Frankenstein's Children: Our Conflicted and Intimate Relationship with Technology

First lecture and discussion as part of a six-part President's Class series titled Human Being/Being Human in the Digital Age

A novel published two-hundred years ago still serves as a root metaphor for our relationship to technology. We create our monsters, and they come back to ask us why and what purpose they serve in the world. Like Dr. Frankenstein, our answers are fraught with the difficulties of creatures who become creators and the awesome power of our imaginations. We are Frankenstein’s children, still asking why we are here, how we came to be, and what will become of us in a whole new world of science and technology. In this first lecture/discussion, we explore our conflicted and intimate relationship with all kinds of technology throughout our history.