Isaac Asimov coined the term “Frankenstein Complex” in his 1947 robot stories to not only warn of humanity’s tenuous control over technology, but also to caution against the profit-based replacement of human labor with automation. The humanoid android and the cyborg blend man and machine, evoking some of the most dire variants of warnings of the Frankenstein Complex.

This course will use digital publishing tools and digital humanities techniques including text analysis and data visualization to explore the evolution of AI and the ethics involved in its creation in contemporary science fiction and American culture. Students will use digital research tools to analyze materials and digital publishing platforms to produce and share their scholarship.