Transgenic Technologies
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.
