Frankenstein Was a Warning, Not a Blueprint for AI

The necessity of a liberal arts background for STEM is made apparent nowhere moreso than AI research. Because clearly they have not understood Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. You know, the one subtitled “The Modern Prometheus”? It’s not “horror” in the modern sense. It’s horror in the sense of psychological dread, the unexamined consequences of one’s actions, and a creator’s responsibility toward the created. Being conscious and aware is a mixed blessing at best. The joke in Rick and Morty’s “butter passing robot” is not that the self-aware robot is only there to pass butter. It’s the last, less-quoted line from Rick: “Yeah, welcome to the club.” That line matters. It shows Rick’s default way of interacting with the world is sociopathic (something too many fans forget), but that Rick also realizes the joke is on everyone, including him. None of us know what the purpose of life is. It’s existential dread, and it can be devastating. The horror of Dr. Frankenstein’s hubris is the same…