From what I’ve heard, there are three general categories of theories regarding the purpose of the numbers being entered into the computer every 108 minutes.
- The numbers being entered are necessary to trigger the system to perform some task that is needed as a part of the experiment. What that “something” is varies widely from theory to theory (aligning with satellites, etc.)
- The numbers are a “dead man’s switch”, meaning that they don’t do anything other than prevent something bad from happening if they are NOT pressed. For example, the that if something went wrong, or the island got into the wrong hands, etc. and the numbers did not get pressed the island would self destruct, etc.
- The number punching has no technical purpose whatsoever, and exists only as a sociological / psychological part of the experiment.
Personally, I have always leaned towards ruling out #1, even though it is a component of some pretty popular theories out there. To have such an elaborate technological set up (with all the other gear they appear to have, and the assumed advanced control of electro-magnetic systems, etc.) the idea that they would be running a software control system so primitive as to not support the most basic of scheduled tasks is a bit of a stretch. Even on the Apple II (or whatever that ancient workstation is), you could write a simple program that would prevent you having to type in the same exact numbers at a fixed interval of time.
This would leave numbers two or three, and I’m currently not sure which one to go with. On the one hand, it wouldn’t seem to be much of an effective “dead man’s switch” if the numbers were so easy to come by (printed on the outside of the hatch, Desmond telling talking freely about them). Side note: I am really interested to find out more about Desmond; specifically where he’s been since we last saw him.
It kind of makes me tend to believe the third one, although what happens then if they do allow them to go all the way down? If it’s nothing, then they obviously would stop pushing them, and then what?
Good points. I think it’s #3 making it seem like number #2 and could also include #1 at the same time. Then there is always #4.
#4 self worth.
Personally, I hope it is #2. #3 would just irritate me if that were true.
But yeah, knowing the creators of Lost (or rather not knowing them!) they’ll probably add something in there that no-one could have anticipated, and yet at the same time we knew it all along. To examplify, who could have guessed what was in the hatch? You could guess the bunker, but not the computer and numbers.
I think the 3 I presented above pretty much cover all the general possibilities if you boil them down:
#1 something happens when the button is pressed
#2 nothing happens when the button is pressed, but something happens if the button is NOT pressed
#3 nothing ever happens whether the button is pressed or not
Obviously these are broad generalizations, and it’s certainly obvious from the last show that the people pressing the buttons are definitely supposed to believe either 1 or 2, just not sure which one. I consider self worth as #3, in that it would just be a part of the experiment.
Perhaps we will find out more either next week (with that new hatch/door), although I suspect that will be at the end of the episode. Or maybe during a Russaeu flashback (assuming one is coming), or if they do some other flashback to show what happened to some other group when the clock ran down. I would love to see a Desmond flashback, but I don’t think he really knows either (or he’s a good actor).