the furutre occurs. I suspect later episodes will take place in these future times. The guy who's kid is in the hospital and marks wife sees herself with (forgot his name) is the physicist studying quantum mechanics that discovers how to to travel in time and his experiments are what caused the unknown future event that D gibbons is responible for.

I believe the kangaroo is simply symbolic for the science, and we have now found for sure the experiment, that is going on here. Do some research on Quantum Physics if you do not know the basic premise. I don't know the exact numbers and rules, but I'll give a short example to show what I mean.

You expect kangaroos to be in only a select few places. Australia, and territories with similar climates, or the zoo. However, the theory goes on to explain that just once, even with such minute chances (ridiculously low odds) that the kangaroo will be somewhere else, perhaps on a street, or bedroom.

There are so many theories here that are not in fact right or wrong, but make sense when seen collectively (no pun intended).

Crows, magnetism, quantum physics, an experiment, Shrodinger's cat, so on and so forth, all connect to physics and the time-space continuum.

I don't have a complete theory yet, but at least we have a good direction.

I'm liking the time loop idea. I believe we will (if the show stays on the air) see two or more opposing groups working to clear all this up. We might even see the same person from another time/possible future working against "himself."

Anything is possible inside "the box". We can, like the Dr. S's cat, be both dead and alive.

If its like the book its (based upon CERN) & a beam from a pulsar that created the black out, with the future date in place we have the end of the beams passage through space.
How ever we have been told by the end of episode 3 or 4 or 5 (I cant remember) that it was man made. So I dont think its going to follow the book entirely. The quantum physics angle is promising but also aload of old rubbish too.
Schrodengers cat is mearly metaphor as to what and how quantum physics works.

Its an experiment in mind control, using a frequency modulation device that uses all modern communications as its carrier wave that knocks us all out and we see the future.
Why? to see if we could.
Susinct and brilliant.
Have you ever had a power cut at night and did you hear that background humming drone dissapear... makes you think doesnt it.
Its mind control using the stuff we use everyday radio waves... all the way...

The Kangaroo was a Kadaitcha man in his spirit form. He caused the world to experience a new dreamtime warning of the future if people don't change their ways.

That makes as much sense as anything yet put forward (and considerably more than the Rapture idea).

Alternative pseudo-scientific theory - mini Flash Forwards are continually happening in a localised fashion all the time (deja vu... premonitions.. that kind of thing), due to time not being an immutable factor, but something that can be affected by gravitational fields and near light speeds. The Earth passed through a gravity anomaly associated with a dark matter/dark energy interaction caused by random clumping.

I think there's a reason they keep bringing up quantum physics. He says that anything (for example, the future) isn't decided until it has been observed. Well, now the future has been observed...does that mean that it is now set in stone? Even though the agent supposedly killed himself I think so.

Also, I think Mark wrote "who else knows?" during his flashforward in relation to Jericho's corruption. They're coming to kill him because of his new knowledge from last week's episode. His worry that no one will ever find out may also mean that everyone else who currently knows will be dead or captured. I don't know what Jericho wants or how they're connected to the rest of the story, but they now seem to be a very important part. maybe they're behind the blackouts somehow?

