The time travel aspects of season 5 have given me some new ideas about the numbers and how they are "cursed."
What if, when setting up the swan computer, it is Hurley who decides what the code should be to release the magnetic energy. He already knows what the winning lottery numbers will be in the future. So he chooses those numbers, knowing that they will get back to him many years later, enabling him to win the lottery.
At first, I thought Hurley's knowledge of the numbers would turn out to be an ontological paradox, like the compass -- the knowledge would appear to have no origin. Hurley would find out the numbers from Leonard, who found them out from Dharma Initiative (indirectly), which got them from Hurley, another loop. But the scene where the numbers are already being hammered onto the hatch before Hurley tells them to any Dharma person means something else must be going on.
If you follow me this far, take it one step further...
What if it was someone else, not Hurley, that was trying to tell themselves the winning lottery numbers. They found out the winning lottery numbers in 2004, somehow traveled back in time (on purpose or by accident), and then tried to leave a message for their younger self. But since you can't change the past, they always failed. They tried to put the numbers everywhere they could, in the hatch serial number, in the code for the computer in the swan, broadcasted in a loop via the radio tower, etc. But try as they might, they would always fail to get the message to their younger self because of WHH.
But what if this person was able to achieve small changes, which the universe would then course correct? This is similar to the course correction that occurs when Desmond tries to prevent Charlie from dying.
Now, we can look at all the bad luck that comes from the numbers as course correction. Hurley wouldn't have won the lottery if not for this person's tampering. When Hurley tries to buy a nice new house, the universe "course corrects" and takes the house away. When he buys the restaurant, the universe throws a meteorite at it. The numbers brought bad luck because anyone that does anything because they heard the numbers, their actions must be course corrected.
A natural identity for the person above that tries but fails to win the lottery would be Radzinsky.
Admittedly, this theory leaves out the connection to the Valenzetti Equation and the Hanso Foundation, but we don't hear about that on the show itself anyway so it may not be canon.
What if, when setting up the swan computer, it is Hurley who decides what the code should be to release the magnetic energy. He already knows what the winning lottery numbers will be in the future. So he chooses those numbers, knowing that they will get back to him many years later, enabling him to win the lottery.
At first, I thought Hurley's knowledge of the numbers would turn out to be an ontological paradox, like the compass -- the knowledge would appear to have no origin. Hurley would find out the numbers from Leonard, who found them out from Dharma Initiative (indirectly), which got them from Hurley, another loop. But the scene where the numbers are already being hammered onto the hatch before Hurley tells them to any Dharma person means something else must be going on.
If you follow me this far, take it one step further...
What if it was someone else, not Hurley, that was trying to tell themselves the winning lottery numbers. They found out the winning lottery numbers in 2004, somehow traveled back in time (on purpose or by accident), and then tried to leave a message for their younger self. But since you can't change the past, they always failed. They tried to put the numbers everywhere they could, in the hatch serial number, in the code for the computer in the swan, broadcasted in a loop via the radio tower, etc. But try as they might, they would always fail to get the message to their younger self because of WHH.
But what if this person was able to achieve small changes, which the universe would then course correct? This is similar to the course correction that occurs when Desmond tries to prevent Charlie from dying.
Now, we can look at all the bad luck that comes from the numbers as course correction. Hurley wouldn't have won the lottery if not for this person's tampering. When Hurley tries to buy a nice new house, the universe "course corrects" and takes the house away. When he buys the restaurant, the universe throws a meteorite at it. The numbers brought bad luck because anyone that does anything because they heard the numbers, their actions must be course corrected.
A natural identity for the person above that tries but fails to win the lottery would be Radzinsky.
Admittedly, this theory leaves out the connection to the Valenzetti Equation and the Hanso Foundation, but we don't hear about that on the show itself anyway so it may not be canon.
