Frankenstein@200
The year 2018 marks the 200th anniversary of the publishing of Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein. The novel is eerily relevant today as we face ethical dilemmas around appropriate use of stem cells, questions about organ donation and organ harvesting, as well as animal to human transplants. Additionally, the rise of artificial intelligence portends an uncertain future of the boundaries between machines and humans. Frankenstein@200, was a year-long series of academic courses and programs including a film festival, a play, a lecture series and an international Health Humanities Conference that will examine the numerous moral, scientific, sociological, ethical and spiritual dimensions of the work, and why Dr. Frankenstein and his monster still capture the moral imagination today. This project was sponsored by the Stanford Medicine & the Muse Program in partnership with the Stanford Humanities Center, the Stanford Arts Institute, the Office of Religious Life, the Vice Provost for Teaching and Learning, Stanford Continuing Studies, the Cantor Arts Center, the Department of Art & Art History, and the Center for Biomedical Ethics.
Artist statement by logo creator Ryan Brewster:
I am a first year MD candidate at the Stanford University School of Medicine moonlighting as a graphic designer and medical illustrator. Frankenstein@200 lies at the intersection of medicine, science and the humanities. In developing the brand for the event, I wanted to capture this interdisciplinary focus. The result is a playful interpretation of Dr. Frankenstein’s monster, with a pencil replacing his neck bolts and an abstracted stethoscope and molecule surrounding him.
News of the Post Human
10/28/2017, Stanford Radio
Frankenstein's Impact on Science with guest Audrey Shafer (Interviewed by Russ Altman)
CBC Radio - White Coat, Black Art w/ host Dr. Brian Goldman
-- Frankenstein 101: What the monster teaches medical students w/ Audrey Shafer
10/16/2018, Stanford Live
-- Beethoven, Meet Frankenstein
10/8/2018, Times Herald
-- Vallejo A&E Source: Prof talks bioethics at the Empress
09/24/2018, Smithsonian Magazine
-- Scientists Create Immature Human Eggs Out of Blood Cells For the First Time
Stanford Medicine
-- Why Frankenstein matters (By: Audrey Shafer)
06/19/2018, Literary Hub
-- Ahmed Saadawi Wants to Tell a New Story About the War in Iraq
06/08/2018, Stanford SCOPE Blog
-- Laser art installation commemorates Frankenstein
05/31/2018, Literary Hub
-- The Treacherous Start to Mary and Percy Shelley’s Marriage
05/15/2018, Stanford News
-- How artificial intelligence is changing science
04/25/2018, Palo Alto Online
-- In sickness and in health
04/24/2018, SCOPE Blog
-- Listen to the human stories, the Henrietta Lacks family tells scientists
04/18/2018, Variety
-- 'Frankenstein' Author Mary Shelley set as 'Genius' Season 3 Subject
04/04/2018, Stanford Scope Blog
-- It’s when, not if, computers come for medicine
03/27/2018, Wired Magazine
-- The Next Best Version of Me: How To Live Forever
03/25/2018. The Globe and Mail
-- Deep learning: Why it’s time for AI to get philosophical
03/22/2018, SLAC
-- Hidden Medical Text Read for the First Time in a Thousand Years
03/21/2018, The Paris Review
-- Frankenstein in Mary Shelley’s Own Hand
03/14/2018, Stanford Medicine News
-- Researchers say use of artificial intelligence in medicine raises ethical questions
02/26/2018, Smithsonian Magazine
-- ‘Frankenstein’ Manuscript Shows the Evolution of Mary Shelley’s Monster
02/13/2018, Claymen Institute for Gender Research
-- What Do Robots Have To Do With Gender?
02/12/2018 and 02/19/2018, The New Yorker
-- The Strange and Twisted Life of "Frankenstein"
02/04/2018, New York Times
--Early Facebook and Google Employees Form Coalition to Fight What They Built
01/23/2018, The Six Fifty
-- Frankenstein@200: Stanford explores the futurism of a centuries-old novel
01/17/2018, The Conversation
-- STEAM not STEM: Why scientists need arts training
01/16/2018, IEEE Spectrum
-- Stanford's AI Predicts Death for Better End-of-Life Care
01/10/2018, NPR
-- Man As God: 'Frankenstein' Turns 200
01/02/2018, Stat News
-- He makes tadpoles with eyes on their tails. Could that one day help solve birth defects in humans?
