So the story behind "Lost" is now solved:
In 1975 the UN artificially constructed the island for use as a military base. It was later used as a test site for research involving mental health and accelerated learning.The UN's aim was to use advanced computer technology to solve the world's energy crisis.
The plane crash never happened but the survivors' have been brainwashed into believing that it did. The survivors of flight 815 are actually living in a virtual reality simulation and the 'monster' is in fact the result of a time travel experiment which went wrong.
There are two groups of Others. One group are the results of a human cloning experiment and the other are survivors of a ship wreck which occured several years ago.
The 'incident' mentioned in the orientation film refers to a series of killings which occured when several test subjects were driven mad after being administered an experimental mind expanding drug and pressing the button every 108 minutes is necessary as part of an ongoing time travel experiment.
The numbers are an encoded form of the formula which makes interdimensional travel possible.
Actually, that isn't it. It was generated randomly. If you want your own "Lost" solution, visit the Lost Theory Generator for more possibilities. What is scary is how good these random theories are. How many of you believed the above theory before finding out it was random?