Remember the days when Smokey used to be Cerberus, and Darlton said it was made up of three wisps of smoke?
Back then I used to think that maybe the three had different functions: one was the information gatherer who scanned people, another was the judge/executioner and the last one the shapeshifter/illusionist.

They've shown the opposite however, that Smokey is just MIB. But with the (pretty solid) theory that Mother was/is a Smoke monster too, maybe there's something more to this. The writers hinted in the podcast that Mother breathed fire and was maybe a dragon, which when associating with Smokey made me think about the time Ben summoned him and it had the head of a dragon in a particular scene (don't have the screencaps though).
Maybe there ARE three people/souls inside the Smoke monster: MIB who wants to leave, Mother "the security system" who wants to kill the ones who come here and protect the Island and a third one - or just the 'evil' essence that's escaped from that cave.

When did they say Smokey was made up of three wisps of smoke? I thought people just got that from Left Behind when it rams into the Sonic Fence and goes in three directions?

I believe they addressed it in that week's (or some following week's) podcast, but you're right, they could've just teased about it while answering a question in their manner.

Hmm...I like the integration of the 'Mother is a smoke monster' theory--but I don't know that we'll get a solid resolution. To me, as the series has progressed we've seen how understanding impacts Faith directly through the view other characters have of Smokie. To Dharma he was Cerebrus, to the Others he was Evil incarnate, (now) he's Locke. He can be all things to all people but the reality is he's just a guy with a goal and the special abilities to pull some strings.

Huh, I've never heard of the Smoke Monster being made up of three wisps of smoke or it having a dragon's head.

http://forum.thefuselage.com/showthread.php?t=94360
I think this was the original discussion, but I remember seeing a couple more different pics from that scene.
But as velvetunderground said, we probably won't get any answers. I mean, I was actually expecting an answer as to what the smoke monster was, and apparently it's a smoke monster.

I thought the dragon and firebreathing comments were pretty funny. And I'd never heard of the three heads, though I had once heard of it called Cerebrus

It was called Cerberus on the blast door map - the one Radzinsky drew, even though he knew about all the stations already.