The Strange Case of e-Frankenstein

The eerie cacophony of the nocturnal life resonates the otherwise deserted boulevard that cuts into the darkness with remarkable aplomb. I meander through the curvy path, visibly shaken by the mysterious night scenes dancing before my eyes. The whiteness of the moon has been put to rest by the atrocious march of the black clouds. Far atop a distant incline, I sight the imposing silhouette of a castle as the hustle of the gigantic sequoia trees signal an impending storm. I manage my way to reach the flamboyant shelter just in time when all hell breaks loose with the fury of nature lashing at the haplessness of the naïve meadow. As the screeching door accords me an unceremonious welcome, I try to look for any proof of life inside. God Forbid! What I see would most certainly put the most courageous soul to a perennial slumber. Cadavers, cadavers everywhere in this dimly lit chamber. A group of hooded individuals with no sign of what exists underneath, are busy separating the limbs from the lifeless bodies, stacking them in the order of strength with the strongest one occupying the first position and the rest thereafter, thus keeping the organs in an assorted manner. Another group is busy collecting the litter and stitching them in a predefined arrangement to give shape to a complete body. As two heavy electrodes are brought together to spark off beams of electricity, the mordant dead-body heaves to the tune of a compelling overture. The eyelids fling open to indicate the rise of the dead. I, too, open my eyes to the soothing aura of a spring sunrise as the birds continue chirping to gesture dawn-break. I had a nasty nightmare…

Well, that was just the trailer!! What we have instead is a full-length movie with the hooded participants having been replaced some smartly dressed, suave people and the castle morphed into a sleek, state of the art laboratory. They are busy trying to find out whether 3 is the outcome of blending 1 & 2 or 0 & 3. I am talking about what some would aptly refer to as Reverse Engineering. Sounds as surreptitious as the psychedelic incarnation of Mary Shelley, the eponymous Frankenstein would have conjectured while assembling the various facets of rotten cadavers. It was not the purpose of commercial benefits that had driven the hyperbolic scientist to arrive upon such a grotesque invention. Rather, it was the urge to experiment, the ambition to innovate something far-fetched at that point of time. But, a few centuries later this very creation was to rear its empirical head in an entirely different avatar.

Reverse Engineering, as the name implies involves breaking apart anything to understand its composition and the formula that lurks underneath. The formula is later worked upon to build what we had started with. Now, if one does not get hold of the elusive formula to fabricate his dream product, he need not worry. The ever-inspiring Frankenstein guides him to catch hold of the dream product instead. Rest is left to the guile of the creator to carefully dissect the anatomy and cast his spell on the crux to bring to life countless siblings. In trying to do so, the creator his cunning enough to proclaim that he has not copied any existing process, but simply created another one. The miserable original inventor is left speechless while trying to attempt a vociferous protest citing non-existent entities called patents, copyrights etc. But alas! Patents apply to the functionality, not a specific implementation of the process.

Pharmaceutical industries have become the cynosure of all eyes, thanks to the advent of this technologically advanced version of the i. Nobody bothers if one competitor outsmarts another in the cat and mouse game of product invention. The other simply gets hold of the pie and its “reverse-engineered” to understand the workings. Then, with a slight change, the same formula is transformed to the final product that is nothing but an unassuming duplicate of the former, only to be marketed with a lot of fanfare as a path-breaking innovation. Software industry is not far behind for that matter; innumerable namesakes adorn the Internet daily to meet the eye-level of the passive onlooker. The e-Frankensteins as I would like to name them, have become the hub of delinquent activities in the current scenario, as digital divide has been relegated to the ravines of anonymity. Contrary to the visual imagery so succulently penned by Mary Shelley, where the protagonist had envisioned a scientific avenue for his creation, the current trend seems to be bent towards monetary emoluments and power craze. Rampant plagiarism in the name of scientific discovery, virulent power game in the garb of economic welfare and toxic effluent in the form of unusable byproducts have been threatening to wreak havoc on the very basis of human civilization.

What needs to be done at this moment is to charter the judiciary to undertake a transparent of the subject concerned. The very foundation of the process has to be carefully studied to analyze the possible repercussions in the face of multilateral disagreements. The causal analysis report may furnish certain latent aspects of the process wherein academic and industrial intervention has to be solicited. The strange case of this e-Frankenstein is sensitive enough to throw open multiple forums for arguments.

But, when the creator himself dies keeping the information to control his psychotic invention undisclosed, what more can be done?