First I want to say that I cannot take credit for this theory, I read it on another site and I REALLY like it. Credit for this post goes to a person that goes by the name 05woodc. Some of the post has been tweaked to remove an unnecessary paragraph where the poster references another movie. The post is in quotes, everything else is from me.
"4815162342 is a date countdown?
The numbers can be arranged into a date like shown below:
4 years, 8 months, 15 days, 16 hours, 23 minutes and 42 seconds.
so if it is a countdown what is it counting to and from? from the plane crash, it gets to 7th of october 2008. which hasnt happened in lost time, is this the end of the world? or the time period of the final episode?
this is just one time period, i cant be bothered to work out dates from other times, like for example 4 years, 8 months, 15 days, 16 hours, 23 minutes and 42 seconds after the incident (seen in the season 5 finale) what could this mean?"
--end of that person's theory--
The reason I like that theory is that maybe the Dharma Initiative did not know when that time frame started from. We don't know at all where the numbers came from yet. I just like how the years, months, days, etc.. really does a great job of starting from the plane crash date and ending right around the time period Ben, Sun, MIB/Locke were all in at the end of Season 5.
By the end of Season 6, we could be in October 2008 in the show.
Lets assume the numbers on the hatch does indicate the time left for humanity. The countdown begins BECAUSE of the hatch, because the timer for the device blocking the pocket of energy was not reset. This brought the plane down, and started the events of the show.
Here is my point - If there never was any drilling done for that energy, if the hatch was never made, the plane never crashes, then the numbers would likely be irrelevant. Basically, the numbers, the countdown, its all a self-fulfilling prophecy. Humanities demise can't be determined by a formula, we all have free will, it isn't our fate to die out when some numbers say so. The entire show spends a lot of time focusing on fate vs. free will, so I think this theory has some basis.
The question of how the conflict gets resolve still stands, but maybe this answers the mystery of the numbers, even if it doesn't answer how the numbers were found.
"4815162342 is a date countdown?
The numbers can be arranged into a date like shown below:
4 years, 8 months, 15 days, 16 hours, 23 minutes and 42 seconds.
so if it is a countdown what is it counting to and from? from the plane crash, it gets to 7th of october 2008. which hasnt happened in lost time, is this the end of the world? or the time period of the final episode?
this is just one time period, i cant be bothered to work out dates from other times, like for example 4 years, 8 months, 15 days, 16 hours, 23 minutes and 42 seconds after the incident (seen in the season 5 finale) what could this mean?"
--end of that person's theory--
The reason I like that theory is that maybe the Dharma Initiative did not know when that time frame started from. We don't know at all where the numbers came from yet. I just like how the years, months, days, etc.. really does a great job of starting from the plane crash date and ending right around the time period Ben, Sun, MIB/Locke were all in at the end of Season 5.
By the end of Season 6, we could be in October 2008 in the show.
Lets assume the numbers on the hatch does indicate the time left for humanity. The countdown begins BECAUSE of the hatch, because the timer for the device blocking the pocket of energy was not reset. This brought the plane down, and started the events of the show.
Here is my point - If there never was any drilling done for that energy, if the hatch was never made, the plane never crashes, then the numbers would likely be irrelevant. Basically, the numbers, the countdown, its all a self-fulfilling prophecy. Humanities demise can't be determined by a formula, we all have free will, it isn't our fate to die out when some numbers say so. The entire show spends a lot of time focusing on fate vs. free will, so I think this theory has some basis.
The question of how the conflict gets resolve still stands, but maybe this answers the mystery of the numbers, even if it doesn't answer how the numbers were found.