01/01/2018, BBC News
-- Frankenstein: Behind the Monster Mash
12/29/2017, Wall Street Jourmal
--‘Frankenstein’ Has Become a True Monster
12/3/2017, Washington Post
-- ‘The Woebot will see you now’ — the rise of chatbot therapy
11/30/2017, HYPERALLERGIC
-- Testing Human Perception with Uncannily Kinetic Body Parts
11/27/2017, Singularity Hub
-- Thought-Controlled Prosthetic Hand Restores 100 Realistic Touch Sensations
11/13/2017, Bloomberg
-- Digital Pill That Tracks Use When Swallowed Gets FDA Approval
10/29/2017, The Jakarta Post
-- Meet Sophia: The first robot declared a citizen by Saudi Arabia
10/26/2017, Reuters
-- Wal-Mart's new robots scan shelves to restock items faster
10/26/2017, Reuters
-- Special Report: U.S. company makes a fortune selling bodies donated to science
10/23/2017, New York TImes
-- The Pop-Culture Evolution of Frankenstein's Monster
10/20/2017, Stanford News
-- Stanford scholars probe how Americans think about mental life
10/17/2017, Wired
-- Love in the Time of Robots
10/16/2017, New Yorker
-- R. Kikuo Johnson's "Tech Supoprt"
10/15/2017, BBC News
--Can We Teach Robots Ethics?
10/13/2017, New York Times
--How Frankenstein's Monster Haunts Queer Art
10/13/2017, NBC News
--Have Scientists Found a Way to "Turbocharge" the Human Brain
10/07/2017, New York Times
--Co-parenting With Alexa
10/06/2017, The Guardian
--Our Minds Can Be Hacked
09/21/2017, New York Times
--Facebook's Frankenstein Moment
09/19/2017, Literary Hub
--Franklin Foer On The Existential Threat of Big Tech
9/12/2017, Thrive Global
--We're Drowning in Data But Starved for Wisdom
9/8/2017, Washington Post
--How Silicon Valley is erasing your individuality
9/1/2017, The Guardian
--Dr Con Man: the rise and fall of a celebrity scientist who fooled almost everyone
08/11/2017, The Salon
--This man had an awkward conversation with an A.I. sex robot so you don’t have to
8/9/2017, The Guardian
--Is This The Future of Artificial Intelligence? Bring It On.
8/7/2017, MIT Technology Review
--A New Way to Reproduce
08/05/207, Washington Post
--Rise of The Machines
07/25/2017, NPR
--Wisconsin Company Offers To Implant Chips In Its Employees
06/27/17, NPR
--Updating Frankenstein For The Age of Black Lives Matter
06/21/17, Nursing Clio
--Iron Man and the Science Fiction of Disability
04/03/2017, National Geographic
-- How a Color-Blind Artist Became the World’s First Cyborg
-- How Humans Are Shaping Our Own Evolution
03/17/17, CNN
--Mostly Human with Laurie Segall
02/28/2017, The Ezra Klein Show (Podcast)
--Listen to Yuval Harari, author of “Sapiens,” on AI, religion, and 60-day meditation retreats
Call for chapter proposals: Edited Collection - Fearfully and Wonderfully Made: Modifying the Black (Self) Body through Science and Technology, a Historical and Social Context
Fearfully and Wonderfully Made: Modifying the Black (Self) Body through Science and Technology, a Historical and Social Context is historically grounded and socially charged as it seeks to provide careful analysis and engaging interpretation of the importance of post- and transhumanism by drawing on specifically African American visions, imagination, and critical perspectives.
Interested authors should send a 300-word abstract and 200-word biography to mhill33@utm.edu by September 1, 2017. Contributors will be contacted by October 1, 2017, with anticipation for completed chapter drafts by March 1, 2018.
Click HERE for more information.
03/26/17, Stark Insider
--Review: Mary Shelley’s ‘Frankenstein’ re-imagined for stage in dynamic, high-tech adaptation
The perfect marriage of art and technology for an empathy-deprived world.
02/15/17, New York Times
--Teaching ‘Frankenstein’ With The New York Times
To mark the 200th birthday of “Frankenstein,” the NY Times updated their older Learning Network lessons with recent Times resources to pair with the text.
02/01/17, SF Chronicle
--Come for the coffee, stay for the kink? The Bay Area's hybrid coffee shops
01/25/17, IEEE Spectrum
--What Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein Can Teach Engineers
Designing technology with the best intentions can still lead to disaster
Stanford Bookstore Meet the Author: Henry T. Greely
January 24 2017, 6:00pm
Stanford Bookstore
Join us for a book event with Stanford Professor Henry (Hank) T. Greely, celebrating his book, "The End of Sex and the Future of Human Reproduction."
