Thanks

Thanks to everyone who has posted a comment! And stay tuned -- my plan is to update more frequently and to spotlight theories I like from other posters. To that end, a poster named lostboy has a fascinating theory on lost-tv that Dharma and Hanso joined forces at the height of the Cold War to avert nuclear annihilation. The catch was that the Cold War ended suddenly, rendering their original mission moot.

I wonder if that unexpected development might have prompted Hanso or the DeGroots to up the ante and provoke such annihilation themselves...