Over two centuries ago, Mary Shelley created a horrifying tale of the horrific consequences that result when man oversteps his limits and manipulates nature. In her classic tale, Frankenstein, Shelley weaves the terrifying implications of a young scientist who plays God and creates life, only to be haunted throughout his life by the monster of his own sordid creation. Reading Shelley in the context of today's technologically advanced times, his tale of monstrous creation provides a truly gruesome warning. Because today the sciences are eager to simply bring a human being to life, as in the case of Victor Frankenstein's mad quest, but rather to generate something potentially even more dangerous and terrifying, with implications that could endanger the world whole and humanity. population. Few things are more powerful than the human mind or human intelligence. This ability to think, learn, and process complex thoughts has been the driving force that has enabled the immense growth of human culture and society, without which it is doubtful we would ever have had the ability to evolve from our basic animal existence. As fantastic as this quality may be, our intellectual growth has not always generated ideas that produce solid, sure results. Victor Frankenstein, although a fictional character, provides a superb example of the vast potential of human intelligence and the morbid destruction it can create. For very real examples, one need only read the headlines to find a multitude of evil and perverse atrocities occurring every day due to the human mind and "intelligence" run amok. This is why, in today's light, with technology gaining more and more power, we mu...... middle of paper......"children of artificial intelligence" simply decide to rebel because they want to? Clearly, the potential for disaster is very real when we take the power of our minds and put it into machines that have the ability to act in ways that exceed our capabilities. We are blinded by the seemingly beneficial qualities of this growing technology, naively becoming more and more dependent on this very powerful creation. We need only remember the gruesome story Shelley told in Frankenstein to realize the horrible mistake we may well be making. Just as Victor realized too late that he had given birth to a real monster, our world may suffer the same fate as we watch our "children of artificial intelligence" manifest into monsters we no longer have control of. Applications: Essays on the use of AI. (7 October 2002). ThinkQuest. The history of artificial intelligence. (7 Oct. 2002).