littlelabrynth
10-18-06, 01:49 AM
This theory is intended to try to explain the history of the island, DHARMA, and the incident. Reference material is from episodes aired, The Lost Experience, and the Blast Door Map. The material that is included from The Lost Experience mostly consists of dates. The events that occur in 2006 of the ARG timeline are not included and have no influence on my speculations.
Hanso Island
The island has been inhabited for a very long time. The four toes statue predates any other known history of the island and is evidence of prior habitation. In 1881, Magnus Hanso crashed the Black Rock on the island. I believe that Magnus Hanso was welcomed by these natives and settled with them, eventually marrying one of the natives and producing offspring. We know that Magnus died on the island because the Blast Door map references his final resting place.
Someone must have made it off the island and back to civilization, because Alvar Hanso knew of the island’s existence and its location when plans were made to set up DHARMA’s Research facilities on the island. According to Javi (http://hansofoundation.livejournal.com/1978.html?thread=21946#t21946), Magnus Hanso was Alvar Hanso’s great-grandfather. Because the knowledge of the island stayed within the Hanso family, I would assume that either Alvar’s grandfather or father was the one who made it off the island.
We do not know exactly when Alvar Hanso was born, but we do know that he made his mark during World War II providing munitions to various resistance groups around the world. According to DJ Dan, Alvar is 112 years old (2006 timeline for ARG). This would mean that he was born in 1894. However, according to Javi (http://hansofoundation.livejournal.com/1978.html?thread=22202#t22202), we cannot take anything that DJ Dan says too seriously. We can however assume that Alvar was anywhere between 18 and 46 years old in 1940.This would make him anywhere from 53 to 81 years old in 1975 (year of the DHARMA Orientation film). The lower age of early 50’s would seem appropriate for how old Alvar Hanso appears in the 1975 Orientation film, however if his age is actually nearer the upper end of the spectrum, the early 80’s, then he either a) was already undergoing artificial life extension treatments in the 1970’s or b) there is something special about Alvar Hanso’s DNA.
From a Rachel Blake audio, we learned from a character named Dr. Eliza Vasquez that Alvar has something very unusual in his blood work which may have serious consequences on his health. He must also undergo full blood transfusions once each month. We also have confirmation from Javi (http://hansofoundation.livejournal.com/1978.html?thread=17082#t17082) that Alvar Hanso is a successful recipient of artificial life extension treatments, which is a project of The Hanso Foundation. Most likely, the blood transfusions are part of the artificial life extension treatments, but we have no further information concerning exactly what is unusual about his blood.
The Valenzetti Equation
According to Alvar Hanso in the 1975 DHARMA Orientation film, "In 1962, only thirteen years ago, the world came to the brink of nuclear war. The United States and the Soviet Union almost fulfilled the promise of mutual assured destruction. A promise they continue to foster through a destructive Cold War. After the Cuban Missile Crisis, both nations decided to find a solution. The result was the Valenzetti Equation. Commissioned under the highest secrecy through the UN Security Council, the equation is the brainchild of the Italian mathematician Enzo Valenzetti. It predicts the exact number of years and months before humanity extinguishes itself.”
The Valenzetti Equation was presented before the UN Security Council, but for unknown reasons, the equation was subsequently buried. Alvar Hanso decided to take matters into his own hands and use his vast power and resources to find a way to change the Valenzetti Equation.
DHARMA
DHARMA was created in the 1970s by Gerald and Karen DeGroot, two doctoral candidates at the University of Michigan. The goal of DHARMA was to develop a "large-scale communal research compound" where research could be conducted in the fields of meteorology, psychology, parapsychology, zoology, electromagnetism, and Utopian Social (Engineering?). Alvar Hanso came along and agreed to finance the DHARMA Initiative. He offered the DeGroots the use of a private island only he knew the existence of. He even went through the expense of having several stations built and equipped on the island so that the DeGroots could realize their goals.
But Alvar Hanso’s expectations for the DHARMA Initiative differed slightly from those of the DeGroots. Hanso’s main objective was the desire to change one of the core variables of the Valenzetti Equation, thus preventing the end of the human race.
