The first time I read Frankenstein, the Modern Prometheus, I had nightmares. Naturally, I read it again. Mary Shelley created the genre of philosophical science fiction. Monster indeed!

The ‘monster’ was in ways more human than Dr. Frankenstein. Rejected by his maker, he taught himself to survive and to read. He read ‘Paradise Lost’ by John Milton [“Did I request thee, Maker, from my clay to mould me man? Did I solicit thee from darkness to promote me?”] ‘Plutarch's Lives’ by Plutarch, and ‘The Sorrows of Young Werther’ by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.

He couldn’t understand how humankind could not live up to its own ideals. He was rejected, and so he rejected humanity and proceeded on an inhumane murderous rampage of revenge, to destroy humanity itself. Yet he would have forgiven all if only his ‘father’ had accepted him for what he was and loved him. Spoiler alert: The ultimate plan was to create an artificial race of perfect ‘human’ beings. What could possibly go wrong?

The parallels to AI are a lesson to be learned. I doubt we will.