Eileen's Critical Annotated Webliography

Frankenstein continues to occupy the popular imagination as a monstrous scientist. Analyze some of the ways in which Frankenstein continues to haunt discussions of recent technologies.

Frankenstein is a classical novel written by Mary Shelley in 19th century. Frankenstein and the monster he created become a typical image of fear about technology. Nowadays, Frankenstein still occupied the important position in discussion about technology. It represented the fear between humanity and technology and induced different debate over religion, morality and technology. Google search engine is used to locate most of the online sources, especially Google Scholar which provided different kinds of scholar research by using the keywords of “Frankenstein and technology, cloning, fear, humanity”. Different discussion about Frankenstein showed on the search engine including the discussion of reproductive technology, the debate of Christianity and Frankenstein and other perspectives.

Damyanov gave complete background information of Frankenstein, the relationship with technology and compared with other science-fiction, Neuromancer in “Technology and its dangerous effects on nature and human life”. It talked about the theme of Frankenstein and the message that Shelley wanted to bring out. In this research paper, it mentioned that Frankenstein gave us warning about inherent dangerous in the development of modern science. As modern science and technology will increase the inequality between human and nature, they will destroy the nature and caused different problems such as moral responsibility. Modern technologies such as genetic engineering increase the chances to manipulate life. The essay provides a good starting point for us to understand about Frankenstein and its relationship with technology. It has compared two classical science-fictions in different period which showed a similar theme and message as both explore the dark side of technology and science development which clarify the importance of moral science and technology research.

In “Biotechnology and the fear of Frankenstein”, it mentioned that the story of Frankenstein is always used to discuss about biotechnology. Although Frankenstein is a story wrote in 19th century, it has a relevance to nowadays technology. Campbell illustrated the difference between “scientific fact” and “science-fiction”. It discussed about 1970s rDNA revolution caused the fear of Frankenstein as Frankenstein myth realized and are not just fantasy of a novel. As people can change or control the nature of human by biotechnology including DNA or genetic technology, it terrorizes the human sense of identity, uniqueness and primacy. At the same time, Campbell pointed out that the ambition of Frankenstein to trace the sources is good, but careful and caring science and technology is needed to avoid turning the success into monstrosity just like Frankenstein. This paper is contained an in-depth discussion about Frankenstein. It is very useful to see the relationship between biotechnology and the story of Frankenstein, the fear of people about the biotechnology nowadays as Frankenstein myth may become real.

Vurdubakis and Bloomfield stated that Frankenstein is a common metaphor in the debate of reproductive technologies. They discussed about reproductive technologies comprised the role and effect of technology in human affairs in “Frankenstein Unbound?”. It examined that the media representation of science lead to the people thought of science and technology. As Frankenstein occupied an important fear imagination of technology, it increased the unease in human heart which faced about the rapid development of science and technology. Also, the paper mentioned about human bodies becomes the site for bio-technology took place of and the biotechnology has the power to re-shape the nature of humanity and the society, e.g. cloning caused moral controversy and struggle. As cloning may involve commercial interest, it will result a new monster myth and moral concern. This paper analyzed how the media representation of science and technology influence human perspective. It illustrated the new concerns and the new monster myth which caused by reproductive technologies effectively.

In another way, Frankenstein becomes a term which represented the reproductive technologies such as cloning, advanced cell. In “Frankenstein’s Minister”, Saletan mentioned about the new moral problem. As advanced cell technology can cure diseases and immortalize cells, it caused another new moral problem such as dissolving human nature. Moral challenges on reproduction are mostly focused on stem cell technologies. Some scholars argued that those experiments are under law protection which the stem cells were only capable of forming many tissues, but not an entire body. However, Saletan stated that the collapsing distinction of organisms and non-organisms created a moral challenge. In fact, the moral challenge is also depended on the definition of organism. This passage has another view on biotechnology ethics as most of the ethicists and people are emphasized on the moral problems in cost, but not in benefit. Also, biotech companies should be played a careful role on dealing with the science and technology. Otherwise, it may make Frankenstein myth realized.

