Technology Parallels: The Frankenstein Monster - Essay Example

Technology Parallels: The Frankenstein Monster Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein cannot be read merely as a fantasy work of literature from the early 20th century, the text elucidates issues that are much more complicated than its plot forcing the reader to reconsider their perception on science and human ability to control it. For most people, the book is about morality and the sanctity of life as well as what it means to be human. They seek to prove that simply because humans can theoretically create life it does not necessary make it human and such attempts should be shunned since they are fundamentally immoral and deemed repugnant by most religions. While this approach is understandable, this essay seeks to examine a slightly different and more secular issue based on parallels in contemporary world. Many commentators who talk about the book always stress of the “dangers of modern technology” (Beauchamp 53). Today, technology has become to humanity much like the monster was to Frankenstein, people invent all sorts of technologies without sufficient understanding of their impacts only to end up creating monsters they cannot control since even the process of invention was experimental. When Frankenstein set out to make the monster, he does not per se wish to create one, it is his intention to make something that would prove he understood the secret of life but to what end it is never made clear probably because there was none. He only wants to feel proud because he could do what no other man had done “A new species would bless me as its creator and source; many happy and excellent natures would owe their being to me” (Shelly 51). He does not give a thought to what he would do with his invention or even how he could control it. To some extent, this sounds a bit like the nuclear race during the cold war, the US and USSR were working to develop and accumulate the most lethal nuclear warheads their budgets could allow but to what end? Neither could use them to attack the other since it would have resulted in the infamous Mutual Assured Destruction (MAD) (Freedman 106). After the cold war, they may have kept a hold of their warheads but the technology they invested in them was not as well hidden and as a result, today numerous countries have created their own nuclear and atomic weapons. Like Frankenstein spent his last days chasing after the monster he had created, these nations are now engaged in a clean-up exercise that appear to be futile as they try to take away weapons from “unstable” powers such as Iran. From a critical point of view, the underlying connection between the book and reality is rather overt. Frankenstein creates a monster he cannot control and ends up chasing after it at the risk of his life, in the same way, the same superpowers that literary invented nuclear weapon are afraid they may be its victims. Secondly, Frankenstein’s inability to control his creation is underscored by the fact that he is many instance manipulated and actually controlled by it as it gradually asserts it diabolical hold over him. Even after it had killed his sister, it manages to convince him to create a mate for it, he goes back to his cabin and works on the new monster until he sees the old one grinning at him from the window and realizes the enormity of what he is about to create (Bentley 327). He is later arrested for killing Henry even though it is the monster’s doing and on his wedding night, it kills his bride leading also to the death of his father. When he creates it, he does not consider the consequences his actions and it is clear afterwards that he does not only create monster only in his creation but also in himself. He turns from a mild curious and generally kind youth and becomes a cruel and vengeful man blind to reason and sense driven only by his insatiable thirst for revenge which eventually drives him into and icy grave. While matters may not be that grave about technology, it is worth noting an emerging albeit less fatal trend in communication technology. Humans should essentially be masters of technology given that it is after all an abstraction, however it has reached a point where not only can they not seem to function without it, it seems to control them. Today millions of people around the world cannot function without their mobile phones laptops and other technological devices; in fact, there have been cases of people who are addicted to their smartphones. Social skills are on the decline since whenever people sit down, are travelling in a bus or train and even at home, they are engrossed in their tech devices. What one reads on twitter or Facebook feed may end up controlling their mood for the entire day and without access to this many people feel helpless and isolated. Instead of coming up with ways to reduce the dependency, humans are inventing even more ways of keeping themselves hooked to the internet with devices such as Google glasses which promise a more incisive interaction with cyber world are being invented. They are just like Frankenstein when he discovers the monster looking at him with a fiendish grin as he tries to create “more of it”, however unlike him, the human race just grins back and keeps working. In the end, the book carries a critical lesson yet one which many people have and will continue to ignore since it is very difficult to see the long term consequence and bigger picture. Technology is undoubtedly very useful and important, however, it should not be applied to problems simply for its own sake but because it has been proven to fix them without creating others. In the nuclear example, it is clear that humanity created monster, literary and figuratively, just like Frankenstein, more than half a century later they are still trying to grapple with the long-term repercussions. In as far as, ICT is concerned, the monstrosity may not be as overt but with time, people will be forced to acknowledge that technology is having a tighter hold on them than is healthy. Frankenstein spent his life trying to undo something that was already done eventually, if the human race is not cautious, the future may spent in the futile attempt to redeem what life used to be before it went out of control. Works Cited Beauchamp, Gorman. "Technology in the dystopian novel." MFS Modern Fiction Studies 32.1 (1986): 53-63. Bentley, Colene. "Family, Humanity, Polity: Theorizing the Basis and Boundaries of Political Community in Frankenstein." Criticism 47.3 (2007): 325-351. Freedman, Lawrence. "Prevention, not preemption." The Washington Quarterly26.2 (2003): 105-114. Shelly, Mary Wollstonecraft. Frankenstein. Fairfield, IA : 1stWorld Publishing, 2013.Print. Read More