[from Frankenstein (A Norton Critical Edition) © 1818 Mary Shelley & 1996 W. W. Norton & Company, p110:]
---I enjoyed this scene; and yet my enjoyment was embittered both by the memory of the past, and the anticipation of the future. I was formed for peaceful happiness. During my youthful days discontent never visited my mind; and if I was ever overcome by ennui, the sight of what is beautiful in nature, or the study of what is excellent and sublime in the productions of man, could always interest my heart, and communicate elasticity to my spirits. But I am a blasted tree; the bolt has entered my soul; and I felt then that I should survive to exhibit, what I shall soon cease to be — a miserable spectacle of wrecked humanity, pitiable to others, and abhorrent to myself.
[Victor Frankenstein has gone to England to research the construction of a mate for his creation, and has just gone from Windsor to Oxford. The beauty he saw is overshadowed by feelings of despair. Will i feel this way after the creation of a computational consciousness? Is it fair to create someone who won't necessarily want to have been created? Perhaps i should just go back to writing fiction and tell a story of someone facing just such a struggle. Maybe i could better live with my myself, not to mention avoid the use of technology with questionable environmental effects—computers.]
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