About
A Four-Week Self-Paced Course with Jason D. Batt, Ph.D. Two hundred years ago, a nineteen-year-old woman wrote the most prescient warning about technology humanity has ever received. We're still not listening. In this four-week journey through Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, you'll read the original 1818 edition—the raw, urgent text that founded science fiction as an ethical genre, before later revisions softened Victor's choices. WHAT YOU'LL DISCOVER Through three critical lenses—technological philosophy, literary analysis, and Jungian psychology—you'll uncover why this novel speaks louder now than ever. You'll explore the Prometheus myth and forbidden knowledge, tracing Shelley's dialogue with Genesis and Paradise Lost. You'll examine Victor as a man who creates life to conquer death, then flees from what he's made—and what it reveals about himself. Through Monster Theory, you'll discover how cultures create monsters to process what they fear and desire. WHAT YOU'LL LEARN • The three questions every creator must ask: Can we? Should we? What will we owe it? • How the Creature functions as Victor's Jungian shadow • Why "the monster always escapes" • The novel's direct relevance to AI, CRISPR, and synthetic biology WHO THIS IS FOR You want to understand why this novel keeps appearing in conversations about artificial intelligence. You're drawn to psychological depth and mythological resonance. You believe the best literature teaches us what it means to be human, to create, and to take responsibility for what we bring into the world. Mary Shelley gave us the warning. It's time to finally read it. Course Format: • Four weekly 120-minute sessions (pre-recorded) • Discussion-based and interactive • No prerequisites—accessible to all thoughtful adults • Primary text: Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1818 edition)