The people of the world are also ignorant, inconsiderate, narrow minded, arrogant and insecure, due to the technology that has been introduced (the problems with science). ‘Though three quarters of the world are starving, we are lucky here to have more than enough thanks to population control’. This quote was taking from Henry Swinton’s corporate speech at the launch of a new android. The quote shows Swinton to be completely inconsiderate, selfish, ignorant and narrow minded, which are many of the problems previously highlighted of this technological world. If Swinton is as described, then forgiving generalisation and stereotypes, the people he is speaking to, the rich and beautiful, are likely to be similarly inclined.
This is also the case in the world of Frankenstein. The people of this world are also ignorant and inconsiderate. For example, when the creation is shunned by the family who he has helped for weeks on end simply for his looks. This shows how ignorant the people of this world can be. This is proven further with this quote: ‘happy to have found shelter, however miserable, from the inclemency of the season, and still more from the barbarity of man’. Speaks the creation as he recoils from the humans.
Moreover, the people in the world of Supertoys tend to be incredibly lonely: ‘She stood alone on her impeccable plastic gravel path’. This quote regards Mrs Monica Swinton, the wife of Henry. The quote proves her loneliness and desolation. The picture this creates is particularly bleak and also links to the artificiality of the world that is damaged irrevocably by technology. This loneliness also links into the ethic that money can’t buy everything and that the technology cannot fill an emotional void which is observed in our society, but not in that of Supertoys: ‘Personal isolation will be banished forever’ (by the machines) and ‘an overcrowded world is the ideal place to be lonely’ are quotes that prove this.
Loneliness is incredibly evident in Frankenstein also. Loneliness is a viscous cycle in the novel. Loneliness begins with Walton on his ship. For example: ‘I try in vain to be persuaded that the pole is the seat of frost and desolation’. The language of this quote as well as the vocabulary portrays loneliness. The language is very down and depressing, almost sorrowful. Language like this is used throughout the novel. Figurative language, such as metaphor and personification are also used in order to put across the desolation. For example, the creation often and indeed Frankenstein often compare each other to ‘depraved wretches’ and are generally particularly self-conscious after the creation takes place.
Similarly, the world of technology in Supertoys helps to portray loneliness as it creates a void in day-to-day communication. No longer do people speak as much through a physical means of communication such as pure speech. When writing about the Swinton’s apartment, Brian Aldiss tells the reader: ‘Their apartment had no window onto the outside, nobody wanted to see the overcrowded external world’. This quote proves that the technological house creates a void between the inside and outside worlds. This is not socially right; it is ending the views of a global community and very much enclosing people after such a period of broadening horizons. A similar quote shows how an artificial world can try, but will fail to fill a human void: ‘It was amazing what whologram could do to create huge mirages in small places’. This situation can already be linked in modern society to the world of mobile and Internet communications, which many feel, is also destroying our people skills as a race.
However, the main problem with the world that is hampered by the technology is as aforementioned, the social class divide. The rich people are very much segregated from the poor people because of the technology available or unavailable to them. This divide is obviously already present in our society, with the third world countries being somewhat ignored by the western colonies, however, there is certainly a conscience shown by the people in the more fortunate positions, with charity and aid etc. However, in the world of Supertoys you get a strong sense of indifference from the people who are the luckier ones. This is perfectly demonstrated in a quote used previously: ‘Though three quarters of the world are staring, we are lucky here to have more than enough, thanks to population control’. Mr. Swinton spoke this quote more out of indifference than sorrow or gratefulness. This world is created by the technology and the way it affects society.
This world is largely due to Swinton’s ambitious good intentions, which led him to create artificial intelligence. For example, Swinton creates the previously mentioned androids that help to create a huge social class divisions etc.
Therefore, a common reason that shows how science has a negative effect on society is good intentions that unfortunately will never pay off.
These good intentions are linked without fail to the huge ambitions of both Frankenstein and Swinton. Pursuing perfect worlds, as both characters d, is something that is not without purpose and direction. For example: ‘Life and death appeared to me ideal bounds, which I should first break through, and pour a torrent of light into our dark world.’ In this first quote, Frankenstein is basically stating he wants to be the ‘saviour’ of the world by ridding it of its biggest scourge. Also, in Supertoys, Henry preaches: ‘Personal isolation will be banished forever’. This is incredibly ambitious because it is attempting to control peoples feelings and can be linked to a dictatorship, such as that of George Orwell’s 1984.
Once again, this reason leads the two characters to artificial creation and problems for society.
The need for perfection shown by both Frankenstein and Swinton in the books is another reason that drives them to create artificial life. Frankenstein wants to rid the world of disease, and Swinton wishes to continue the illusion of a perfect world in order for his products to continue to sell. This need for perfection backfires considerably.
