Richard is not ageless - Locke is the reason!

After seeing the third episode and Richard’s reaction to what Locke was saying about him being from the future, I thought maybe Richard didn’t know about time ravelling. He looked surprised as did Ellie. Now 50 years later, Richard and Ellie (if she is indeed Miss Hawking) and others know about time travelling. Could it be that they know about it because Locke appeared to Richard 50 years before and told him about time travelling? Richard waited 2 years to see john being born and then another few years to test him and he passed the test. Richard was not angry at Locke because he failed the test. He was more agitated because of his finding. Because Locke was always a hunter in the future and he chose the knife. Not the compass that belongs to Richard and not the Book of Laws. The test confirmed time travel. It wasn't to see if Locke is their future leader. Future can’t be changed. If Richard told Locke he is the leader he told him he IS the leader no matter if Locke passes or fails a leadership test. The test was to verify if Locke was indeed someone who travelled in time to the past in his future.

Maybe after this Richard found out about time travel and used it to travel to the future. This means that Richard is not ageless. He was on the island in his true age 50 years back but then he travelled to the future after his encounter with Locke and after he found out about time travelling (maybe another encounter in which Locke tells him how to travel to the future). So Richard first travels to the time that Ben the kid sees him and recruits Ben. Then travels to the time when Dharma is to be purged and after that he stays with Ben and sometimes travels outside of the island or back to past to do things the way they should happen. Widmore and Ellie (if Miss Hawking) age normally because they live their lives to the future with no travelling involved. Miss Hawking becomes the time police to ensure that the little allowed tweaks to the time do not create chain of unwanted events that are necessary for the universe to set itself on the correct course. Widmore either wants to destroy the island because he thinks such island and such power should not exist or wants the power of time travelling to gain even more power.

p.s. Juliet’s remark about Alpert being very old is due to her not knowing about this and only knowing that Richard has had been the leader of the others before Ben.