The 411 - The Numbers - 4, 8, 15, 16, 23, and 42

The Valenzetti Equation is the mathematical equation developed by the reclusive Princeton University mathematician Enzo Valenzetti. Its creation was the result of efforts made following the Cuban Missile Crisis by the United States and the Soviet Union to find a solution to the hostility and danger of imminent global disaster created by the Cold War. The equation was secretly commissioned through the UN Security Council and is used to predict the time of human extinction.

According to the 1975 orientation film in the Sri Lanka Video, the Valenzetti Equation "predicts the exact number of years and months until humanity extinguishes itself." In it, Alvar Hanso also states that the radio transmitter on the Island, will "broadcast the core numerical values of the Valenzetti Equation." The numbers, 4, 8, 15, 16, 23 and 42, are explained in the Sri Lanka Video, as the numerical values to the core environmental and human factors of the Valenzetti Equation. Alvar Hanso also states in the video that the purpose of the DHARMA Initiative is to change the numerical values of any one of the core factors in the equation in order to give humanity a chance to survive. However, Thomas Mittelwerk reveals that as of 2006, they have failed to change the values through manipulating the environment, as the equation continues to arrive at the same six numbers. It is unknown how or if the most recent calculation of the equation is automatically reflected in the radio transmissions.

Rachel Blake also learned that the Hanso Foundation was forcing savants at the Vik Institute in Iceland to run the equation over and over. Somehow, five hieroglyphic symbols were involved in the calculations (Armand Zander described them as "representative"), the same hieroglyphs seen on the countdown timer in the Swan station.

The Blast Door Map included a reference to the equation; a zone on the island is marked as being of "low relevance to Valenzetti-related research activity".

" /> An article was posted at Wikipedia about The Valenzetti Equation and Enzo Valenzetti and was subsequently cited by Speaker as "VERY accurate", indicating it is a legitimate part of the LOST Experience.

This was the part about the Valenzetti Equation:

Valenzetti

Though shrouded in mystery, this much is known about the Valenzetti Equation: it is a mathematical calculation designed to predict nothing less than the exact number of years left before the extinction of the human race. Although little is known about the circumstances leading to the creation of the equation, mystery novelist Gary Troup put forward an interesting theory in his sole non-fiction book "The Valenzetti Equation"

(a fair-to-middling tome which owes as much to popular conspiracy fiction as it does to higher mathematics).

According to Troup - whose research is primarily based on interviews with "UN members" willing to break their non-disclosure agreements, and recently declassified Soviet files - the equation was the end result of a study commissioned by the United Nations following the Cuban Missile Crisis. With their respective nations having just faced the very precipice of mutually-assured destruction, the United States and Soviet Union - under the auspices of the Security Council - secretly sought Valenzetti out as a disinterested third party and charged him with the creation of an infallible mathematical algorithm for the prediction of Armageddon.

Less than a year later, Valenzetti returned with his eponymous equation - which, reportedly, is not unlike the Drake Equation (sometimes mistakenly referred to as the "Sagan Equation"), but far greater in complexity. Because of the conditions of secrecy under which Valenzetti produced his work, the totality of the equation has never been brought to light, nor has his final tally for the number of years left before the human race extinguishes itself with nuclear fire. Compounding the mystery is Valenzetti's steadfast refusal to discuss his work (he is best known for allegedly torching his proof of Fermat's last theorem after it was verified by a group of colleagues). Valenzetti’s mysterious death and Gary Troup's disappearance (and presumed death) on Oceanic Airlines flight 815, which was lost over the pacific on September 2004.

Doomsday equation
A real life Valenzetti equation exists; like the Valenzetti equation, it is a mathematical prediction of when the human race will go extinct, but unlike the Valenzetti equation, it is a probabilistic estimate, is quite simple mathematically, and is not at all mysterious. The Doomsday argument (DA) is a probabilistic argument that claims to predict the future lifetime of the human race given only an estimate of the total number of humans born so far.

*From LOSTpedia, the free encyclopedia