Alvar Hanso

While discussing this summer’s “Lost Experience” alternate reality game, some have suggested that the meaning of “Hurley’s numbers” has not yet been explained. I feel that the story behind the numbers has been explained quite well, but since some don’t think so, here is my summary/theory.

As Alvar Hanso explains in the Hanso Exposed video, the numbers have their origin in the secret Valenzetti Equation. An equation which predicts the exact number of years and months until the end of the world. Enzo Valenzetti gave numerical values to the core environmental and human factors in his equation. Those numerical values where 4, 8, 15, 16, 23 and 42.

Valenzetti’s equation and the doom it predicted was ignored by the United Nations, but there was one man who wouldn’t ignore it - Alvar Hanso. He started The Dharma Initiative, a scientific project on a remote island, with the goal of changing the outcome of the equation by changing one or more of the core factors (each Dharma station/hatch probably represents one of the numbers/factors).

In the video Hanso also explains that a radio transmitter had been erected on the island. The transmitter was intended to only broadcast the core numerical values of the Valenzetti Equation (the numbers). He then starts explaining what will happen when the Dharma scientists manage to change the value of any numerical factor, but in the middle of explaining it, the video gets scrambled and we are unable to hear what should be done. It is my belief that when they are able to change the value of one of the factors, the transmission should be changed to reflect the new result of the equation and by doing so telling the Hanso Foundation that a solution to save the world from destruction has been found.

According to Sam Toomey’s widow, the transmission was heard by Leonard Simms and Sam Toomey while monitoring long wave radio transmissions at a military listening post in the South Pacific. Sam later used the numbers to win $50,000 at a fair. From that moment he was “cursed” with bad luck until he finally committed suicide. Leonard became a patient at the Santa Rosa Mental Institute, presumably because of the numbers. It was there he met Hurley, who used them to play and win the lottery.

From the moment that he won the lottery, Hurley became convinced that the numbers had given him bad luck. He ended up on Oceanic Flight 815 which crashed on the island, where Hurley later spotted the numbers inscribed on the hatch.

The numbers where probably inscribed on all of the stations on the island because the purpose of the various Dharma stations was to change one of the core factors of the Valenzetti Equation. Without knowing it, Hurley had ended up in the place where the numbers started their journey to him.

Was it fate or coincidence? Maybe both.

Are the numbers cursed? This is a tough question, but personally I don’t believe they are. The fact that bad things happen to Hurley and Sam Toomey probably has nothing to do with the numbers. While it sounds strange, the string of bad events is probably nothing but coincidences.

There is probably no reason behind the numbers appearing on the shirts of a female soccer team either. Just like Lost shows that there are connections between people who don’t know each other, I believe that the same numbers can show up in different places without really being related.

It should be noted that this theory relies on that the story from the Lost Experience exists in the same storytelling universe as Lost, but that is a different subject which I will discuss in a later post.

It appears the Lost Experience wasn’t over after all - The Hanso Foundation website has been updated with a message from Alvar Hanso.

When you have read the message, make sure to click the word “humanity” at the end of the third paragraph and you will see a message from Mittelwerk.

What are your thoughts on this? Discuss in the comments!

This article reveals parts of Alan Moore’s “The Watchmen”

Since Lost co-creator and showrunner Damon Lindelof has said “The Watchmen is the greatest piece of popular fiction ever produced”, I decided to take a closer look at Alan Moore’s masterpiece, The Watchmen, and I found many similarities between the popular graphic novel and Lost.

In particular, I found many similarities with the recently released Hanso Exposed video featuring non other than Alvar Hanso.

The story of the Dharma Initiative

As we learn in the Hanso Exposed video, the story behind Dharma starts like this:
The United States and The Soviet Union had almost fulfilled the promise of mutual assured destruction through nuclear war, but after the Cuban missile crisis, both nations decided to find a solution.

The solution was the Valenzetti Equation which predicted the exact number of years and months until humanity would extinguish itself. Enzo Valenzetti gave numerical values to the core environmental and human factors in his equation. Those numerical values where 4 8 15 16 23 42.

In The Watchmen, a character named Adrian Veidt forms a theory that war and environmental damage will lead to humanity’s destruction in the mid-1990s. This is how he describes the situation:

Both sides realized the suicidal implications of nuclear conflict, yet couldn’t stop racing towards it lest their opponents should overtake them. Afraid of their weapons, afraid of losing them, afraid to blink or turn their backs…

Meanwhile, expensive arsenals meant less cash to spend on their old, their sick and homeless; on their children’s educations. As stockpiles grew, as computers reduced human involvement, the spectre of accidental apocalypse staled ever closer.

Simply given the mathematics of the situation, sooner or later conflict would be inevitable!

(more…)

Lost Experience Spoilers

The final fragments in the Lost Experience video have been found.

For those of you who don’t know what I’m talking about, the video is a large part of the “Lost Experience” interactive online game which has captivated thousands of Lost fans throughout the summer. For more information, check Lostpedia.

Those of us who haven’t had time to follow the Lost Experience but still want to know what has been revealed about the mysterious Hanso Foundation and The Dharma Initiative are in luck. Today we are able to bring you the complete Hanso Exposed video, courtesy of YouTube user Timdorr.

I will post a theory based on my interpretation of the video in some hours, so make sure to check back later!

New update to Hanso Foundation site today (part of The Lost Experience, see below).

Possible Spoiler

Click on Alvar’s profile in the Board of Directors; click on the date underneath, and you’ll be taken to a series of maps.

Dates & places noted in order:

- London: 14.06.2000
- Copenhagen: 12.11.2000
- Paris: 22.02.2001
- Geneva: 12.07.2001
- Roma: 18.09.2001 (white background)
- Copenhagen: 01.01.2001 (may actually be a typo, speculated that it should be chronologically 2002)
- Madrid: 31.12.2001 (may actually be a typo, speculated that it should be chronologically 2002)

New Updates as of May 9 10PM EST (after U.K. showing of LOST):

1) Hanso ad found in many major city newspapers in A sections, placed by Peter Thompson (against Bad Twin “badmouthing” of the organization). Text of ad within comment section.

2) Mittelwerk’s Executive Bio updated (”hacked”). Now, if you watch the clock in the upper left corner of your screen, and wait until :15 and :42 minutes after the hour (or, alternatively, reset your computer clock to any time ending in that), it will change into OB:EY. Click this and it will take you to a weird page on SubLYMONal, where you have to play a clicking game with items in a wheel (it has to do with The Numbers, but if you keep clicking the different squares, you will get the same results). After you’ve completed this, you will get password “Heir Apparent”, which you can enter into Mittelwerk’s section box (I think you can also use this without going through SubLYMONal). This brings up the picture of the weird spooky girl (very “The Ring” ish) and then a document showing a college transcript questioning Mittelwerk’s credentials, and his title as a doctor. The name blanked out is Gary Troup.

Note: For this to work, you need to be logged on through the newsletter page. Use the password “breaking strain” when Persephone asks for it.