As such "benevolent" colonists the DHARMA Initiative was tolerated for some time by the Others, in contrast to the US expedition intending to abuse the Island as a nuclear test site. * During their research the DHARMA Initiative eventually discovered that keeping the Man in Black prisoner was one of the Island's major functions (hence the warning Egyptian hieroglyphs in the Swan Station's computer room), knowledge that the Others considered to be dangerous and ultimately resulted in the Purge.