Victor Frankenstein suffered from a lack of foresight. He only intended to revive a human being; he did not consider the consequences of such action and did not create protections against harmful and unexpected effects. Real life scientists suffer from the same problem. Today, in every issue of Time, we are reminded that scientists in one modern field, nuclear technology and the emerging field of genome mapping/genetic engineering, wield considerable power. Shelley raises the question of whether the pursuit of scientific knowledge should be constrained. The pursuit of knowledge should never be limited because injunctions against originality would lead to the oppression of humanity's most important resource, our thinkers. But scientists themselves should be committed to foresight. At the beginning of a new idea or process, groups of scientists should review the issue before the new methods are applied. They should try to foresee possible negative effects and try to minimize them in advance and contain them later. This would have come in handy for Victor Frankenstein. The emergence of agriculture at the dawn of civilization was also the emergence of genetic engineering. The everyday varieties of horses and grain we know today were crossed into current, recognizable states from earlier plants and wild animals well before history began to be recorded. “Breeding is a relatively slow and clumsy method of 'improving' animal and plant species” *1* compared to modern times, when genetic manipulation means test tubes and Petri dishes, not dirt or breeding. Although prohibitively expensive (for now), DNA manipulation and fertility techniques will become simpler, cheaper, and more accurate. Soon, any computer scientist with...... half of paper...... 1991.Andrea A Lunsford, John J. Ruszkiewicz, The Presence of Others: Voices and Images That Demand ResponseMary Shelly, Frankenstein. Bedford/St.Martins, Boston MA, 2000.1 Van Doren p.3982 Van Doren p.2933 cited in McGowan p.824 cited in McGowan p.825 Van Doren p.3986 McGowan Ch.127 http://www.doug-long .com/einstein.html8 http://www.wakeamerica.com/past/books/manhattan/manhattan/manhattanmanhattan11.html9 http://www.prop1.org/prop1/histnuke.html10 http://www.cbsnews. com/now/story/0,1597,158208-412,00.shtml11 http://www.dreamscape.com/morgana/adrastea.html12 http://www.cadu.org.uk/13 McGowan p.19114 http ://www.chernobyl.co.uk/15 http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/tre/16 http://www.sierraclub.org/nuclearwaste/17 http://www.un. org18 Shelley p.23219 Shelley p.232