Alvar Hanso and the DeGroots came to an agreement and by 1975, the scientist were assembled, trained, and sent to the island. We know that Alvar Hanso did not remain on the island, but I am sure that the DeGroots did relocate to the island permanently to supervise the DHARMA Initiative’s experiments.
An “incident” occurred shortly after the experiments began and by 1980, the SWAN station was no longer being used for its original purpose. Instead, the main objective of the SWAN personnel became to ensure that the button is pushed every 104-108 minutes to prevent the build-up of electromagnetic energy.
The “incident” was not the end of DHARMA though. However, I think that the scope and nature of DHARMA’s experiments did begin to change slightly. Evidence of this is the 1980 SWAN Orientation film and the 1980 PEARL Orientation film. Both of these films were made after the “incident”. According to the Blast Door Map, there was a HG (Hanso Group?) delegation inspection on 7 December 1981; a suspected shutdown date of 28 October 1984 is listed in the upper right hand corner and there is a reference to a MDG/AH incident in 1985. I believe that after the “incident”, Alvar Hanso made periodic returns to the island in order to ensure that his main goal of changing the Valenzetti Equation was still being pursued. Something significant must have happened in 1985 that caused a major split in loyalties. According to Hugh McIntyre, on Jimmy Kimmel, the Hanso Foundation stopped funding DHARMA in 1987.
What caused the incident?
I believe that the original inhabitants of the island were angry about the DHARMA intruders on their island and intentionally sabotaged the SWAN station, thus causing the first “incident”. Maybe, they saw DHARMA as a destructive force to their island. Many cultures throughout the world still worship nature and there is evidence that our LOST island is special. Both Locke and Rose believe that the island has healed them.
Benjamin Linus (Benry) states that he was born on the island, yet we do not know exactly how old he is. The actor, Michael Emerson, was born in 1955. If we assume that the character of Benjamin Linus is approximately the same age, then we can assume that Benry was born in the mid 1950s. This would put him in his 20’s when DHARMA began their experiments on the island. He would be in the prime of his life and ready to lead a rebellion against the intruders on his island. I think that Benry not only sabotaged the activities of the DHARMA Initiative, but that he was also able to infiltrate DHARMA and take control from the inside. I think that many of the original DHARMA scientists were converted over to Benry’s side. Benry became their leader and the rest of the DHARMA experiments were abandoned.
I think this is why Benry claims that his group is the “good guys”. He believes that he has saved the island from Alvar Hanso, DHARMA, and their experiments. He was successful in this endeavor except for Hanso/DHARMA maintaining control of the SWAN Station until recent years. However, Benry was able to infiltrate our Losties group and manipulate Locke into thinking that the button was just a joke. Now that the SWAN Station has been destroyed, all DHARMA related activity on the island has finally ceased.
The Sickness / Vaccine / Quarantine
According to Danielle, the sickness is carried by the others. Her team contracted the sickness near the Black Rock.
Typically a vaccine is given to prevent a disease, not to cure a disease. I believe that the original inhabitants of the island are carriers of some mysterious virus and that DHARMA created a vaccine for its scientist that would allow them to live on the island without fear of falling victim to the sickness. All of the scientist that were converted over to Benry’s side have received the vaccination and are safe from the sickness the Others carry. However, any new arrivals on the island, such as Danielle, Kelvin, Desmond, and our Losties, are susceptible to the sickness.
Danielle killed the rest of her crew because she believed that they had the sickness. If this is true, why was she the only one who did not get sick? Perhaps, someday we will receive a flashback where Danielle was taken like Claire and given vaccinations in her uterus. She claims never to have seen the others, only heard them whispering in the jungle, but she could be suffering from amnesia. In the episode Maternity Leave, she seems to be in another world when she, Kate, and Claire inspect the Medical station; almost as if she were trying to remember. I would have expected her to look around a little bit more, searching for any sign that there might have been a 16 year old girl there. Not just stare at the walls and ceiling.
We know that Desmond was instructed by Kelvin to vaccinate himself every nine days. We do not have any confirmation that Kelvin actually used the vaccine himself, but I believe that he did.
