【原】科学怪人的故事

Amber看世界 2021-05-21

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In January 1818, a woman barely out of her teens unleashed a terrifying tale on the world: the story of a doctor who builds a creature from scavenged body parts, then recoils in horror, spurns it, and sees his friends and family destroyed by the monster.

1818年的一月份，一个尚未走出青春期的女孩向我们的世界发布了一则恐怖故事：这个故事讲一个医生利用收集来的尸体部件组装了一个生物，然后被吓坏了，遗弃了它，最后发现自己的朋友和家人都被这个怪物杀死了。

Two hundred years later, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein is still essential reading for anyone working in science.

两百年后，玛丽.雪莉的《科学怪人》仍然是如今搞科学的人们的必读作品。

The ill-fated creator she portrays has influenced public perception of the scientific enterprise unlike any other character, forever haunting the borderland between what science can do and what it should do.

她描绘的这个不幸的创造者在公众们对科学事业的看法上产生了独特的影响，永远叩问着人们关于科学能做什么和该做什么的底线。

The story has mutated and it has frequently been mangled.

这个故事不断演变，也被频繁地改编。

It has spawned countless books, plays, and movies—some pictured on these pages—and even a superhero comic.

它衍生出了数不清的书籍.戏剧和电影—第一张图上的照片里有—甚至催生出了一个超级英雄漫画系列。

It has inspired technophobes and scientists alike.

它也激发了技术恐惧症和科学家们。

“Franken-” has become a passe-partout prefix for anything deemed unnatural or monstrous.

“Franken-”也成为了任何非自然的，怪兽式的事物的通用前缀。

Interpretations of the tale have also multiplied.

对这则故事的解读同样变得多种多样。

A story of scientific hubris, a creator consumed by his creation, a male scientist trying to eliminate women's role in reproduction, an attempt by Shelley to deal with the trauma of losing a baby.

有人说这是一则表现科学傲慢的故事，创造者被他自己的作品所吞噬，又或者一个男性科学家试图取代女性在繁殖上的作用，又或者是作者雪莉为了纪念自己死去的孩子的悲剧而创作的。

To the growing group of scientists pondering the ways in which science might eventually destroy humanity, it is the earliest warning of such risks.

对于那些思考着科学最终会如何毁灭人类的科学家们来说，这是这种风险的最早的警示。