'Lost' co-creator Damon Lindelof explains The Numbers

For five seasons, they've haunted Hurley, they've haunted us:  4 8 15 16 23  and 42.

What do they mean? Do they mean anything? Are we wasting our time caring?

Damon Lindelof, the ABC series' co-creator, attended a Comics on Comics event at Meltdown Wednesday night and explained the numbers as well as some other interesting tidbits about the future of "Lost."

E! Online attended the event and posted the Q&A, which you can find here.

As far as those menacing digits, this is what Lindelof said:

"The Hanso Foundation that started the Dharma Initiative hired this guy Valenzetti to basically work on this equation to determine what was the probability of the world ending in the wake of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Valenzetti basically deduced that it was 100 percent within the next 27 years, so the Hanso Foundation started the Dharma Initiative in an effort to try to change the variables in the equation so that mankind wouldn't wipe it itself out."

This information, in more convoluted form, was leaked out via the online games rather than explained on the show itself, Lindelof said, because "That would be the worst thing ever. We have to make the show for the hard-core fans who care about the numbers, but we also have to make it for my mom, who just wants Sawyer to take his shirt off."

-- Maria Elena Fernandez

Photo: Jorge Garcia as Hurley/ABC

Comments

[Jesse Cluster]

I'm pretty certain that the giant colossus statue that is now only a giant foot gets blown up by the hydrogen bomb Jack is about to set off under the Dharma town.

I frickin love Lost. Thanks for years of great TV guys.

[al]

the link to the Q&A doesn't work.

[Kilroy]

You haven't seen the Colossus statue in 1977 yet, have you? And the numbers are serial numbers, we discovered. How did they become "special"? Probably the easiest way not to lose the numbers (when newbies show up) is to use the numbers you already have on the Hatch. Simple. All that "end of world" Valenzetti analysis crap is bogus science.

The atomic blast doesn't destory the Island, it awakens the Smoke Monster deep in the bowels of the spaceship....I mean, Earth. Yeah, that's the ticket.

[more than a foot]

Lindelhof doesn't seem to think that Sawyer can take his shirt off and the show can make some sense at the same time. perhaps this is good tv, but good writing, good story? time will tell. i suspect not.