Claire was kidnapped while she was still pregnant with Aaron. Ethan said that he was vaccinating the baby against the sickness, but he did not have enough to vaccinate her as well. He was only interested in vaccinating the one whom the Others had plans on incorporating into their community.
If you are going to vaccinate someone for some reason, usually, they only need to have a vaccination administered to them just once or a limited amount of times. If Kelvin began the vaccinations when he arrived on the island, it should not have taken too long before he was immune to the effects of the sickness. He probably knew this and this is why he was unconcerned with wearing his HAZMAT suit outside of the SWAN where the sickness was supposed to be. I am sure that he thought the sickness was real though, because if he thought it was just a ruse, he would not have bothered to have Desmond inoculate himself.
I think that the Quarantine actually had a dual purpose. In addition to keeping the SWAN Station staff from going out and possibly contacting the virus before they have been properly immunized, I think that the Quarantine was put into place to keep them from being influenced / infiltrated by Benry and his crew. I say this because of Benry’s influence on Locke once he was able to make gain access to the SWAN and make contact with the Losties.
I think that Benry enjoys his position of leadership immensely. Once he had effectively taken DHARMA over, he learned as much as he could from the scientists and began to use their knowledge to pursue his own goals. I think Juliet said it best when she stated, “It doesn't matter who we were. It only matters who we are.”
Smokey
I do not think that anyone controls Smokey. Danielle refers to it as a security system to protect the island. I believe that Smokey has been an entity on the island longer than the Black Rock has been on the island. The original inhabitants of the island probably worshipped Smokey as a deity. When, DHARMA came along and began to excavate and build on the island, they disturbed the entity. This is probably what led to Benry and the other original island inhabitants to sabotage, infiltrate, and disband the DHARMA Initiative.
Blood / DNA
Evolution on a secluded island produces different results than evolution on the main land. Species will develop special qualities which do not appear anywhere else.
If the original inhabitants of the island were “special,” and Alvar Hanso’s great-grandfather did marry a native inhabitant of the island and produce offspring, then any offspring that were produced by Magnus Hanso would have DNA different from that of mainland humans. In essence, they would be “special”. From the ARG, we know that there was something unusual about Alvar Hanso’s blood.
Now this is just pure speculation, but what if Benry is also a descendent of Magnus Hanso?
Hanso Island
The island has been inhabited for a very long time. The four toes statue predates any other known history of the island and is evidence of prior habitation. In 1881, Magnus Hanso crashed the Black Rock on the island. I believe that Magnus Hanso was welcomed by these natives and settled with them, eventually marrying one of the natives and producing offspring. We know that Magnus died on the island because the Blast Door map references his final resting place.
Someone must have made it off the island and back to civilization, because Alvar Hanso knew of the island’s existence and its location when plans were made to set up DHARMA’s Research facilities on the island. According to Javi (http://hansofoundation.livejournal.com/1978.html?thread=21946#t21946), Magnus Hanso was Alvar Hanso’s great-grandfather. Because the knowledge of the island stayed within the Hanso family, I would assume that either Alvar’s grandfather or father was the one who made it off the island.
We do not know exactly when Alvar Hanso was born, but we do know that he made his mark during World War II providing munitions to various resistance groups around the world. According to DJ Dan, Alvar is 112 years old (2006 timeline for ARG). This would mean that he was born in 1894. However, according to Javi (http://hansofoundation.livejournal.com/1978.html?thread=22202#t22202), we cannot take anything that DJ Dan says too seriously. We can however assume that Alvar was anywhere between 18 and 46 years old in 1940.This would make him anywhere from 53 to 81 years old in 1975 (year of the DHARMA Orientation film). The lower age of early 50’s would seem appropriate for how old Alvar Hanso appears in the 1975 Orientation film, however if his age is actually nearer the upper end of the spectrum, the early 80’s, then he either a) was already undergoing artificial life extension treatments in the 1970’s or b) there is something special about Alvar Hanso’s DNA.
