More Than You Want to Know?

Traditional narrative was about a linear beginning, middle and end, says Ryan. "But the narrative of the Internet is associative and non-linear." Instead of watching a complicated story unfold, users can hop around seeking specific puzzle pieces. "It encourages the bottom line. It's about who wins, who loses, and what's on the island."

What worries Ryan are the implications of that bottom line: "If we can't even wait to see what happens next week on a show, what does it say about our abilities to live our lives in the not knowing? Because for that, we don't really have an option."

"It does say something about human nature and instant gratification," concedes Jon Lachonis, who created the popular Web site TheTailSection.com. But, he argues, his interest in "Lost" is more social. "Whatever the mystery du jour is, there's a real communal approach to talking about them."

Ben Sledge, a graphic designer who runs Lost.cubit.net, views sites like his as part of a massive scavenger hunt, with participants trading tips and whispers even as they jostle for position as top "Lost" banana.

Sledge estimates that he spends 15-20 hours a week tracking "Lost" theories, which puts him (and the similarly dedicated Lachonis) on a different playing field from the average Lostie.

Fans of this caliber do not just predict. Fans of this caliber know. They have cultivated contacts in the business -- production assistants or the like who slip them four, five episodes in advance. They have managed to bypass the communal predictions and just find out what happens.

Now there's an elegant answer to the agony of the search: Stop it. Stop the searching. Stop, and know, and move on.

After months of wasting all of your free time obsessively trading predictions with friends, and visiting spoiler sites to read other people's grasping theories, you decide that you want to know. You contact the founder of a major Web site and make this pledge: You don't need to tell anyone what you know. You don't need to reveal who told you what you know. You just want to know.

You're not even worried, despite dynamic inconsistency, about ruining future episodes for yourself: For guidance, you've contacted a Carnegie Mellon professor who studies TV viewing experiences. Joachim Vosgerau's experiments have shown that "spoiled" viewers can actually enjoy broadcasts as much as unspoiled ones -- they just focus more on the journey than on the outcome.

Still, the "Lost" guru hesitates to reveal any information. He is afraid of compromising his contacts, but he also knows the irrevocability of the decision.

"Are you sure?" he asks.

You can't un-know what happens.