Lectures on Tap - "Frankenstein Meets Silicon Valley"

📍 Location: Exact address given in confirmation email

🧠 Lecture: "Frankenstein Meets Silicon Valley"

🎤 Speaker: Prof. James Krasner

Join us for a provocative evening as Prof. James Krasner explores what classic horror can teach us about our tech-obsessed age. Great nineteenth-century novels like Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and Robert Louis Stevenson’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde depict brilliant but dangerously arrogant innovators whose experiments blur the line between miracle and monster. Today’s tech titans—think Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg—make similar claims about transforming society and even human nature. But at what cost?

In a world of AI, gene-editing, and humanoid robotics, these “mad scientist” tales feel more relevant than ever. By revisiting these classics, Prof. Krasner will help us grapple with urgent questions about technological ambition, ethics, and what it truly means to be human.

James Krasner is a Professor of English at the University of New Hampshire, specializing in Victorian literature. His interdisciplinary work spans topics from Darwin to Dracula, and primatology to phantom limbs. His book Home Bodies examines representations of home healthcare, household mess, and animal hoarding. He also created the Great Courses series “Sherlock Holmes: Beyond the Elementary” and “Classics of Horror,” available on Audible.

Get a drink, connect, and learn at Lectures on Tap! 🙌

Agenda

6:30 PM – Doors open: find a seat (open seating!), order food & drinks, and expect a bar line—arriving early is key.

6:55 PM – Host introduction

7:00 PM – Lecture begins

7:45 PM – Audience Q&A

8:00 PM – Have 1:1 time with the speaker, mingle with fellow guests, and order another round

8:30 PM – Wrap up.