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The Modern Frankenstein - Fiction Becomes Fact was written in 1986 as a companion volume to Ray Hammond's BBC1 TV drama, The True Story of Frankenstein and his BBC4 radio play, The Making of Frankenstein (both broadcast November 1986).

Published by The Blandford Press, the book was an unusual mixture of scientific speculation (specifically about the future of human cloning and genetic modification) and a biography of Mary Shelly, the author of the original gothic horror novel, Frankenstein.

Two excerpts from The Modern Frankenstein (1986):

"Frankenstein is a powerful and apt symbol for science in the late twentieth century. Like Mary Shelley's Genevese biology student who was obsessed with creating life, scientists are now seriously contemplating assuming the role of God. Over the past 300 years western society has slowly eroded the role previously granted to deities and elevated the role of science and logic. We are now about to confront the result of that change: it appears that in life-giving sciences Mankind can become God.

"The new sciences of genetics and robotics are conspicuously pregnant: one of our deepest cultural neuroses (albeit unarticulated) is that our dominant position on this planet could be usurped.
"These developments have provoked a world-wide debate of great intensity. Those who have faith in Man's rational power publicly support continuing research: their claim is that the only thing too sacred to tamper with is scientific research itself. The vociferous opposition points to the many instances in which unrestrained science has brought peril to the human race (nuclear weapons and bio-chemical toxins being the most common example) and they argue for immediate legislation which will prevent the realization of what they see as a terrifying, uncontrollable Huxleyan (Brave New World) nightmare."

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"We have become used to the word 'computer' and, indeed, have almost becomes blasé about clever machines. But there is a clear indication that these humble machines are the early manifestations of a new life form, one which is about to make an evolutionary leap. When this occurs it will offer the human race (itself a species undergoing transformation) vast benefits.

"The implication is that we will soon have to learn how to share this planet with a new type of higher intelligence; the thinking computer and its robot relation.

It may seem an astonishing leap of imagination to suggest that our limited personal computers and programmable dishwashers are going to develop into a new species of life, but the information available from the Modern Frankensteins engaged in their race to develop the super-computer reveals that their aims are very similar to those of Victor Frankenstein.

From the earliest days of computing, when Alan Turing, Donald Michie and the brilliant American mathematician John von Neuman met and discussed where their work was leading them, the speculation has always been about when thinking machines will assume independence: not if, but when.”