To speak of the significance of 2:17 also being from that particular verse in the bible and what is actually said: God Said, ‘that I will pour out my Spirit on all people, and your sons and your daughters will prophesy, and your young men will see visions, and your old men will dream dreams. And I can agree with the relation with the results of the blackout towards specific characters in the show.
Also we see that 2min 37 seconds as 137 seconds and the significance of the number 137 in the Kabbalah code, which is equal to the combined value of the words chochmah, "wisdom," (73) and nevuah, "prophecy," (64).
If you were to research on the significance of 137 in relation to this code then it explains how physicists can use this dimensionless structure in number to make accurate predictions, and Kabballah seeks to channel divine light through the to the denser areas of thought.
I was quite intrigued when I found this out and I can easily relate to divine thought. My research only helped me clarify what I was thinking – to know the names and processes to what I already knew in fractions.
Now, let me try and explain my possibly objective theory of how this blackout was caused and why 2:17 seconds (137) has is significance.
Firstly, a lot of biblical scriptures, as well as other religions are personifications of the world’s natural characteristics and physical law (anyone watched any of the zeitgeist movies?’. A lot of these numbers and calculations were hidden in stories, parables and riddles for the most enlightened to decode, overcome and see it in its original form – it’s source of influence and seeing beyond the distraction.
Numbers have been used to help to measure these characteristics and atomic structures and over the years, scientists have developed understandings and have tried to re-create or harness these natural characteristics. They have worked out that the earth is like one giant, continuous equation of atomic movements and development, and will continue to function this way with or without human intervention. Scientists have developed ways to manipulate or ‘mimic’ a natural atomic formation but not to the perfection of nature itself. They cannot create an atom or anything like it as firstly they are in need of ‘existing’ material to perform such thing. Why so you think a scientific experiment can easily go wrong in comparison to natural formation and equation? Yes scientists and physicists have found that the numbers are the closest thing to help measure these natural laws, but as nature’s actions being so infinitive, it is hard to keep up and get something to be as accurate as possible to match up to nature’s perfections. Cloning is another example of this, taking years of trial and error to get to the closest possible to what is naturally achieved. Trying to recreate a big bang by making atoms travel at a near to light speed and collide –obviously it’s a scary issue, and can our resources we have today harness such event if they were to re-create it fully, at the EXACT same speed of light? The people performing these experiments do live in fear as they cannot match up to the infinitive behaviour of natural law.
The code of kabbalah was used in this film due the non-dimensional 137 and this would possibly be the portal used as part of the experiment to make predictions through thought.
I believe that the experiment was along the lines of Einstein’s theory of the bending of light. And to dwell on my divine thought, I can understand the relation to how light it magnified through binoculars and we can physically ‘foresee’ things before the naked eye will visualise.
I believe that the experiment had amplified the speed of light and I cannot believe that it was physical time travel as our bodies being exposed to such speeds of travel will kill us as our structures are clearly not designed to survive such activity. However, us humans have the ability to see without our eyes being physically open, our thoughts and visions happen a lot faster than the time we are physically travelling in. Our thought processes travel at amazing speeds. These things are part answers to why our dreams seem to cover hours or events, over a few minutes, predominantly during the R.E.M stage of sleep.
The experiment in flash-forward went wrong, causing chaos in the physical world as the 137 structure had cancelled out human physical activity as the enormous power of the amplified light through the mind had prevented the brain activity from its subconscious everyday abilities – like being hypnotized or put into a trance-like state.
Humans were exposed to this frequency and each second of 137 was used to generate this dimensionless structure and multiply this light amplification to see into light distance six months ahead, which helped to promote the most accurate predictions with the motive of people having the ability to co-ordinate their future if their vision had resulted in a bad product in relation to their current factors.

I can’t explain why certain people were still walking around unaffected by the blackout, but I believe it has something to do with the rings I saw in one of the episodes being returned to some guy and the fact that the guy seen in the stadium was wearing one of them.
I watched the episode on Monday 30th November to see that Simon was being questioned by the FBI about an instrument used as part of the experiment and there were 5 of them placed in pentagonal formation. He questioned how they got hold of that picture, assuming that it was an advanced decode of image through numbers, but the FBI revealed that it was an actual picture taken in 1999.
So there has been a chain of flash forwards before for someone to discover Simon’s invention? Well if that was the case then the invention must have already existed to do so. The experimental machine may have generated light to travel in both directions to emit reverse time travel for someone to have the vision of Simon producing this invention, therefore being produced at an earlier time and was kept hidden so when he designed such thing, he could easily be held responsible and then believe it will not happen again, when there is an exact duplicate of the instrument. This concludes now to whether it was planned or an experimental ‘cock-up’. Unless I can be convinced that people were actually physically travelling through time, which would be too much of an easy answer to the mystery based on the complexity of the show…… But who knows, it could be a lot more simple than we think and the audience may have been stripped of their objective way of thinking due to the promotion of empathising with the characters in the story…..