Where the bee sucks, there suck I;
In a cowslip’s bell I lie.
The Tempest. Act v. Sc. 1
WHAT DO THEY MEAN? How could they be transmitted? What the heck are they doing on the thing Locke and Boone are digging up? If I had to venture a guess, it has to be some sort of 'higher intelligence' that lives on that island. I'm beginning to believe in the alien thing.....hmmmmm.....
east928
Perhaps a combination to the hatch? Also, notice that the numbers "8" & "15" are located right next to each other. Their flight was 8:15.
*Insert freaky alien music here*
RUready2getLOST
OMG hurleys crazy's friend, work friend actually picked up the signal 16 years ago, most likely the same time the expedition team reached the island!!! and at the end, the piece of metal in the ground had the same number 4 8 15 16 23 42 on it. so there were people on the island even before the science group.
jedisoccer
4 - Has been repeated a lot... lots of references to 4 years ago.
16 - number of years Danielle has been on the island. I think that there was a reference tonight to something else that happened 16 years ago... I will rewatch and confirm.
23 & 42... don't know. Have these been mentioned before?
kaycee13
Has anyone yet calculated how big a jar would have to be to contain 4,815,162,342 beans?BTW, there have been numerous references to each of those numbers except 42, which still seem somehow familiar to me. Just remember 8 and 15 have only been mentioned together, forming 815, 8-15, and 8:15.EDIT: Just playing around, the numbers that have been repeated in Lost episodes - 4, 8, 15, 16, and 23 - add up to 66. The number that hasn't been referenced, 42, adds up to 6.
Black Dahlia
I figured the beans were either in 6 different jars, or they added the
numbers up to get the total of beans. not sure.
Have any math whizzes out there tried to see if this a sequence of some
sort? Like 1, 2, 4, 8,16, 32 ... or something?
Anna Raven
i just noticed that the people who used the numbers where one time or another described/characterized as being crazy.
i guess an impact of using the numbrs causes this. no one can take the person seriously and assumes that they are just crazy. a central idea in this episode was hurley trying to find someone to believe in him and he finnally did Rousesaou
its quite interesting in the end Charlie still doesnt believe him and maybe this is a reference to how the curse still effects Hurley, we as the audience have even fallen into this idea bf this epiosde because most of us only thought of hurley as a big happy go lucky guy who was there for comical relief
Rouseous was the only one to see hurley past the curse so maybe using the numbers causes people to take u less seriously
just an idea i had it stated better bf but i pressed back and it got erasesd
ughh
oh yea i dont know if anyone added this literary allusion but charlie paralleled hurley to Kurtz who is a character from the book Heart of Darkness and Kurtz came to Africa during its colonial era and became in a sense crazy kinda interesting
outsider
I found this information on number stations that seems to be similar to what's happening on Lost... a sequence of numbers is repeated over and over. They are thought to be codes for
spys but no one really knows. The thing that really made me take notice though had to do with songs melodies...
"It usually consists of a voice (most often female) reading off a series of numbers. On many occasions, this reading of numbers will be preceded by a song--usually familiar (like the English folk song, "The Lincolnshire Poacher") or distinct (the weird children's toy music I mentioned earlier, which is called "The Swedish Rhapsody")"
This instantly made me think back to the melody that Shannon discovered
also in the French woman's writings.
There's a lot of numbers stations information online - I haven't really
looked too far into it yet but here are a few links...
www.hauntedink.com/25/conet.html
www.npr.org/templates/sto...Id=4167689
KendallBruns
Good catch on the 23 there.
On the dot before the 42, I just pulled it up on my DVR and it looks like a dot from the inside. All the numbers are engraved in the metal, but the dot is raised, like a ribbit, but there are no others around it.
GALostFan
well, i dont know if that proves anything then ... i just liked the previous theory that 4 + 8 +15 +16 + 23 = 66 and 42 added together = 6 so 666 meaning the devil, and i thought maybe a break there would possibly prove this more, but i have no idea.
GerfalconCP
...and Hurley's winning numbers had the 42 separate as well.
ccmerlot
Leonard, the one-leg woman's husband and the French Woman all heard the repeating numbers being mysteriously transmitted. This sounds exactly like the description of number stations. I think that the melody the French Woman was writing was also part of the original transmission which would explain her fascination with it (finally!) and also makes sense with the number stations theory.
