The lesson, so to speak, to be learned from the fictional Frankenstein is that we must understand and care for that which we have imagined and subsequently created. Failure to do so is disastrous. It seems that if we are unable to understand and to care for that which we create, there is no hope for ethical guidance. The problems resulting from technological advancements are overwhelming, so overwhelming, in fact, that it seems easier to throw up arms in despair and hope for the best. No one needs to be reminded that technology can take us to the moon, that it enables us to cook food more quickly than ever before in history, that it can cure disease, or that it can be used to destroy every being on this planet.
Humanity stands on the threshold of a dream.
The dream, however, could turn into an agonizingly wretched nightmare. An equally frightening possible consequence of technology is abnormal and atypical animals, such as cows and pigs weighing over 10,000 pounds. Beings such as these seem mere creations of an active imagination, dwelling only in the realm of possibility, much like the being created by Dr. Frankenstein. Imagine a world populated and therefore surely transformed with such beings, beings engineered, developed, and produced by humans. One might also imagine a world of people especially engineered and sanctioned to tenant the globe.