New technological progress may be the reason for the greatness of modern day society, but it is imperative to know that new technologies are also going to be responsible for the destruction of today’s innovative and advanced world. In Mary Shelley's important novel Frankenstein, she displays man's hunger for new technology, and shows how that curiosity can lead to disaster. Shelley's views expressed are still relevant, and society should react accordingly to her warning. Technology becomes dangerous once it falls into the wrong hands and is abused for selfish or immoral reasons. By relating this ideology to modern times, it is evident that performance enhancing drugs were created to help athletes, but have done more harm than help on America's …show more content…
Barry Bonds exploited the monstrosity that performance enhancing drugs can cause, but almost no blame can be placed on the creator of steroids, or the creator of any other performance enhancing drug for that matter. On the other hand, Victor Frankenstein should be held solely responsible for the monster his creation turned into. All performance enhancing drugs were created for medical purposes, with the men who discovered them having no idea that they could be used in such a harmful way. In Dermot McEvoy’s piece, Bonds Stirs the Drink, he talks about Nathan Jendrick’s views on steroids. While Jendrick recognizes steroids are not a bad drug, he gives off the belief that it is just a drug that has fallen into the wrong hands too many times by stating, “It is steroid abuse that has and is destroying American athletics," (McEvoy). This declaration that steroids are a good drug just used improperly by the wrong people proves that the mastery of a new invention cannot solely stop it from becoming monstrous. The center of one of Shelley’s main arguments proposes that Frankenstein’s failure to master his creation caused it to turn monstrous. While her argument contains truth, Shelley insinuates that the mastery of a new technology can prevent disaster, and that contradicts what has been shown by performance enhancing drugs. That part of Shelley’s argument may not apply to the history of performance enhancing drugs, but her claim that technology becomes monstrous once fallen into the wrong hands proves the relevance of her argument towards performance enhancing drugs. The distinct personality traits of Victor Frankenstein are eerily similar to the characteristics of Barry Bonds and other performance enhancers. Shelley describes Frankenstein as an
This week’s National Geographic video examine steroids, specifically anabolic steroids, drugs patterned after testosterone that promote masculine changes in the body and increase muscle development (Levinthal, 2013, p. 295). The video looked at steriods and examined important topic such as steroids use in sports, it’s impact negative impact on the body, legality issues with anabolic steroids (it has been illegal and requires prescription since 1990s), it’s medicinal purposes (it is use by doctors to treatment men who loses the ability to make their own testosterone), and the benefits that it does offer to those who use it. It conveys this utilizing example of former athletes, scientists who are examining steroids, and stories of of those steroids have impacted personally by this substance.
The Unfavorable Outcomes of Technology in Frankenstein Advances in technology are the new wave of the 21st century. Surprisingly, technology hasn’t been the most favorable advancement to come about. In the 18th century lightning was a strange phenomenon happening constantly around the world and in London. Scientist, such as Frankenstein, started experimenting with lightening to see what they could achieve.
Romanticism as defined in the American Heritage dictionary is a movement "characterized by a heightened sense in nature, emphasis on the individual's expression of emotion and imagination, and rebellion against established social rules and conventions." Technology is defined as "the practical application of knowledge especially in a." Mary Shelley joins these two realms in Frankenstein, to create one of the most memorable characters in literature, Victor Frankenstein.
Throughout the history of athletics, humans have pursued new and innovative ways to construct better, faster, stronger athletes. Steroid use is one of the most popular choices among these athletes. Steroids, first created in the 1930s, are synthetic hormones that produce specific physiological effects on one's body (Center for Substance Abuse Research). Although the German scientists who discovered steroids did not intend its use for body building or creating better athletes, steroid use has developed into a controversial subject concerning the health of users and other moral issues. Overall, the use of steroids in athletics is physically and morally wrong because it essentially promotes the deterioration of the health of athletes and
Over the past century using steroids or performance enhancing drugs has been a massive issue in today’s athletic society. Using steroids is unfair to athletes and their fans, because it gives certain sportsman an unfair advantage. Some athletes try to win at all costs even if sometimes that cost is there career, achievements, and even there lifes.
