"Derek Parnell" <de...@psych.ward> wrote in message news:p3z1y7v9zg88.z3yecw0xphen....@40tude.net... > On Fri, 6 Mar 2009 17:42:23 -0500, Nick Sabalausky wrote: > >> Sometimes, when I'm in a particularly pessemistic mood, I get the feeling >> that regardless of its intent, 2001's biggest contribution to society was >> the creation of what to become one of science fiction's biggest plot >> cliches: People being put into danger by their own creations (2001, >> Matrix, >> Terminator, Battlestar Gallactica...and probably a whole ton of others I >> can't think of right now.) > > Predated by "Prometheus" from Greek mythology and by Mary Shelly's > "Frankenstein" >
I don't remember Prometheus (been a very long time since I last studied greek mythology), but I've always seen Frankenstein much more as a tale about prejudice, fear of the unfamiliar, fear-based mob-mentality, etc., rather than technology-gone-wrong. Edward Scissorhands captures the theme of Frankenstein much more closely than the other movies/shows do. But regardless, I wouldn't be surprised if "people endangered by technology" existed in plenty of fiction long before 2001. Perhaps in my earlier post "popularized" would have been more accurate than "created".