Bill’s Lost Site

This idea also comes from our faithful reader Patti:

If you haven’t done so already make sure you review the Hanso Foundation website. Under Projects there is a section for Life Extension. In the telex (why are they using a telex?) it attributes life extension to a suite of transgenic technologies. To quote the telex:

“… this milestone is clear proof that the suite of transgenic technologies that comprise the Hanso Foundation’s Life-Extension Project will someday help human beings achieve useful lifespans well beyond the current norm.” Click Here for the complete letter.

So what is Transgenic Technologies? Akin to cloning, transgenic studies focus on inserting foreign DNA into a life form to solve a certain problem. As an example, a large number of people get sick while drinking milk because of the contents (or ingredients) in the dairy product. The content for milk is controlled by DNA inside a dairy cow. Transgenic technologies would look at the situation, identify what specifically coded piece of DNA is responsible for the problem and replace it with another code of DNA that produces a different result. Of course, that is a very simplistic example but hopefully it makes sense.

Transgenic studies currently appear more focused on plants/crops than on mammals. However, that shift is changing as scientists toy with growing human organs in pigs, as one current example.

How could this apply to Lost? Thinking conceptually, if you could take out the bad in humans (for example, remove an attribute like anger) what would that do? Or, what if you replaced DNA that controlled strengh and replaced it with DNA from a much stronger animal? Since the show is grounded in science and pseudoscience the possibilities are really endless.

The point is, the Hanso Foundation, hardly a bastion for moral science, has an island full of people that would make great test subjects. They can’t leave, they can’t communicate to the outside world, they have nothing to defend themselves. At the end of the day our Losties could very well be very large lab rats.

This comes to us from Patti - our ever astute Lost fan. In researching Dharma she found the following:

Everyone wants to be happy and no one wants to suffer, but very few people understand the real causes of happiness and suffering. We tend to look for happiness outside ourself, thinking that if we had the right house, the right car, the right job and the right friends we would truly be happy. We spend almost all our time adjusting to the external world, trying to make it conform to our wishes. All our life we have tried to surround ourself with people and things that make us feel comfortable, secure, or stimulated, yet still we have not found pure and lasting happiness.

It is time we sought happiness from a different source. Happiness is a state of mind, so the real source of happiness must lie within the mind, not in external conditions. If our mind is pure and peaceful we shall be happy, regardless of our external circumstances, but if it is impure and unpeaceful we can never be truly happy, no matter how hard we try to change our external conditions. We could change our home or our partner countless times, but until we change our restless, discontented mind we shall never find true happiness.

Full excerpt is found Here.

So, relating to Lost how could this tie in? In the orientation film there was mention of creating a utopian society. When I think of a utopian society I think of a society where there is no crime, everyone lives well, people contribute to the community and feel good about themselves. To date that type of society has never existed. Even if an individual can achieve that level of peace - how can you create a whole community that shares in the experience with you?

My thoughts … what if utopia was a frame of mind that you could be drawn into through drugs, hyponotism, therapy, etc. Instead of creating a community type utopia could you create a utopia in someone’s mind? Regardless of what is going on around them - could someone remain in a perpetual state of happiness? There could be violence and poverty, yet to the person in utopia they are oblivious to what is really going on. They see the world only as utopia. Think about this concept like anti-depressants on steriods. A constant state of utopian bliss. Again - quoting from the Dharma website: Happiness is a state of mind, so the real source of happiness must lie within the mind, not in external conditions.

Food for thought.