01/11/17, UC Merced News
--Students Building Living Machines Out of Engineered Tissues
01/03/17, Slate
--Frankenstein Futurography series
Slate publishes a series Frankenstein Futurography throughout January 2017 in conjunction with New America and Arizona State University
Frankenstein: 200 Years of Scientific Dread
Podcast by Robert Lamb and Christian Sager
Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein” has terrified the world for nearly two centuries, thanks to countless adaptations and the timeless nature of the 1816 text. In this episode of Stuff to Blow Your Mind, Robert and Christian discuss the modern world that this science-fiction horror classic emerged from and the dark shadow it continues to cast over scientific endeavor.
10/26/16, New York Times
--Artificial Intelligence as a Bridge for Art and Reality
09/01/16, The New York Times
--How Tech Giants Are Devising Real Ethics for Artificial Intelligence
09/01/16, Stanford News
--Stanford-hosted study examines how AI might affect urban life in 2030
In the first of what will be a century-long series of periodic studies on artificial intelligence, top scientists say, “It is not too soon for social debate on how the fruits of an AI-dominated economy should be shared.”
08/25/16, The Washington Post
--Frankenstein lives, 200 years later
08/04/16, All Things Considered
--NIH Plans To Lift Ban On Research Funds For Part-Human, Part-Animal Embryos
07/26/16, New York Times
--Building a Better Human With Science? The Public Says, No Thanks
A new survey shows distrust of scientists, a suspicion about claims of progress and discomfort with the idea of meddling with human abilities.
Lester D. Friedman, Ph.D. (Hobart and William Smith Colleges) and Allison Kavey , Ph.D. (CUNY John Jay College and the CUNY Graduate Center) published Monstrous Progeny: A History of the Frankenstein Narratives (Rutgers University Press)
06/29/16, "Entitled Opinions (about Life and Literature)"
--Inga Pierson on Mary Shelley's Frankenstein
A conversation with Dr. Inga Pierson about Mary Shelley's 1818 novel Frankenstein.
06/23/16, Scope
--2016 Global Entrepreneurship Summit panel to explore the future of artificial intelligence
As part of the 2016 Global Entrepreneurship Summit, which kicked off on campus yesterday, Stanford and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy are presenting a panel discussion tonight (The Future of Artificial Intelligence) to explore the rapidly evolving field of artificial intelligence. Russ Altman, the Kenneth Fong Professor and professor of bioengineering, of genetics and of medicine, is one of the featured experts.
One Hundred Year Study on Artificial Intelligence (AI100)
The One Hundred Year Study on Artificial Intelligence, or AI100, is a 100-year effort to study and anticipate how the effects of artificial intelligence will ripple through every aspect of how people work, live and play.
05/19/16, artdaily.org
--The origin of Frankenstein exhibit taps into angst over science
To mark the 200 years since England's Mary Shelley first imagined the ultimate horror story during a visit to a frigid, rain-drenched Switzerland, an exhibit opens in Geneva Friday called "Frankenstein, Creation of Darkness"
Post-Anthropocentrism at Stanford: The State of the Question
Thursday, May 12, 2016 (All Day)
Stanford Humanities Center
Click HERE for more information
04/18/16, Stanford News
--Comics like Hellboy produce a heightened adventure of reading, Stanford scholar says
Using the Hellboy series as a touchstone, film and media studies Professor Scott Bukatman has discovered new ways to talk about comics while offering a heightened "adventure of reading."
U.S. National Library of Medicine Frankenstein Exhibition
Frankenstein: Penetrating the Secrets of Nature explores the enduring power of the Frankenstein story to expose hidden fears of science and technology—both in the original novel and shaped into new forms, such as plays, films, and comics. Captivating audiences for 200 years, as scientists have gained new knowledge, the Frankenstein story remains like a warning beacon, throwing its unsettling beam upon human efforts to penetrate the secrets of nature.
11/23/15, The New Yorker
--The Doomsday Invention
Will artificial intelligence bring us utopia or destruction?
08/24/15, New York Times
--A Volcanic Eruption That Reverberates 200 Years Later
Investigators are still struggling to understand the most powerful eruption in recorded history, which gave rise to icy weather and pandemics, but also to great literature and art.