Ryan Lynn
Dr. Adam Johns
ENGCMP 0200
12 January 2009
In Greek mythology, there are countless stories of divine beings interacting with the mortals that inhabit the Earth. They help unknowing heroes to defeat mythical creatures or point them in the right direction so they can fulfill their destiny. Prometheus, the Titan, is a prime example of this divine intervention. Prometheus was a Titan who stole fire from Mount Olympus and brought its light and warmth to mankind. However, this act did not go unnoticed and Prometheus was punished for his crime. He was bound in chains to a rock upon which an eagle would proceed to eat his liver for all eternity, for his liver would grow back each day. This act of Prometheus demonstrates that putting certain technologies in mankind’s hands is not without its consequences. Prometheus should not be a model onto which mankind looks to, mankind needs to consider the costs of acquiring high-level technology.Dr. Adam Johns
ENGCMP 0200
12 January 2009
In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Victor Frankenstein thirsts for knowledge. However, upon quenching his thirst, Frankenstein immediately rejects his own creation. He had stumbled upon a way to reanimate long dead flesh into a living being. The appearance of his creation was hideous, and not even its creator could look upon it. Over time, Victor lost track of this monstrosity. When Victor receives word of his little brother’s death, he accounts this tragedy to his own creation. The actual person accused of the murder is condemned, and Victor’s soul is tainted with the death of two humans. Frankenstein’s monster is his own “Promethean Fire”, in that having achieved a pinnacle in knowledge; it resulted in the death of humans and weighed heavy on his soul. He was filled with guilt, misery, and remorse. As Frankenstein threatens his creation, “…I may extinguish the spark which I so negligently bestowed” (102). He suffers as Prometheus did chained to his rock and wishes to undo his creation and regrets having made his discovery. This proves that there are advances in technology that mankind is not ready for, and if they are, they must first weigh the consequences of such advancement instead of foolishly throwing themselves into achieving its creation and immediately suffering afterwards.
The essay “Why the future doesn’t need us” by Bill Joy expresses Joy’s worries of technology advancing too rapidly and possibly leading to mankind’s extinction. Joy is conscious of the possible flaws that come with advances in robotics and nanotechnology. For example Joy states that “[e]ventually a stage may be reached at which…machines will be in effective control…people…will be so dependent on them that turning them off would amount to suicide”. Joy is saying that machines may become so advanced that our very survival would depend on them, which in turn could lead to the extinction of humans because the shutting down of the machines would lead to a certain death. Here, the “Promethean Fire” is the ability to create robots that make their own decisions and have an essentially conscious mind. Human extinction is a possible consequence of such advancement and a very notable one. Not only is human extinction a concern, but the replacement of humans with robots as the dominant species on the planet. George Dyson states “[i]n the game of life and evolution there are three players…human beings, nature and machines…[b]ut nature..is on the side of the machines”. This statement means that humans are going to be inevitably replaced by machines and this process cannot be stopped. There are also ethical issues that arrive with this technology, “[i]f we were to reengineer ourselves into several separate and unequal species…then we threaten the notion of equality…”. Human ethics comes into play, because if we are all engineered differently, how could we all be equal? This is another consequence of this technology that must be considered. Mankind is accelerating quickly towards these goals, but we may not be ready to deal with the negatives that come from achieving them.
Joy’s essay and Frankenstein both describe extremely powerful advances in technology. The story of Prometheus employs a very simple form of technology. Even though this piece of technology aided mankind greatly, the consequences were severe. We should look towards the story of Prometheus as an example of how technological advances can easily lead to adverse consequences. Prometheus represents what course of action should not be taken regarding technology. While new technology is tempting to the human mind, it must always be preceded with caution.
Works Cited
Joy, Bill. "Why the future doesn't need us". 11 Jan. 2009
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/8.04/joy_pr.html.
"Prometheus." Encyclopedia Mythica. 2009. Encyclopedia Mythica Online.
12 Jan. 2009
Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein. London: Penguin Books, 1992.
4 comments:
I think your essay is really good and you have the right idea. You successfully argued your point and backed it up with a lot of examples from the readings. However, it seems like you retold the stories a little too much, especially with Frankenstein. I think it’s ok to leave in the story of Prometheus because not all of us read it, but we did read Frankenstein and Bill Joy’s essay so we know what they’re about. If you take out some of the retelling of Frankenstein and Bill Joy’s essay I would just elaborate a little more on why Prometheus shouldn’t be used as a model for the future. Also, maybe talk a little more about why he should not be used as an example specifically in scientific/technological matters since that was included in the prompt.
