Lost numbers explained! (possibly) Major Spoiler !

WARNING!!! The rest of this post MIGHT contain the secret of the LOST numbers. Im not sure yet but it certainly seems to fit in with the plot. If you don't want to know close this window NOW and vote Atomix for BTS coucil!
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


SPOILER ALERT!!!






Okay the numbers are 4 8 15 16 23 42

Now these numbers are part of an equation called 'Genetic Miror theory' Where everyone in the world has a twin.

You are connected to your mirror (twin) through 4 people. For instance you know your twin through your wife's cousin's friend's neighbour etc.

You can only meet your mirror on the 8th continent. Which was calculated to be somewhere in the south pacific. Smaller than the other 7.

The 15 stands for the chances of you acually meeting yourself on this place, as in 15 out of 4,815,162,342. Look at the second set "815."

The 16 stands for the maximum amount of people that could encounter thier twin all at the same time.

The 23 is the number of years apart from your twin you are. It takes about 23 years for the genes that made you to form again to make another you.

The 42 is the number of years you and your twin can be alive for at the same time. Except people die at different times so its calculated by chance and probability.

This theory was devised in 1988 by a French Mathematician named Marseille Roussau. I didn't want to put this in the other LOST thread because if people are discussing the show there they might accidently read this and ruin the greatest show of the year for themselves. Atomix for BTS council!





[edit on 25/9/05 by Atomix]

[edit on 27-9-2005 by John bull 1]

Interesting Atomix. The thing is though, when I search on Google or Wikipedia the only things that come up on Marseille Roussau and the Genetic Mirror theories are all Lost related. There's no independent site verifying all this. I personally think it's a red herring planted by the writers. But nevertheless, very interesting and I can't wait for the next episode.



[edit on 25/9/05 by D]

I personally think it's a red herring planted by the writers

Bing Bing Bing!!! I think you've got it. Since I'm currently attending college, and have access to a very large number of academic databases though, I'll see if anything comes up on the names in a search, just for s's and g's...hmmm?

EDIT:

Ok, I've searched EBSCO, InfoTrac, and ProQuest, and not one single hit, and that's searching the entire article text. We're talking thousands of scholarly journals here. If this person were a published mathematician, there would be SOMETHING in there.... I think you've found a red herring....

[edit on 26-9-2005 by Gazrok]

well...

the theory (or one that says the same thing) is one that i have heard before...

i heard about this theory on the show "CSI"...

Originally posted by Gazrok


Ok, I've searched EBSCO, InfoTrac, and ProQuest, and not one single hit, and that's searching the entire article text. We're talking thousands of scholarly journals here. If this person were a published mathematician, there would be SOMETHING in there.... I think you've found a red herring....

[edit on 26-9-2005 by Gazrok]

It's definitely a red herring. I've been lookign around and a lot of Lost forums have been flooded with the theory.

The names that are related to real life people are interesting and you've probably come across these before:

John Locke and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, for whom the characters John Locke and Danielle Rousseau are named, were both famous social contract philosophers who dealt with the relationship between nature and civilization. Locke believed that, in the state of nature, all men had equal right to punish transgressors; to ensure fair judgment for all, governments were formed to better administrate the laws. Rousseau, on the other hand, argued that man was born weak and ignorant, but virtuous. Only after man develops society does he become wicked. This is paralleled by the characters on Lost: Locke embraces both nature and the need for organization among the survivors, while Rousseau prefers nature and appears to abhor joining the survivors in their village.

Taken from Wikipedia

[edit on 26/9/05 by D]

I love LOST, but it's really an amalgamation of PREY and SPHERE by Michael Crichton, and told with the story construct of Shakespeare's THE TEMPEST.

Locke is based on philosopher John Locke, a wandering philosopher who orchestrated the RYE HOUSE PLOT, an attempt to assassinate King Charles the II, and his brother, the Duke of York, because of their new found adherence to Absolutism.

In a broader sense, John Locke was theoligcally Latitudinarian - That God cares more about the state of an individual man's soul, rather than the state of the society that he belongs to. Society, in Locke's case, that was nearly always governed by the church.

To put it in a different way, Latitudinarianism was practiced by the Cambridge Platonists, who rallied against "scientific rationalists", like Thomas Hobbes, who tried to explain away God's role in the universe through science and phsyics and experiments.

Instead, the Cambridge Platonists believed that our five senses were unreliable indicators to where reality ultimately begins and ends. That an echo of God is born within every man, and it's his job to search for it within using reason and strategy. Cunning and guile.

So, the crux of the series is really based on the ideological conflict between John Locke - the ultimate metaphysical, non conformist - and Thomas Hobbes - the ultimate scientific rationalist - as indicated in the series as the conflict between John Locke and Dr. Jack respectively.