From a Rachel Blake audio, we learned from a character named Dr. Eliza Vasquez that Alvar has something very unusual in his blood work which may have serious consequences on his health. He must also undergo full blood transfusions once each month. We also have confirmation from Javi (http://hansofoundation.livejournal.com/1978.html?thread=17082#t17082) that Alvar Hanso is a successful recipient of artificial life extension treatments, which is a project of The Hanso Foundation. Most likely, the blood transfusions are part of the artificial life extension treatments, but we have no further information concerning exactly what is unusual about his blood.
The Valenzetti Equation
According to Alvar Hanso in the 1975 DHARMA Orientation film, "In 1962, only thirteen years ago, the world came to the brink of nuclear war. The United States and the Soviet Union almost fulfilled the promise of mutual assured destruction. A promise they continue to foster through a destructive Cold War. After the Cuban Missile Crisis, both nations decided to find a solution. The result was the Valenzetti Equation. Commissioned under the highest secrecy through the UN Security Council, the equation is the brainchild of the Italian mathematician Enzo Valenzetti. It predicts the exact number of years and months before humanity extinguishes itself.”
The Valenzetti Equation was presented before the UN Security Council, but for unknown reasons, the equation was subsequently buried. Alvar Hanso decided to take matters into his own hands and use his vast power and resources to find a way to change the Valenzetti Equation.
DHARMA
DHARMA was created in the 1970s by Gerald and Karen DeGroot, two doctoral candidates at the University of Michigan. The goal of DHARMA was to develop a "large-scale communal research compound" where research could be conducted in the fields of meteorology, psychology, parapsychology, zoology, electromagnetism, and Utopian Social (Engineering?). Alvar Hanso came along and agreed to finance the DHARMA Initiative. He offered the DeGroots the use of a private island only he knew the existence of. He even went through the expense of having several stations built and equipped on the island so that the DeGroots could realize their goals.
But Alvar Hanso’s expectations for the DHARMA Initiative differed slightly from those of the DeGroots. Hanso’s main objective was the desire to change one of the core variables of the Valenzetti Equation, thus preventing the end of the human race.
Alvar Hanso and the DeGroots came to an agreement and by 1975, the scientist were assembled, trained, and sent to the island. We know that Alvar Hanso did not remain on the island, but I am sure that the DeGroots did relocate to the island permanently to supervise the DHARMA Initiative’s experiments.
An “incident” occurred shortly after the experiments began and by 1980, the SWAN station was no longer being used for its original purpose. Instead, the main objective of the SWAN personnel became to ensure that the button is pushed every 104-108 minutes to prevent the build-up of electromagnetic energy.
The “incident” was not the end of DHARMA though. However, I think that the scope and nature of DHARMA’s experiments did begin to change slightly. Evidence of this is the 1980 SWAN Orientation film and the 1980 PEARL Orientation film. Both of these films were made after the “incident”. According to the Blast Door Map, there was a HG (Hanso Group?) delegation inspection on 7 December 1981; a suspected shutdown date of 28 October 1984 is listed in the upper right hand corner and there is a reference to a MDG/AH incident in 1985. I believe that after the “incident”, Alvar Hanso made periodic returns to the island in order to ensure that his main goal of changing the Valenzetti Equation was still being pursued. Something significant must have happened in 1985 that caused a major split in loyalties. According to Hugh McIntyre, on Jimmy Kimmel, the Hanso Foundation stopped funding DHARMA in 1987.
What caused the incident?
I believe that the original inhabitants of the island were angry about the DHARMA intruders on their island and intentionally sabotaged the SWAN station, thus causing the first “incident”. Maybe, they saw DHARMA as a destructive force to their island. Many cultures throughout the world still worship nature and there is evidence that our LOST island is special. Both Locke and Rose believe that the island has healed them.
Benjamin Linus (Benry) states that he was born on the island, yet we do not know exactly how old he is. The actor, Michael Emerson, was born in 1955. If we assume that the character of Benjamin Linus is approximately the same age, then we can assume that Benry was born in the mid 1950s. This would put him in his 20’s when DHARMA began their experiments on the island. He would be in the prime of his life and ready to lead a rebellion against the intruders on his island. I think that Benry not only sabotaged the activities of the DHARMA Initiative, but that he was also able to infiltrate DHARMA and take control from the inside. I think that many of the original DHARMA scientists were converted over to Benry’s side. Benry became their leader and the rest of the DHARMA experiments were abandoned.
