Frankenstein's Problem - Technologies Out of Control and Human Responsibility

Frankenstein, the name of a monster, we do not know who the monster is. Frankenstein is a novel written by British writer Mary Shelley in 1818. Frankenstein is a biologist with a passion for the origin of life. He haunts the morgue with a criminal mind, trying to assemble a huge human body from different parts of a corpse. When the monster finally gets the life to open his eyes, Frankenstein is frightened by his ferocious face to abandon him and flee, but he is hot on the heels of Frankenstein to ask for a female companion, warmth and friendship;  One after another is a series of strange suspense and murder case. Frankenstein is considered to be the world's first real science fiction. This novel is controversial. People always talk about its relationship with society and morality, but I think the novel should be more of a cautionary tale. Times in the development of science and technology in progress, artificial intelligence, cloning technology, these technologies like the monster in the novel. Once these technologies get out of control, the consequences will be a disaster. All this is the responsibility of the human, is not a very good, limited use and development of these technologies.

We are living in an age of relatively advanced technology. Cloning technology can copy objects into a living object. Cloning pigs and cloning cattle have become a reality. If it were not for some people's objection, cloning humans would certainly become a reality. We have to figure out whether technology is out of control. My understanding is that in a sense, technology is out of control. First, literature always precedes reality. Many years ago, we read Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. In fact, it was a story almost 200 years ago, and now part of the book has become a reality. We watched in the class a movie story about artificial intelligence people having their own emotions and then escaping from human control step by step according to their super high IQ. It is called Ex Machina. Although now it seems that this story is just fiction, no one can ensure that will not become a reality. Until then, everything is late, everything will become uncontrollable, and humans will become slaves of robots. There is a British series of films: a black mirror, a lot of sci-fi scenes in movies now seem unrealistic, but it is quite possible if you think carefully and more. For example, there is an episode, because of the living environment of the earth is getting more and more difficult, people think of making a machine to shrink the human body and people then consume less food and air, but this is only an excuse for a better life for more people. The shrinking people live even worse. Another example is the Matrix movie; there are so many movies that literature may be predicting the next 200 years. There are also examples of out-of-control technology in reality. In 1945, the two atomic bombs dropped by the United States and Japan caused huge human losses. To this day, the people of Nagasaki, Hiroshima, cannot live well.

In the future, technology is moving in a direction that may be uncontrollable. I think we need to figure out who is the monster; is it human, representing the creator, or the monster itself, representing something created by humans? In the novel, the monster was created by Frankenstein. The monster was not accepted by humans, nor by his creator. I prefer to believe that monster is kind in itself, just like newborn children, they are all kind when they come into the world. What makes them stay good or become evil is not them, but the environment that affects them. For a newborn child, it may be their parents or teachers; for the monster in the story, it's Frankenstein. In that case, we can draw the conclusion that Frankenstein turned the monster into a monster. So, who is a monster? I think Frankenstein is a monster. Those who get technology out of control or those who use technology to do bad things are the real monsters. After we figure out who is the real monster, we should know that it is the human’s responsibility to take charge of the technologies we create. Like newborn children example, human beings are creators, parents, and teachers to the technologies. Parents have to be responsible for their children; we have to be responsible for the technologies.

As a brief conclusion, Mary Shelley made a bold prediction over 200 years ago and part of the prediction came true. Fortunately, we don’t see the real monster in the story in reality. Technologies cannot stop developing, but we can take responsibility for the technologies we created.