A man of faith vs. a man of science.

Now, take all that and mix it with Shakespeare's THE TEMPEST, or to be more precise, the movie version THE FORBIDDEN PLANET. In which a group of people arrive on a long since forgetten planet, where another ship crashed, and the crew lost twenty years before.

They find the sole survivor of the expedition, DR. MORBIUS, who tells the the newcomers that an unseen, unknown force wiped out his entire party, leaving only himself and his daughter alive. (His wife kicked the bucket on her own).

Personally, I think we'll see the FORBIDDEN PLANET story arc begin to play out over the second season. At first I thought Rosseau was Morbius, but now I think the newly introduced Desmond is Morbius.

Eventually, Morbius shows the ship's captain (In this case Jack and Locke) and the remains of a dead civilization - the planets former inhabitants. They built a self replicating and self repairing defensive system underground. (The black smoke, the chain monster that tried to drag Locke underground, and the stomping creature that ate the pilot)

The newcomers are attacked by an invisible force, that appears in various different forms to various different people. Only to realize, at the end of the film, that the previous civilization was wiped out by their own creation. A type of machine (Maybe the island itself) that can materialize into physical form that hidden and subconscious fears from deep within their IDs.

In the case of the series: Locke being able to walk. The Polar Bear from Walt's comic book suddenly coming to life. The airplane with Charlie's heroin. All these things happened when the survivors of the plane creash interacted with the island itself. In THE FORBIDDEN PLANET, the ID monster came out when the newcomers interacted with a giant machine.

In the first episode of the second season, Walt appears in a dream. He says something, but if you play it backwards, he's actually saying something about "Push the button". I would imagine that our survivors will encounter a type of machine, and someone will have a choice to turn it on, only to result disasterous consequences.

The third storyline occuring within LOST, is between WALT and the NEW BABY. One of whom may or may not be THE ANTI CHRIST, or something close. On a broad scale, playing out on the island is a battle between the very forces of light and darkness. More specific, this battle will be fought out between Jack and Locke - neither one good or evil, whom ever sides with each group.

An easier way: DENVER or LAS VEGAS?

With neither side being good nor evil, but instead having faith in science or magic, and each side doing the bidding of both good AND evil.

So, just what exactly in the hell is the island?

Cosmic potpourri

A ley line where all corners of the world meet in the folds of time. A geological abnormality like Stonehenge. Like the Nazca lines. Like the Rocky Mountains. A place where God is afriad to wander. A place of incomprehensible dread and despair, where there is no escape.

Governed by chance, as decreed by the mathmatics of fate.

The numbers are the invisible mechanism that makes things happen to each of the indivudual characters. However unintended, once they each unknowing stumbled into number's design, they became trapped in it.

Whether that mean getting into the number 16 cab. Or renting room number 15. Or taking ordering 42 bagels on the 8th month of the 4th year.
A fold appeared in the fabric of fate.

A three dimensional platonic solid, perfect and inescapable.

Unaware, once they each individually looked behind the fold, the numbers became aware of them, and subsequently has to reset itself. Except, instead of looking behind the curtain and seeing the Wizard of Oz, the survivors of the Oceanic Airways crash saw nothing they could vocalize or even undertstand, and were subsequently checked right out of the known world by the universe itself.

Quarantined from everyone else.

Because the mere knowledge of what they've unknowingly encountered would be enough to rip apart the very frabic of time itself.

At least, that's what I think.

Take one part OMEN, one part FORBIDDEN PLANET, one part EASTER ISLAND and IN SEARCH OF...add some moldy 17th century Philosophers, sprinkle in a dash of ALIAS, and mix it all together with the genius of PAUL DINI

And you have LOST

I knew Locke and Rousseau sounded familiar....that's why!
Something tells me that all of the character names have similar meanings....

LOST is on channel4 tonight! Its Sayids flashbacks! Yay! Also i got out of school early today!!!

Pardon me, but, what's Lost? I keep seeing random posts about the numbers online, or forum avatars.

Edit: I see it is a TV show, but what's this big deal?

[edit on 9/28/2005 by Kalapadea]

Lost was one of the runaway hits of the last season...which is pretty impressive given it's genre...

It's kind of an action/drama/mystery show.

A plane goes thousands of miles off course, crashing on a deserted island. Miraculously, about 40 something people survive, with nothing more than scrapes and bruises for the most part. The numbers are just part of the mystery of the island...which seems to have some kind of creature in the woods (which is BIG), and polar bears (for some odd reason, but likely tied to the kid's comic book). Not to mention, each person has some kind of dark past, even connections to other survivors, etc.

Sounds cool, when's it on? Or rather, what networks? (I rarely watch any TV.)