I think this is why Benry claims that his group is the “good guys”. He believes that he has saved the island from Alvar Hanso, DHARMA, and their experiments. He was successful in this endeavor except for Hanso/DHARMA maintaining control of the SWAN Station until recent years. However, Benry was able to infiltrate our Losties group and manipulate Locke into thinking that the button was just a joke. Now that the SWAN Station has been destroyed, all DHARMA related activity on the island has finally ceased.
The Sickness / Vaccine / Quarantine
According to Danielle, the sickness is carried by the others. Her team contracted the sickness near the Black Rock.
Typically a vaccine is given to prevent a disease, not to cure a disease. I believe that the original inhabitants of the island are carriers of some mysterious virus and that DHARMA created a vaccine for its scientist that would allow them to live on the island without fear of falling victim to the sickness. All of the scientist that were converted over to Benry’s side have received the vaccination and are safe from the sickness the Others carry. However, any new arrivals on the island, such as Danielle, Kelvin, Desmond, and our Losties, are susceptible to the sickness.
Danielle killed the rest of her crew because she believed that they had the sickness. If this is true, why was she the only one who did not get sick? Perhaps, someday we will receive a flashback where Danielle was taken like Claire and given vaccinations in her uterus. She claims never to have seen the others, only heard them whispering in the jungle, but she could be suffering from amnesia. In the episode Maternity Leave, she seems to be in another world when she, Kate, and Claire inspect the Medical station; almost as if she were trying to remember. I would have expected her to look around a little bit more, searching for any sign that there might have been a 16 year old girl there. Not just stare at the walls and ceiling.
We know that Desmond was instructed by Kelvin to vaccinate himself every nine days. We do not have any confirmation that Kelvin actually used the vaccine himself, but I believe that he did.
Claire was kidnapped while she was still pregnant with Aaron. Ethan said that he was vaccinating the baby against the sickness, but he did not have enough to vaccinate her as well. He was only interested in vaccinating the one whom the Others had plans on incorporating into their community.
If you are going to vaccinate someone for some reason, usually, they only need to have a vaccination administered to them just once or a limited amount of times. If Kelvin began the vaccinations when he arrived on the island, it should not have taken too long before he was immune to the effects of the sickness. He probably knew this and this is why he was unconcerned with wearing his HAZMAT suit outside of the SWAN where the sickness was supposed to be. I am sure that he thought the sickness was real though, because if he thought it was just a ruse, he would not have bothered to have Desmond inoculate himself.
I think that the Quarantine actually had a dual purpose. In addition to keeping the SWAN Station staff from going out and possibly contacting the virus before they have been properly immunized, I think that the Quarantine was put into place to keep them from being influenced / infiltrated by Benry and his crew. I say this because of Benry’s influence on Locke once he was able to make gain access to the SWAN and make contact with the Losties.
I think that Benry enjoys his position of leadership immensely. Once he had effectively taken DHARMA over, he learned as much as he could from the scientists and began to use their knowledge to pursue his own goals. I think Juliet said it best when she stated, “It doesn't matter who we were. It only matters who we are.”
Smokey
I do not think that anyone controls Smokey. Danielle refers to it as a security system to protect the island. I believe that Smokey has been an entity on the island longer than the Black Rock has been on the island. The original inhabitants of the island probably worshipped Smokey as a deity. When, DHARMA came along and began to excavate and build on the island, they disturbed the entity. This is probably what led to Benry and the other original island inhabitants to sabotage, infiltrate, and disband the DHARMA Initiative.
Blood / DNA
Evolution on a secluded island produces different results than evolution on the main land. Species will develop special qualities which do not appear anywhere else.
If the original inhabitants of the island were “special,” and Alvar Hanso’s great-grandfather did marry a native inhabitant of the island and produce offspring, then any offspring that were produced by Magnus Hanso would have DNA different from that of mainland humans. In essence, they would be “special”. From the ARG, we know that there was something unusual about Alvar Hanso’s blood.
Now this is just pure speculation, but what if Benry is also a descendent of Magnus Hanso?