The story of a person creating a life, or an artificial person, is a very old one. Before there really even was a genre of Science Fiction, there were stories like the tale of the Golem or Pygmalion We could even call some of these works "Pre-SF" or "Proto-SF," although the people who originally wrote or told them had no idea what SF would be, and probably had no idea what science would be.

We can speculate that this type of story comes from the very common and very powerful experience of parenthood (and childhood). There once was a time when my parents were here, and I was not. There was a time when I was, and my daughter was not. When I am gone, who will remain? The mystery of existence often makes people contemplate origins, and wonder about a creator.

If we believe in a god, then we have to question what it means to do what that god did. What does it mean to create a being, who has an independent existence? What are the responsibilities of a creator to a creation? of a parent to a child? All children, to some extent, become independent from their parents. Often, they must reject or rebel against their parents in order to do this.

As we have discussed and seen in the previous Modules, SF stories that seem to be about outlandish, exotic subjects are often about questions that are vitally important and meaningful to us, right here and now.

I've heard parents say to their children, "I gave you life, and I can take it away." When we create beings, do we really have the right to "uncreate" them? What obligations do we have to our parents? Do they have to us? Or to our creator? And He or She to us? Meditate on this on the discussion board.