Sunday, November 20, 2005

"Lost" numbers almost found in Ireland's National Lottery

4, 8, 15, 16, 23, & 24 - these numbers should be familiar to fans of ABC's Emmy-award winning television drama, Lost.

Well, look again, those are actually the winning numbers for the November 19th drawing of Lotto in the National Lottery of Ireland

The actual Lost numbers are 4,8,15,16,23 & 42 - the last was transposed in the winning lottery numbers. There was a bonus number in the Lotto drawing - 19. The jackpot was €1,350,000, and 3 people have claimed it. Matching just five numbers gave €341, won by 298 people - one wonders how many of them were Lost fans.

Wikipedia notes on the Lost numbers,
The number sequence 4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42 is a recurring and significant story element. This string of numbers was broadcast from the island's radio transmitter, and it was this message that drew Rousseau's expedition to the island. Although she later changed the message after the deaths of her team, the numbers had also been heard by others, eventually making their way to Hurley, who used them to win the lottery. However, after his win, a series of misfortunes began to happen to those around Hurley, leading him to believe the numbers are cursed.
. Also of relevance: some symbolism around these numbers

It seems rather strange that the numbers helped win a lottery in the show as well as in real life.

There are numerous mathematical coincidences, of course, not least signficantly the Fibonnaci sequence and the Golden Ratio. This might be considered an application of the anthropic principle, and any meaning given to these occurences merely wishful thinking

Or it might be the Singularity manifesting itself.

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