“…medical researchers believe that between 1 and 3 million youths and adults have taken anabolic steroids in one form or another specifically to enhance their looks or athletic performances,” stated Nuwer (Nuwer, 61). As astounding as these figures are, the number of performance drug users is steadily increasing. With this progressively increasing numbers, it is projected that millions more will use steroids in the immediate future (Newer, 61). Athletes have always sought an advantage in competition even if ignoring the law and their health if necessary. Using drugs of any sort to facilitate an athlete’s athletic ability should be illegal. The use of performance enhancing drugs is not only detrimental to the user but it also creates an
Some scientists also fail to see any benefits of this technology and believe that germ-line engineering fails to be necessary. They “are adamant that germ-line engineering is being pushed ahead with ‘false arguments’” (Regalado). Through in vitro fertilization, people fertilize several embryos in order to choose a healthy embryo that lacks the disease-causing gene. This process eliminates disease from the offspring without altering the genes of all future generations, and this form of fertilization is understood and accepted with no chance of unknown, negative effects. Many scientists agree that germ-line engineering, in which this technology is used to alter embryos and pass changes to offspring and all future generations, is unethical
Former Notre Dame Football coach, Knute Rockne, once said, “Show me a good and gracious loser and I’ll show you a failure,” (“The Future of Steroids”). The importance of winning in sports and being the greatest has grown immensely. This unquenchable desire to be stronger, faster, and more agile than the opponent, has caused many athletes to stop at nothing to be the best; this pressure has caused athletes to take banned and illegal substances known as performance-enhancing drugs (Performance-enhancing drugs) to achieve maximum strength and speed. The use of illegal performance-enhancing drugs in sports has been obvious to many spectators and sports enthusiasts for quite some time now, and athletes who have been found guilty of taking
The most commonly discussed issue in sports of the 21st century is the use of performance enhancing drugs by professional athletes. Over the past four years, it has been nearly impossible to turn on the television without hearing something about athletes and these drugs. From former National League MVP Third Baseman Ken Caminiti's admission of steroid use in an issue of Sports Illustrated (Verducci, 2004) to 2006 Tour de France Champion Floyd Landis being stripped of title due to a failed doping test (Blue, 2006) virtually every sport is involved. Are performance enhancing drugs a substance that threatens the very existence of professional sports, or are they the future? Perhaps the issue
In the past couple of years, many athletes in different sports have been caught using performance-enhancing drugs. When an athlete tests positive for performance-enhancing drugs it is usually one that is well known. Furthermore, there have been many instances never reported. It has come to a point where an athlete is doing really well in his sport, speculations on the use of steroids or other performing-enhancing drugs arise, the bothersome thing about sports today is that the speculations may very well be true. The usage of steroids, and other performance-enhancing drugs, is precarious. While it has enhanced the entertainment value of sports, it also has
Science is simply a practice, a method for asking questions and finding answers; it is a way to approach the world. But the ability to harness that practice to create powerful change has always carried its own dangers. Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus is a novel written by English author Mary Shelley who was born in 1797 and lived during a period of scientific advancements and the movement of gothic literature. Her most well-known novel tells the story of Victor Frankenstein, a young scientist who creates a monster brought to life through science and technology. When the Monster realizes how he was created and is rejected by mankind, he seeks revenge on his creator's family to avenge his own sorrow.
When was the last time you saw a sporting event and thought what you just saw was incredible? That whoever just did that was superhuman? Now put this through your mind. That athlete could improve his or her already superb skills into something even greater. This can be possible with the help of steroids. There is a current debate of allowing steroids to be legal in sports. Steroids should not be allowed in sports. Some people ask why. This research paper will give those people just a few of the many reasons why it should not be allowed. Through examining dangers of steroid abuse, ethics in sports, and characteristics of individuals who take and use steroids, it is evident that steroids should not be allowed in sports.
The debate over athletes using steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs has always been a hot-button issue in the sports world. From major league athletes in baseball and football; to track stars and bicyclist in the Olympics, the use of steroids in sports has been a wide-range problem. Those who disagree with the use of steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs say that the athletes who use them are breaking the rules and getting an unfair advantage over others. Opponents of steroids say the athletes are endangering not only their own health, but also indirectly encouraging youngsters to do the same (Katz, 2008). On the opposite side, supporters of steroids say that the risk to athletes using
Genetic engineering is the science of altering genes to produce a specific trait in an organism. Although it seems beneficial and inventive, genetic engineering is growing into a big problem. Genetic engineering may have its advantages, but it also has its disadvantages because it is negatively changing our society. In the book Frankenstein, Mary Shelley demonstrates how technology has become monstrous, and genetic engineering is just as malicious as the monster in her novel.
In her novel Frankenstein, Mary Shelley is trying to convey the message that science and technology can be dangerous in the wrong hands. She affirms this idea through the character of Victor, a cautionary tale, but dispels the idea that all pursuit of knowledge is bad through more traditionally romantic characters such as Henry Clerval. Shelley is complicit in her understanding that curiosity and experimentation are unbreakably tied to the human condition, and tries to warn the world of the evil that can come from this. However, the effects of the interpretation of this book can vary: it is an exemplary cautionary tale, and a much needed reminder of ethics in an increasingly technology-dependent world, but one could easily take these warnings too far and use her novel as a means to quell innovation or incite censorship. In a world of technology that would be unbelievable to Shelley, her work still remains relevant, notably in the field of genetic engineering. Frankenstein raises important questions about ethics, responsibility and censorship, and is applicable to modern technological issues such as genetic engineering.