Okay, let’s try a couple of thought experiments.
First, why do you have to actually TYPE the numbers in before pushing the button? If the experiment was just to make sure someone didn’t get more than 108 minutes of sleep, you could just have a big red button to push. If the numbers were important in and of themselves, you could simply program them into the machine.
Therefore, the importance of typing the numbers in every two hours is to ensure that the ‘subject’ thinks about those numbers at least every two hours. My guess is that the island has some electromagnetic property that enhances paranormal powers in the brain. and that this experiment is to find out what would happen if someone in proximity to the psi-boosting rays thought about the same set of numbers constantly for years on end. How would that effect the world? Well, for one thing, he influenced a lotto draw. They never intended for Hurley to come into possession of the numbers, though. Maybe the ‘bad luck’ Hurley had afterwards was due to his constant thinking about the numbers after he won the lottery. In other words, there was nothing magical about winning the lottery, but once he won it with those particular numbers he can’t stop thinking about them, and that’s causing an interaction with Desmond’s thinking and causing bad stuff to happen. A stretch, I’ll admit.
My guess is that the transmission would send the numbers out when the button was pressed so that a remote station could verify that the person actually typed those numbers. IF he typed the wrong ones, the signal would send the wrong ones, and the researchers could use the data point. This doesn’t explain why they didn’t come running when Rousseau changed the transmission.
So if the experiment was to have someone in close proximity to the field think about one set of numbers constantly, and see what effect that had on the world. Perhaps the drug he takes is nothing more than a placebo or a mild hypnotic or something to keep him sedate and sane, and the numbers are on the vial just to reinforce them - he sees them whenever he takes a shot. Maybe the graffiti on the walls is just another way to reinforce his thinking about the numbers.
If all this is the case, then an interesting question is what will happen now that Hurley, who has been thinking about those numbers for a long time, is in proximity to the station?
I’m betting there are other stations, and that Ethan was from one of them, and the ‘others’ are from another. And the shark and polar bears from yet another. They did say in the film that some stations were doing animal experiments. That would explain how polar bears got on the island.
Remote viewing - Hasn’t everyone been doing a bit of that? Was seeing Walt dripping with water a form of remote viewing? How about Jack seeing his dad?
The ‘whispers’ in the jungle - paranormal communication from an experiment in another station.
Think about this - let’s say a corporation set up all these experiments on the island, with the full intention of coming back and collecting everyone at some point. But something happens to the corporation, and relief never arrives. So now you’ve had people on this island for god knows how long, being affected by electromagnetic waves that do strange things to the brain. Hilarity ensues.
As for the ‘Black Rock’, my guess is that it’s a bit of a red herring. I’ll bet it was a shipwreck dropped on the island by a tsunami from the explosion of Krakatoa in 1883. The region and time frame seem about right. Maybe the ‘others’ are the desendents of the survivors, having gained enormous mental powers (and craziness) from spending their lives in promity to the crazy-waves.
Anyone else notice that Jack seems to be going nuts? As is Locke. I think they are being affected. Others seem to be pretty much normal so far, but the preview for next week suggests that tension is rising between a bunch of them, so maybe now that they’re at the station in close promimity to the anomaly they’ll all start feeling the effects.
Anyway, if this is how it is, then it’s a pretty ingenious set-up for a series, because having six stations gives you six different story arcs you can continue if the series lasts long enough. I’m betting that this season we’ll learn more about this particular experiment, but as we wrap up this thread new strange things will start happening that kick off another plot thread. Those will lead to another station, etc.
