3 Lessons Entrepreneurs Can Learn from Frankenstein’s Monster

TLDR; Too Lazy, Didn’t Read

Frankenstein’s monster stands for technological progression and artificial intelligence. The novel of Mary Shelley, the story of a mad scientist and his creation, teaches us a lot about how we approach society-changing technology:

1. Don’t judge a book by its cover. The way we look at technology creates the narration of how we perceive it. There is always more than one side to everything, and having just your first impression isn’t enough.
2. The monster is a monster because WE are making it a monster. Change in society is only bad if we are making it bad. It’s neutral, different, but brings changes, dangers and chances nonetheless.
3. We should take responsibility of what we create. If we nurture technology such as artificial intelligence right, we can use it for the better. If we feed it with illegal input and don’t use it responsible, technology will not turn out the way it was intended.

Working at a tech start-up introduced me to a whole new world of creativity and wonder: Robots charging themselves without human intervention, an app that unifies several working steps, and many more things. We live in a time of innovation and fast progress, some of us already being digital natives.

With it, our possibilities change, and so does society. However, there is this narrative of humanity changing for the worse, losing valuable social skills as well as happiness in the process. Technology is frequently called evil, and is not taken seriously — even start-ups, so to speak.

Such arguments remind me of Frankenstein’s monster, a creature of Mary Shelley’s famous novel Frankenstein; or, the modern Prometheus. In the original, the Swiss scientist Victor Frankenstein discovers the secret of life and successfully creates a being by stiching up body parts and injecting them with electricity. He then abandons the monster, as it is hideous and deemed an abomination. The plot revolves around both of them, the creature eventually killing Victor’s family as revenge for being created and humanity treating it as a monster.

The brilliantly written story asks questions which, to this day, are relevant and vital to understanding life itself:

Is humanity the peak of evolution? Are we moving towards perfection or Godhood through evolution? Is the monster inherently evil, or are we making it a monster? Is our environment shaping us, or are we shaping our environment?

Here, the monster can be used as an analogy for today’s current topics of progress, technology, and invention. Especially the theme of artificial intelligence (AI) serves as a perfect example of a current Frankenstein’s monster, which is why it is worthwhile to explore Mary Shelley’s most famous work and think about how it could help us understand our creations on a deeper level.

Here are three lessons that we as entrepreneurs should think about:

Literature and start-up culture can profit from one another (Earlybyte)

Lesson 1: Seeing Through the Hideousness

“Looking at how we perceive AI, it is fair to say that a narration around it is created”

The first lesson the monster is teaching us is about prejudice towards unknown things, concepts, and people. “Don’t judge a book by its cover”, basically. It also gives hints on why sticking to first impressions can be detrimental to the one being judged.

In the middle of the novel, the monster tells its story after being abandoned by its creator, which teaches us something about first impressions. The creature complains that it was poorly treated by humans wherever it went, only experiencing fear and rejection. Although having human intelligence and learning the language and even reading, the monster was forced to hide from humans to be with humans. There was only one exception: an old, blind man who did not see the creature and therefore spoke to it without fear and prejudice.

The monster and robots that work with AI have a lot in common. More than meets the eye.

This can be translated into our modern times, the monster standing for technology, the internet, and social media. Although widely accepted and used, there are still people who fear and judge them without trying them. We all have heard the prejudiced views of social media and the internet promoting social isolation. However, the best example would be the topic of AI, a thinking system of algorithms that allows machine learning, responding, and reacting to input.

Looking at how we perceive AI, it is fair to say that a narration around it is created. Think about a movie where AI is used. Usually it takes the role of a villain in those films, controlling the systems around it. This shapes how we look at AI as well: We think more about its dangers and talk about it as if it is already a villain, even though nothing of this sort has happened yet – we just judge it by its cover.

Lesson 2: Changing the Perspective – WE are the Monsters

The existence of the monster in the book, and its circumstances, are enough to question what it means to be human. The creature tells its story from the beginning, meaning its birth, to the very moment it stands in front of its creator. It talks about how it felt being abandoned and treated like a monster. Questioning its existence, it even accuses its creator of being created in the first place, with reasonable arguments! It then explains that it sought revenge only because it was treated as a monster by people, though it wanted to live with them. Eventually, it could not forgive the mistreatment and started to kill after losing all hope, making its creator responsible for its suffering.

“We decide whether AI is the villain, the hero, or the supporting character in this narrative we create”

Here’s an interesting question for you: Is the monster evil from birth onwards, or is it made a monster by humanity’s mistreatment? You might say: Well, it’s a mix of it. We still don’t know in many cases whether it is genetics or environment — and that might be true. However, if this is the case, would giving the creature a chance might have created another outcome? Are we actually shaping our reality, and Mary Shelley reminds us of it through the monster?

Judging others has an effect on those being judged, sometimes to the degree that they believe everything others say, becoming this person in the process.

If this is indeed the case, we should stop perceiving technology and the changes it brings as something evil. Instead, the creature reminds us that everything has different sides and that change in society is neither good nor bad; it’s just change, and change is inevitable.

Furthermore, we should give technology and everything that comes with it a chance. Social media, for instance, might create an unhealthy body image, and we should be mindful of that, but it also serves as a voice for activists fighting for their communities. AI, too, will bring changes, though that does also mean it generates chances if treated right. We decide whether AI is the villain, the hero, or the supporting character in this narrative we create.

Lesson 3: Taking Responsibility

Like in literary studies, the monster’s creator does not get enough spotlight. He is a narcissist, only judging things and people on how they look. After creating the monster and feeling closer to God for one second, he quickly recognizes the creature’s hideousness, calls it an abomination, and runs away from it and his responsibilities as its creator.

Frankenstein and his monster — Picture from the new Film VICTOR FRANKENSTEIN (2015)

This, as a third lesson, teaches us about the responsibility of creating. With the guiding of Victor the monster’s life might have played out differently, and it wouldn’t have experienced rejection. It might not have killed Frankenstein’s family and would have saved — or spared — Victor’s life. Because he abandoned it, Victor loses control over the monster, which eventually leads to his downfall: He chases what he created without being able to catch up with it.

If we expose it [AI] with potentially harmful things like illegal porn, trolls, racism, fake news, and wrong statistics, the outcome of how this technology is reacting differs.

The same could be said about technology. Without taking responsibility as creator or user, the creation develops its own will. Think about the body image issue on social media: We cause the problem because we use the tool this way. We give those people who propose such “perfect” bodies the platform and audience to do so. We misuse the tool, and nobody feels responsible for the people who get a distorted body image.

With AI, this could be a similar case in the future. If we take responsibility early on, feed and nurture the AI with the correct information, we can integrate it into our lives. If we expose it with potentially harmful things like illegal porn, trolls, racism, fake news, and wrong statistics, the outcome of how this technology is reacting differs. We decide if we want to guide the monster or let it become the vengeful being that seeks to eliminate us.

Nevertheless, the potential of AI has been recognized. The EU, for example, has published the Ethics Guidelines for Trustworthy AI where an expert group defined seven requirements that AI should have.

Conclusion

Although Mary Shelley’s novel is over 200 years old, it still comments on current topics in our society. There will always be people that will call technology bad without giving it a chance. However, entrepreneurs and start-ups should remember that every change brings chances. We should take those chances to create a better world with monsters that live side-by-side with us instead of them taking revenge on us for mistreating them.

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What do you think about the monster and technology? What did you think and what didn’t you disagree with? Let me know in the comments.