From Frankenstein to Sophia, or what a 200-year-old novel teaches us about robotics and our future

It’s not your fault if on hearing the name Frankenstein the first thing you think about is a dumb, green-headed golem on a rampage. On second thought, you may realize that Frankenstein was, in fact, the doctor who created him, this strange creature in the outgrown coat who keeps lurching and mumbling around, intimidating peaceful villagers. Mary Shelley’s story, published 200 years ago this year, provides a new twist for our enlightened robot age. Instead of being an old tale from the crypt, it’s quite alive.

We were truly thrilled to announce last year that the one of the world’s most famous non-human creatures will hit the stage at the coming Brain Bar. You may have guessed right if you haven’t heard about it before, but you were certainly right if you’re a black belt follower of ours. Yes, it’s Sophia. But what does she have to do with an ugly monster sewn together from various body parts? Well, a lot.

Mankind has always been fascinated with the creation of life and taken huge risks to solve its mystery. But there is a minor problem: creating living beings is thought to be a privilege of the gods, and by imitating them you’re playing the hubris card.

And believe me, no one ever won who played the hubris card in ancient mythology. Remember Prometheus? This titan stole the fire from the gods to give it to mankind. The reward? He was bound to a rock by Zeus, and every day an eagle came to feed on his liver which grew back overnight only to be eaten again. Well, the message is clear: don’t mess with the gods, kids!

Romantic fiction brought on the character of the mad scientist. It’s no coincidence that Mary Shelley added the telling subtitle to her book, ‘The Modern Prometheus’. Just like the ancient alchemists and magi, the characters, these solitary weirdos experimented day and night to solve the forbidden puzzle, to distil the final formula of life — only to end up ruined by their own strange inventions and creatures. Dr Jekyll, Doctor Moreau, you name it, went all overboard with their hubris card. And lost badly.

Don’t these characters look rather weird and antiquated now, because they belong to a different era, to the gory pages and pictures of horror and science fiction? Well, not really. With the Machine Age came the robot in different shapes and sizes. It was the true heir of the legendary golem, the Enlightenment automata and the mechanical toys of antiquity, but it ceased to remain the plaything of a few chosen scientists and curiosity-hungry courts. Robots are now out in the open unleashing a whole new flood of nightmares on humanity.

Will they take away our jobs? Will they take away our rights? Will our inventions finally enslave and kill us? Will mankind become more and more helpless in the shadow of its impeccable copy? Even if you switch from dystopia channel to utopia, the questions remain nonetheless puzzling.

Will artificial intelligence overpower human intelligence? How can we plant free will in our creatures- or do we want it at all? Can they ever be capable of feeling joy and anger, sadness and love? Will we eventually merge with them?

This leads us back to Sophia, the invention of Hanson Robotics, who has given numerous interviews, sung in a concert, starred in talk shows and even graced the cover of Elle magazine. She was recently granted Saudi citizenship, gaining more rights than the average woman in the country. Does she rob flesh and blood women of empowerment, or on the contrary, is she a robot revolutionary?

Whichever stance we take on technics and ethics, what we can and could do, we have to face a whole new set of dilemmas in the 21st century. In the end, whatever our solution may be, we have to define who we are as humans, as Victor Frankensteins facing their own creatures.

And Sophia will certainly have something staggering to say to us at this year’s Brain Bar.