Massive Covert Operation Theory

Theory by Manoover
Read an updated version of this theory, re-titled: The Valenzetti Countdown Theory

Enzo Valenzetti calculated the length of modern civilization to be a little more than 48 million hours. Specifically, his Equation solved for 48,151,623 hours and 42 minutes. The Dharma Initiative was formed when the DeGroots discovered and researched this idea, and then managed to sell it to the Hanso Foundation and the US government.

The DeGroots believe that mankind's civilization was born in the Sumerian city of Uruk, erected by King Gilgamesh in the 26th century BC. This birth was memorialized in the Epic of Gilgamesh, when the god-king transformed the wild man Enkidu (that's us) into a civilized person. For Gerald and Karen, Enzo's countdown begins right there, circa 2745 BC.

LOST ISLAND IS PART OF THE MOST MASSIVE COVERT OPERATION IN HISTORY.

Under the aegis of the Pentagon and the CIA (who help to stifle detection by world governments and other public institutions, such as the GHC/GWC and CDC), the goal of the Initiative was to establish a bastion of civilization that would offer to humanity some hope of beating the Equation.

Widmore Construction and Paik Heavy Industry were enlisted to create the enclaves, under the shroud of absolute secrecy (they may not even have known what they were building).

The Hanso Foundation created the specifications for the high-tech (at least, at the time...) facilities, which they filled with both their "bleeding edge" equipment and their visionary scientists. We're all familiar with many of their areas of research, and we can speculate that there may be others we're not really supposed to know about (advanced armaments, for one).

The DeGroots trained the intended citizens of the enclaves, using their advanced (at least, at the time...) theories of sociology, psychology, parapsychology, and education, buttressed by Hanso's uber-tech genetic and medical goodness. They selected the "brightest lights," and tried to make them into a Super Society of Super People with Super Technology, who would survive and thrive, no matter what happened to the rest of the world.

Of course, as so often happens when we reach beyond our grasp, something has gone horribly wrong. In fact, many things have gone horribly wrong.

Although it had been the most successful enclave to date, the Paik facility in the waters near S. Korea was recently destroyed. This catastrophic accident created the tsunami wave we all heard about in the news, which hammered the coast of Sri Lanka, causing tragic devastation. Efforts to hide the natural disaster's connection to the project are ongoing.

The enclave off the coast of Zanzibar was ruined by another calamitous lab accident, which released a runaway strain of species-barrier-breaking meningococcal infection (this was a serious risk of compromise for the clandestine operations, since the spread of sickness to the African continent did not go unnoticed).

Now, the last hope of the project lies with the damaged facility in the South Pacific...where the experiments--at least some of them--continue, and the critical goals of the DI are still being pursued!

That's the story of The Past. Let's get Back to The Future.

Among the few projects still underway is the Valenzetti Countdown, which is being conducted in the Swan Station. Even though the Swan's EM research suffered a crippling Incident in the 80's, killing the great Alvar Hanso with four other senior Foundation members, and maiming other leading members of the scientific project teams...the beat goes on (to the music of Geronimo Jackson and Mama Cass) under our favorite hatch, where the ruined magnetic dregs of an important experiment lie entombed in tons of concrete.