‘Lost’ co-creator Damon Lindelof explains The Numbers

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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