The Purpose of the Numbers and Questions to Ask by Dr. Joel F.

Jacob tells Hurley that the someone is coming to the island and therefore he needs Hurley to turn the mirror in the lighthouse to help that person get to the island. We learn that each degree on the dial is associated with a name, presumably the "candidates". We learn that the lighthouse provides a window into the off-island lives of these people, either their pasts or perhaps their lives in the parallel timeline. How this magic mirror works is an interesting question. I hope the show gives us some semi-scientific theory into this. Dr. Chang and Dharma were studying the scientific basis for time travel and other such oddities caused by the special properties of the island. Did Chang know anything about this lighthouse or the ability on the island to see or hear into the past or into another dimension? Physics tells us that light and sound are eternal, the waves just get weaker and further away with time. M! arconi, the inventor of radio believed in his old age that one could build a radio that could hear into the past if only it was powerful enough.

Back to the numbers in the lighthouse. Dharma had the numbers of our six special Losties (minus Kate's #), used them as the code in the hatch computer, which we assume was to somehow keep the electromegnetic energy under the hatch in check following the incident. Why these numbers? If the numbers are associated with degrees on the lighthouse and the lighthouse is used to bring or call people to the island maybe Dharma's use of these numbers had a similar purpose. Maybe one purpose of the hatch and hatch computer was to bring the people associated with those numbers to the island, like the transmission that was continuously repeated. Maybe the computer repeatedly focused the energy of the hatch out into the off-island world to influence the lives of the people associated with the numbers and to eventually bring them to the island.

In the Lost Experience we heard the numbers were part of the Valenzetti Equation which predicts the end of humanity and Dharma was trying to alter the equation to prevent our destruction. Did Dharma just use these numbers in the hatch computer because they knew about them from the Valenzetti Equation and were therefore easy to remember or fitting as a code to prevent destruction of the island from the energy under the hatch? I hope there's more to it than that. The hatch and the numbers have been such an important part of the show and were a major focus of seasons 2 and 5.

MIB tells Sawyer that Jacob has altered the Losties lives in order to bring them to the island to take over for Jacob as protector. But he says that there's no point in protecting the island, "it's just a damn island." MIB tells us there was no point to all the pain and suffering Jacob and the island have caused. I think this will be one of the major questions that we will be debating and won't have resolved til the end of the series. Do Jacob and the Others have some grand purpose? Are they there to save humanity or the world from imminent destruction? The actions of the Others, often done at the will of Jacob, usually appear cruel and ruthless. I believe that we will soon hear from Jacob and/or the Others (i.e. Dogen) that there is a purpose. That all they have done, bringing people to the island, kidnapping kids, people dying and struffering there,coming back to the island in season 4, has all been justified. It's all been for the greater good. Then the question! will be who do we believe. Is Jacob like some insane religious zealot causing death and suffering for no reason or is he really saving the world? Is MIB the reasonable one, trying to prevent all the suffering caused by Jacob and trying to help our Losties reset and get to the ALT timeline?

At this point I want to believe there was a purpose and that Jacob isn't just Jim Jones. But at this point in the show the evidence points towards MIB as the savior. I think its pretty clear that Jacob's "interventions" shown in the season 5 finale and recalled in the Substitute by MIB had a negative effect on the Losties. It appears Kate might be innocent in the ALT timeline, Locke's dad's not a horrible person and Locke can come to terms with his disability, Jack's able to be a good dad and get past his daddy issues, Hurley's not cursed, Sawyer seems nicer and might not be a criminal. Jacob's actions sent the Losties down certain paths that weren't so good. If there is a greater purpose then why did Jacob have to ruin the Losties’ lives to further it? Now that we have seen the lighthouse, it appears that MIB was also correct that Jacob actually brought them to the island. It seems the numbers and lighthouse dial are directly involved with people getting to he isla! nd.

So back to the numbers and their purpose. We have some big questions from seasons 4 and 5 that people aren't talking about too much. Some of our Losties got warped off the Ajira plane back to 1977 and some didn't. There was alot of speculating on that mystery and then we kind of forgot about it. I think the latest episode sheds new light on this mystery. The lighthouse and the numbers are used to bring people to the island. Perhaps the right combination of people and their corresponding numbers are necessary to get to the island or to get to the island at a certain point in time. Alot of season 4 dealt with getting the right people on the Ajira plane for the trip back to the island including Locke's body. Maybe it had to be that specific combination of numbers, first with the Oceanic plane then with the Ajira plane. This was what Mrs. Hawking had figured out at the Lamppost Station. I bet we'll see more about the numbers when that mystery is more fully explained.
Mrs. Hawking gets us back to the connection between the numbers, Dharma and Jacob. We've seen lots of small hints that there are deeper connections than have not yet been revealed: secret temple passage ways under one of the Dharma houses, Widmore buying Magnus Hanso's Black Rock journal at the auction, Mrs. Hawking using the lamppost station and knowing its history, the numbers (obviously), the truce, Horace's ghost building Jacob's cabin, the Ahnk worn by one of the Dharma guys, and more I'm sure that I can't recall now. So what is the connection? There must be some history with Jacob and the Hanso family.
The next question is how does Dharma fit in with the major conflict we've learned about this season between Jacob and MIB? Are Dharma and Jacob both trying to save the world by using the numbers? Was Dharma helping Jacob? If so why were Dharma and the Others always killing eachother? Was Hanso and Dharma on MIB's side? Is that why the purge really happened? Had MIB "recruited" all the Dharma folk? How do Widmore and Ellie fit in? Were they always with Jacob or were one or both of them ever recruited by MIB? If Dharma was aligned with MIB why were they using the numbers in the hatch? Was MIB also trying to contact or influence the Losties through the hatch computer numbers?

Still many more questions than answers. Let me know what you think.