Mary Shelley may be closer to the world that is to come than either Ada Lovelace or Alan Turing. A new kind of life-form may not need to be like a human at all (the cute helper bot or the virtual digital assistant may be just a distraction, a sideline, a bridge. Pure intelligence will be other) – and that’s something that is achingly, heartbreakingly, clear in Frankenstein. The monster is initially designed to be ‘like’ us. He isn’t and can’t be. Is that a message we need to hear?
