Questions of a Past & Modern Era
Frankenstein & its relevance today.
This leads me to my next point, which is questioning if science will ever be too overwhelming and overpower us. Our world is rapidly changing with the ever increase use of technology. iPads are held by two year olds, robots are substituting human labor, warfare weapons are becoming more complex… we can’t help but question: is technology taking over our humanity? This is a question that is also explored by Mary Shelly in Frankenstein. The existence of the creature, his ability to kill humans, and his strong human emotions make us question whether or not we will ever reach a point in which our own technology can provoke our own demise just like it did for Frankenstein. This is extremely relevant today, as evidently proven with my first post “Should iKill The iPad?” and the post of other peers that dealt with topics such as digital privacy, stem cells, robots and many other technologically related topics. Our generation will soon enter the business world as engineers, writers, and creators that end up deciding where humanity is headed. With the increase of technology, we must remain informed about the capacities that technology has and its power which can be easily underestimated. Although fictitious in nature, Shelly grapples this idea of technology versus humanity by presenting us with the creation of the creature and the horrors that it brings to its creator. Thus, helping us reflect on the development of technology today and the implications that it may bring.
Despite the fact that there are many wonderful books, Frankeinstein is a must-read classic that should continue to be read in school because of the relevance that it has today and because of the opportunity that it provides us to question the worth of humanity, where it stands today and where it is headed.
Frankenstein is a wonderful story that takes you through the extremely intriguing questions such as: what defines our humanity and will science ever be too overwhelming and overpower us? Both questions, despite being portrayed in a novel written nearly two hundred years ago, are still relevant today, making the novel a worthy classroom reading.
The first question, what defines our humanity, is one that has always intrigued the human mind since the time of ancient Greek philosophers such as Socrates and Plato. Nonetheless, it’s still one of those philosophical questions which doesn’t have a certain answer. By reading the novel, people find themselves questioning what defines our humanity because the creature, although being created and not conceived, seems to have all the emotions that a human does… however, he isn’t human. Should he be treated as such or should he be regarded as a failed experiment? This is a questions that tramples with our definition of humanity. Exploring this questions (as we did in the socratic seminar) helps us, students, expand our critical thinking, encourage us to take a stance for what we believe in, and help us ponder on an idea that we might have to face later on in the future due to the rapid pace of technological advances.