Since I'm without evidence, I'm going to keep this short.
So, we're very aware that Smokey had never referred to him/herself as a man. With all of the connections to female, mythological, ancient, Greek and Egyptian gods, is it possible that Smokey is, in fact, female? We know that "Adam and Eve" were buried with a black and white gem, identical to the ones that Jacob/MiB hold to symbolize their dark/light opposing sides, so is it possible one of them are female? Smokey just refers to his "humanity" being lost, and we know that both Smokey and Jacob are capable of appearing to us and the LOSTies as different forms of humans. I'm starting to believe that it doesn't matter whether or not Jacob "died," as he is already "dead." Both clearly have flashbacks, and an origin to their story so perhaps Jacob had always had the ability of appearing to whomever he wants, whenever he wants, and now that he's "dead," he'll only appear to Hurley and not to othe! rs because Hurley can see dead people.
This was just a speculation, and not so much a defined theory, so if you guys have any input on other evidence we may have of this theory, please post!