Ryan Lynn
Dr. Adam Johns
ENGCMP 0200
19 January 2009
Prometheus as a Cautionary Tale
In Greek mythology, there are countless stories of divine beings interacting with the mortals that inhabit the Earth. They help unknowing heroes to defeat mythical creatures or point them in the right direction so they can fulfill their destiny. Prometheus, the Titan, is a prime example of this divine intervention. Prometheus was a Titan who stole fire from Mount Olympus and brought its light and warmth to mankind. However, this act did not go unnoticed and Prometheus was punished for his crime. He was bound in chains to a rock upon which an eagle would proceed to eat his liver for all eternity, for his liver would grow back each day. This act of Prometheus demonstrates that putting certain technologies in mankind’s hands is not without its consequences. Prometheus should not be a model onto which mankind looks to, for mankind needs to consider the costs of acquiring high-level technology.
In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Victor Frankenstein thirsts for knowledge. However, upon quenching his thirst, Frankenstein creates a monster of which he is regretful for creating. Frankenstein’s monster is his own “Promethean Fire”, in that having achieved a pinnacle in knowledge; it resulted in the death of loved ones and weighed heavy on his soul. He was filled with guilt, misery, and remorse. He did not take into account that this monstrosity could become the dominant species on the planet and cause the extinction of humans. As Frankenstein threatens his creation, “…I may extinguish the spark which I so negligently bestowed” (102). Victor recognizes that he did not think before giving the monster life, and now wishes to destroy his creation. He suffers as Prometheus did chained to his rock, the death of his loved ones causing him pain, as did the eagle to Prometheus. This proves that there are advances in technology that mankind is not ready for, and if they are, they must first weigh the consequences of such advancements instead of foolishly throwing themselves into achieving its creation and immediately suffering afterwards. Prometheus acted irrationally and did what he thought was best for mankind’s development. He did not think of the punishment Zeus would inflict upon him for carelessly giving humans technology that they may not have been ready to use or even should use.
The essay “Why the future doesn’t need us” by Bill Joy expresses Joy’s worries of technology advancing too rapidly and possibly leading to mankind’s annihilation. Joy is conscious of the possible flaws that come with advances in robotics. For example, Joy states that “[e]ventually a stage may be reached at which…machines will be in effective control…people…will be so dependent on them that turning them off would amount to suicide”. Joy is saying that machines may become so advanced that our very survival would depend on them. If we were to ever shut them down, we would inadvertently kill ourselves. Here, the “Promethean Fire” is the ability to create robots that make their own decisions and have an essentially conscious mind upon which we rely on. Human extinction would be the equivalent of the eagle eating Prometheus’ liver. Not only is human extinction a concern, but also the replacement of humans with robots as the dominant species on the planet. George Dyson states “[i]n the game of life and evolution there are three players…human beings, nature and machines…[b]ut nature..is on the side of the machines”. This statement furthers the fear of the destruction of mankind due to its own creations. Robotics may become a field of technology that needs to be slowed down. There may be no need to have humanoid robots, other than to make life easier. But, this in turn would make mankind sloth. The consequences of creating humanoid robots definitely outweigh the advantages. Mankind is accelerating quickly towards these goals, but we may not be ready to deal with the negatives that come from achieving them. Prometheus was unprepared for the wrath of Zeus and therefore suffered.
Joy’s essay and Frankenstein both describe extremely powerful advances in technology. The story of Prometheus employs a very simple form of technology, but demonstrates an excruciating punishment for the achievement of the technology. Even though this piece of technology aided mankind greatly, the consequences were severe. We should look towards the story of Prometheus as an example of how technological advances can easily lead to adverse consequences. Prometheus represents what course of action should not be taken regarding technology, diving in headfirst without taking the time to think what will happen, or if we even need to have certain advancements at all. While new technology is tempting to the human mind, it must always be preceded with caution.
Works Cited
Joy, Bill. "Why the future doesn't need us". 11 Jan. 2009
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/8.04/joy_pr.html.
"Prometheus." Encyclopedia Mythica. 2009. Encyclopedia Mythica Online.
12 Jan. 2009
http://www.pantheon.org/articles/p/prometheus.html.
Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein. London: Penguin Books, 1992.
jmv31 - This response is too short and too simple. When you start thinking about details you do fine - you just do it very briefly, then stop.
Ryan - Your first paragraph is a little wordy, yet neglects to say anything about *why* we should take the Prometheus legend as a legitimate precautionary tale. Just pointing that out.
I enjoyed your discussion of Frankenstein and Prometheus. The quote about the spark is particularly clever. Still, I want you to think about this line: "This proves that there are advances in technology that mankind is not ready for." How does it do that? Why should we take the Prometheus legend, and the reworking of it in Frankenstein, as proof? You do a good job exploring how the Prometheus story works in Frankenstein, but you aren't explaining why we should take it seriously.
In your discussion of Joy, of course, you make the credible claim that we can use the Prometheus story to understand what Joy is doing. You do a good job connecting both texts to the Prometheus story - you aren't nearly as clear on why you consider either text compelling, or why their relationship to the Prometheus story makes them more compelling, not less.
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