Without getting into the whole Penelope/Desmond thing that seems to be very, very central to what is really going on with your wonderful little show (ha ha), I'm getting the sense that Zardoz (a very bad early 70's John Boorman film based on an excellent idea that featured Sean Connery) and the Philadelphia Experiment play a bit of a role in the inspiration for Lost - care to comment? I thought not :)

In Zardoz, a group of scientists and intellectuals create a shield around their community. Disease and death are banished - until one of the scientists finds a way to encourage Connery's savage to sneak into the community via a giant levitating head made of stone (I didn't see any feet, maybe it had 4 toes?)

In the Philadelphia Experiment (the real one) a bunch of cables are arrayed around a ship (I forget the name of that ship) to set up an electro-magnetic field that renders the ship "invisible" to the human eye. I keep thinking about your cable that leads to the French Chick.

Anyway, it's all great stuff. My wife (of 27 years!) and I have some interesting discussions on Thursday evenings :)

l8r

Mark