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The scientist had gone too far in his invention, "mocking" God's power by recreating life: Man as God. Shelly seems to be self-healing here, trying to let go of her daughter's loss, abandoning the hope of some science-based resuscitation. Death must be accepted as final; the creature is not truly human but a phantasm, hovering between human and god-like, all-powerful and profoundly lonely. Fast-forward 200 years, and the cutting-edge science of our time is now a combination of electricity, digital technology, and genetics. Much has changed since Galvani and Volta -- but not the hope of so many to use science to go beyond death, acquiring some sort of immortality by transcending the weakness of the flesh. Transhumanists firmly believe that science will be able to do this, and fairly soon. Possibly, through genetic manipulation and the cloning of oneself, or through a "brain dump," the transfer of your very own neuronal code into machines capable of storing it and of reigniting the synaptic connections so that you can become "pure spirit" so to speak, a digital disembodied creature, transferable from machine to machine like a piece of software: a modern version of the Resurrection.

The so-called "year without a summer," 1816, was bleak, if not strangely gothic. Mount Tambora in Indonesia had erupted the year before, pitching volcanic ash into the atmosphere and obscuring the sun. Torrential rains pressed deep into the year, resulting in global crop failures. The birds quieted down by midday, as darkness descended, and for days at a time, a group of writers huddled by candlelight in a rented mansion on Lake Geneva. The dashing 23-year-old poet Percy Shelley and his 18-year-old companion, Mary, who had already taken to calling herself "Mrs. Shelley," traveled to the lake to spend the summer with the poet Lord Byron.

When Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley penned the cult classic Frankenstein, she referred to the story's ill-fated protagonist as "The Modern Prometheus," directly referencing the Greek Titan known for creating mankind. Prometheus loved humans, so much so that he stole the gift of fire from Mount Olympus and passed it on to the lowly humans who were neglected by the Gods. His generosity, however, was to undue him and curse him for the rest of his existence. Frankenstein would also share this fate after taking on the role as creator, a responsibility that ended up being too much to bear. And now, after centuries of reiterating the same theme, we too are becoming the modern Prometheus.

IMPORTANT: This is just a preview of the first few pages. To read the whole book, please download the full eBook PDF.