SO... if the original recording WAS from a number station than most likely it was some sort of spy code message.
KendallBruns
I've yet to see anyone point out that Numbers is the 4th book of the bible.
esopillar34
4- years since the Australian woman's husband died?
8 people - died in the fire in Hurley's factory,
815 - flight number, Kate safe deposit box number
16- years since Danielle has been sending a distress call, number of weeks nobody won the lottery
23 - Claire's birthday?
42 - possible number of survivors left at the end? 48 minus Steve (or Scott), comes to 47..who else died? There's still room for some
23 or 42 - the years Adam and Eve have been dead??
katka365
The number sequences heard on number stations were impossible codes to break without some sort of key that was only used once.
KendallBruns
the sequence of 4, 8, 15, 16, 23 is part of a sequencce of nonprime numbers of 1's in binary expansion.
www.research.att.com/~njas/sequences/
It's funny that the number 42 is coming up because I always joke about the number 42:
Question: "I have a question.."
Answer: "42"
42 is the answer to life and the universe according to the book, "The hitchiker's guide to the galaxy "
mothman1967
kat has something there. the 42 was separated from the rest, like a power ball number in lotteries. so it has it's own significance. the game 'connect four' is meaningful...just haven't figured it out yet. hurley needed validation he was not "looney". after he found out from danielle that the numbers are voodoo, not him, he was relieved. all the things that happened were from the bad mojo of the numbers following him around, as they did everyone else who were involved with these numbers. i think we will see each of the survivors are connected to these numbers. we need to see the reruns to find these numbers. we have seen them is some epis. (kate's, jack at the airport, the flight #). we need to look further. so this hiatus gives us chance to check this out. ther is another world inside that hatch. a very cold place.
hppydppy1
Okay, so here's the deal, the numbers are 4 8 15 16 23 42, you take 4 and 8 together and get 12, add 1 and 2 together is 3. Take that 3 and add it to 15, you get 18, add that 1 and 8 and you get 9. Take that 9, add it to 16 and you get 25, add 2 and 5, and you get 7. Okay, now take the 7, add it to 23, and you get 30, 3 and 0 is 3. Take the 3, add it to 42, and you get 45. 4 and 5 is 9. So using our ultimate numbers we get 3 9 7 3 9. This certainly is a pattern. Continueing the pattern, the following numbers should be 43 50 60 61 68 78. If anyone wants to continue this or knows what 3 9 7 3 9 7 3 9 7 etc. means, that'd be cool.
Flight815
If I'm repeating something someone else posted I apologize; I was thinking maybe the numbers correspond to letters of the alphabet; the 42 wouldn't work, of course, but you could use 4 and 2. If anyone can find significance in DHOPWDB, let us know.
TKOOM
Well, just to cover all the bases I checked info on area code phone number
#481-516-2342.
No such area code.
Cousin Eddie
Claire just turned 23.
esopillar34
I'm not sure about things, but one thing no one has mentioned is that "42" is the answer to "life, the universe, and everything" in the Douglas Adams novel "Hitchhikers guide to the universe." Not sure it really fits into the show, but it is an odd coincidence.
GALostFan
There have been a couple more references that I can't remember, but:
Jack and Rose were seated in row 23.
The reward the Australian guy was to collect for Kate was $23,000 dollars. Odd number for a reward, huh?
Black Dahlia
Pandora's Box
4.8 billion=approximate age of the earth
Jedijake
42 - the meaning of life according to the hitchikers guide to the galaxy:
I noticed that too! Coincidence? I think not!
And if you add all the numbers together they add up to 9 - a numerically
spiritual value.
And then if you want to take it to the absurd, you could look up the significance of the numbers, according to the Pythagorean scheme as follows:
4: Solidity, strength, power
8: Protection, justice
15: Virtue, culture, integrity
16: Luxury, sensuality, good-fortune
23: Revolt, bgotry, prejudice, &
42: Short life, misery.
Make of that what you will!
Galbion
Quote:
the sequence of 4, 8, 15, 16, 23 is part of a sequencce of nonprime numbers
of 1's in binary expansion.
www.research.att.com/~njas/sequences/
How is this a list of non-primes? 23 is prime.
zuty
Very interesting theories from all, really. Ultimately, I suspect the numbers are red herrings though it is still fun to play this game. The season finale is a 2 part episode starting on episode 23, maybe that is when we'll learn what the numbers mean and maybe 42 will be the number of survivors left at that time. It could happen ...