For example, the creature in Frankenstein is far from physically perfect, therefore he gets shunned by society, which is one of the contributing factors to his murders: ‘Am I to be thought the only criminal when all human kind sinned against me? Why do you not hate Felix who drove his friend from his door with contumely? Why do you not execrate the rustic who sought to destroy the saviour of his child? Nay, these are virtuous and immaculate beings! I, the miserable and the abandoned, am an abortion, to be spurned at, and kicked and trampled on.’ Says the creature when considering his position.
This shunning leads to the creature feeling jealous and angry, not to mention self-critical: ‘accursed creator! Why did you form a monster so hideous that even you turned from me in disgust? God, in pity made man beautiful and alluring, after his own image; but my form is a filthy type of yours’.
Which in turn provokes him into the murders: ‘when I became fully convinced that I was in reality the monster that I am, I was filled with the bitterest sensations of despondence and mortification’. Therefore, the need for perfection is a way in which science has negative affects on individuals in society.
However, Frankenstein's need for perfection is lost at some stages during the novel. For example, Frankenstein's shunning of his creation is far from perfect. This is another way in which science has a negative effect on society. For example, the shunning of the creation leads the creation to the murders of Frankenstein's nearest and dearest in order for retribution of his abandonment. For example:’ and what was I? Of my creation and creator I was absolutely ignorant; but I knew that I possessed no money, no friends, no kind of property’.
This point is also apparent in Supertoys by the rejection of malfunctioning units. For example, the butler in the Swinton household breaks down and David says ‘Throw it away, and we’ll get a new one’. This shows the need for perfection in the world and the throwaway attitude that is apparent.
This has consequences in that it takes away peoples bare humanity. For example, David is thrown to the reject world ultimately although he was a ‘person’ who could have been loved.
A contributing factor that provokes the characters into furthering science is the families behind the characters. Frankenstein's family encourages him to further his knowledge of alchemy, which is linked to artificial creation. Frankenstein also creates the monster because he wants a companion: ‘No father could claim the gratitude of his child so completely as I should deserve theirs.’ which is linked into the loneliness of the world in Supertoys.
In Supertoys, David, has no real family after his creation, this is another problem that is caused by science, and directly relevant to the creation of artificial intelligence that is not loved as though flesh and blood would be.
This aspect is linked to the need for love shown by many characters in both stories. Frankenstein, his monster, David, Henry and certainly Monica all show how much they need love. For example: ‘ He loves you’ says Teddy regarding David’s affection for Monica. This need for love drives certain characters to create artificial life, to fill a void. This may be because of unfelt love from their families. For example, Frankenstein begins to feel disjointed from his family after moving to university. The consequence of the need for love is the creation of artificial life, which then in turn needs to be loved. However, in both novels, the artificial life form is not loved. This is what creates the negative affects on society.
Another way in which science has a negative effect on individuals in society is the effect the creations have on the creators. For example, throughout Frankenstein, Frankenstein is afraid of his creation and what he might do. Frankenstein cannot care for his creation and spends his whole life in fear. For a large part of his life Frankenstein is forced to follow his creation, in a vain attempt to banish him from society due to the problems he is causing. This pursuit eventually kills him. This can be blamed on himself easily, for he is the one who used science irresponsibly and the consequences backfired upon him. However, this is still a negative effect on society caused by science.
Similarly, Henry, eventually, labours to reacquaint himself with David. This comes about after his sense of guilt after abandoning his ‘child’.
However, these psychological problems are not as important as the prejudices that the new technology brings forward, particularly in Supertoys. This can be explained further by saying that the humans in the artificial world are prejudiced towards the perfect world, and perfect people. What would happen if somebody came along who wasn’t perfect? For example, David. David was imperfect in that he was an android and technically he was malfunctioning. Because of this, he was thrown on the scrap heap. This is a problem caused by technology, because it created the prejudices by creating a world where everything is perfect and seamless, nothing is real.
Overall, the main scourges of the societies in both books are the artificial creatures and therefore, the creators of these ‘monsters’. The creation in Frankenstein shows how science can be used irresponsibly to have negative effects on individuals in society through tactical murder and destruction. The creations in Supertoys show how science can have a negative effect on society by creating social divides, a superficial, prejudiced, fake, lonely, ignorant, arrogant, selfish, inconsiderate, narrow-minded and insecure world in which nothing is solid.
The books can be linked to Genesis and Paradise Lost in that they all involve creation, that was well intended but did not turn out as expected. In all four novels the creation was given a world, or habitat, but either they abused it, or inadvertently caused suffering for other members of the community.
The authors use the characters of Frankenstein's monster and David accompanied by the society and community by the two worlds of the two novels to show how science can be used irresponsibly to have negative effects on society and the individuals within it.