In the blog called “Harmonious Glow Writings”, the author, Wheeler, compared the similarity between Frankenstein and cloning. She used religious perspective to discuss Frankenstein and cloning. In her view, cloning is modern Frankenstein including different types of technologies such as DNA and reproductive cloning. Cloning refers to the processes used to create copies of DNA or cells to create a new organism whereas Frankenstein assembled the body ingredients into new specie. The blog obtained the opposition view of Christian. As she stated that cloning let the scientist become the creator just like Frankenstein is the creator of the monster, human tried to take God’s place. But clone is created in unnatural way. And the debate of creator: God or human existed. In fact, there are many debates on Frankenstein and religion. It mostly related to the morality of reproduction technology and the perspective of Christian. As Christian think that reproductive technology violated their principles and morality, they always held the opposition point of view.

Against Nature is a program broadcasted by UK and it has a different point of view on technology. This part of program, “How Irrational Fears Are Paralysing Scientific Research” is interviewed different scientists and most of them think media representations of science promote fear and anxiety to the public. (Against Nature, 1997) The ethics committees supported to tighten the control of science in order to protect the nature. But, at the same time, many scientific researches are banned and influence the development of science and technology. The scientists mentioned that people should be frightened about the banning of valuable researcher. In their perspective, Frankenstein science should be protected as the fear of Frankenstein caused the people disagreed with the scientific research, e.g. John Gillot, the author of Science and the Retreat from Reason considered Frankenstein as hero. They think that the restriction obstruct the development of science and technology, such as finding the way to cure cancer. It is interesting that the program expose the different opinion of the scientists. And it raised a question that is the fear of Frankenstein being exaggerated? The truth is people ignored the benefit of the technology development and keep on attacking the science. Although the modern technologies make the scientist look like modern Frankenstein, some technology such as cloning has benefit to cure cancer and other disease if it used properly.

According to the research, the discussion about Frankenstein is mainly related to the fear between humanity and technology. Most of the sources used Frankenstein as a metaphor to illustrate the problem of modern science and technologies such as reproductive technology and cloning. And the discussions are mostly extending to the topics about moral issues, humanity and religion. On the other hand, some sources explored the other side of opinion. The scientists and some scholars think that the negative representation of Frankenstein influenced the public and reinforced their fear. However, their fear will retain the scientific and technological progress. So, there are different ways to discuss Frankenstein and recent technologies, both positive and negative.

References:

Against Nature. (1997). How Irrational Fears Are Paralysing Scientific Research: Environmentalists Are The New Enemies of Science. Retrieved from March 30, 2008, from http://www.ourcivilisation.com/aginatur/prog3.htm

Campbell, C. S. (2003). Biotechnology and the Fear of Frankenstein. Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics, 12. Retrieved from March 29, 2008, from http://journals.cambridge.org.eproxy2.lib.hku.hk/action/displayFulltext?type=1&fid=170174&jid=CQH&volumeId=12&issueId=04&aid=170172

Damyanov, O. (1996). Technology and its dangerous effects on nature and human life as perceived in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and William Gibson’s Neuromancer. Retrieved March 30, 2008, from http://www.geocities.com/Paris/5972/gibson.html

Saletan, W. (1998). Frankenstein’s Minister: Ethicists Diffle While Biotechnology Remarks Human Beings. Retrieved from March 29, 2008, from http://www.slate.com/id/10137

Wheeler, H. (2007). Frankenstein vs. Cloning – Man: Created or Cretor. Retrieved from March 29, 2008, from http://harmoniousglow.blogspot.com/2007/06/frankenstein-vs-cloning-man-created-or.html

Vurdubakis, T. & Bloomfield, B. P. (2004). Frankenstein Unbound? Monster Myths and Metaphors in the Debate over New Reproductive Technologies. Retrieved from March 30, 2008, from http://www.wickedness.net/Monsters/M2/vurdubakis%20paper.pdf