Unfortunately, I only caught the last 15 minutes of tonight's episode (3-2-2005) but it is on my DVR so I did catch the numbers on the hatch and could freeze and study. There does seem to be a slight bump between 23 and 42 but I think it is just a grain of sand as there are other bumps all over that are almost identical, including the space between 16 and 23.
What I thought was most interesting, and wonder if anyone else noticed, is that the numbers 4, 8, 15, and 16 appear to be very machine stamped and uniformly spaced but 23 and 42 actually appear to be out of alignment as well as of a different 'font', almost as if the original hatch number sequence was just 4 8 15 16 and then 23 and 42 were added later. Even the 2 in 23 and the 2 in 42 don't seem to quite match and the spacing between the 4 and the 2 in 42 is the closest of any of the numbers.
www.compubears.com/lost/LostNumbers.jpg
pbleeb
Just to add something for poor '23,' there's lots of conspiracy theory/occult stuff out there about this number, this page has this info:
Hexagram 23 in the 'I Ching' oracle means "break apart." 23 in telegrapher's code means "break the line." Parents each donate 23 chromosomes to the fertilized egg . . .the human biorhythm cycle is generally 23 days, and it takes 23 seconds for blood to circulate through the human body.
This site had this to say about the Flat Iron building:
...stands at the intersection of Broadway, Fifth Avenue and 23rd Street. The building was popular with turn-of-the-century voyeurs because its shape created swirling winds on 23rd Street raising women's skirts. Police dispersed the men by calling to them, "23 Skidoo" - a phrase no longer in use but its descendant, the word "scram" remains.
I don't know, I missed half the episode, but I don't put a lot of faith in being able to derive much meaning from a string of numbers. Then again, 2 divided by 3 = .666.
spooky
Okay I'm totally reaching here but I wanted to contribute and math ain't my thing so here goes.
48 survivors - The marshall died
47 survivors- Joanna died
46 survivors- Charlie died (This is the start of my reach)
45 survivors- Steve died
44 survivors- Etahn died (Reaching again, but they never cleared up if
they counted him as one of the survivors or not.)
43 survivors- Big character death
**42** Survivors
Hell maybe even two more people will die by seasons end.
Lost at sea
The numbers may not mean anything in "real life", but in the Lost "world" these numbers may form some sort of "magical" ward that keeps something trapped on the island, maybe in the hatch.
Obviously someone constructed a power supply off-shore (the cable runs out to sea) to keep the signal going.
Something may have been partially released when the signal was changed...now the only thing holding it in are the numbers on the container with the hatch.
Leon, the crazy guy, did say "you've opened the box". A reference to Pandora's box perhaps. Maybe the container on the island is similar to Pandora's box in that it hold something unpleasant.
Anyway, that's my two cents. Also, what was happing in the world 16 years ago? 2004 - 16 = 1988, right?
BTW, the French ladies song is titled "Beyong the Sea" in english. The lyrics are here:
Coyote1066
Maybe someone has mentioned this already, but remember - Locke, while in the Australian office for his walkabout trip, told the guy that he had dealt with his condition for four years. So my guess is he has some connection to the numbers as well.
Crazy talk now, but could he be the husband of the woman Hurley met? At the very least, maybe he was in some contact with that guy? Hurley's friend and the husband were all militarily-tied together. That, and Sayid... Anyway, Locke said he was a Colonel in that same episode. Perhaps it wasn't *just* in that game?
Charlie
magicpiane
From IMDB:04 + 08 + 42 - 16 - 23 = 15
++ ++ ++
08 + 42 + 04 - 23 - 15 = 16
++ ++ ++
42 + 04 + 08 - 15 - 16 = 23
-- -- --
16 + 23 + 15 - 08 - 04 = 42
-- -- --
23 + 15 + 16 - 04 - 42 = 08
== == ==
15 + 16 + 23 - 42 - 08 = 04
Black Dahlia
4 8 15 16 23 42
4 4 7 1 7 19
4+4+7+1+7+19=42
Just neat because 42 is also the powerball number.
Oswald
