History Main / CreatingLifeIsAwesome

* In ''Disney/{{Frozen}}'', the 'rightness' of creating life through magic varies depending on the mage's mindset. For example, when Elsa is upset, she conjures up Marshmallow, a hulking snowlem that is easily angered (you can piss him off merely by lobbing a snowball at him) and attacks Anna. When Elsa is happy, as seen in "Let it Go," she creates Olaf, an friendly creature that is PurityPersonified and helps Anna and Kristoff. It's basically the logical conclusion of PersonalityPowers- a mage's feelings and desires come through in whatever they make.

* ''Franchise/JurassicPark'' at first plays up the idea of [[EverythingsBetterWithDinosaurs recreating prehistoric animals from fossilized mosquitoes]] from this angle. However, some of the characters don't agree with this. [[JeffGoldblum Ian Malcolm]] seems to believe that CreatingLifeIsBad. After his experience in the Park, Alan Grant seems to have taken up this mindset as well when we see him in ''Jurassic Park III''. However, creating life in general still comes across as pretty awesome; it's just that attempting to control that life and modify it to suit your tastes will lead to disaster.

* Creating life (well, turning existing life into sentient life, but it's the same idea) is the ''central imperative'' of the entire Galactic culture in the {{Literature/Uplift}} series by Creator/DavidBrin. It adds to the spice of it that every one of the thousands of species making up that culture is itself a creation of a previous race, in a chain going back ''billions'' of years.

* The ultimate goal of AI research, although this might have [[Series/BattlestarGalacticaClassic some]] [[{{Terminator}} undesired]] [[CrushKillDestroy consequences]].

* In ''DissidiaFinalFantasy'' [[spoiler: Cid of The Lufaine]] used his peoples science and magic to create [[spoiler: Chaos]], his "son" whom he and his wife cared for like any human child. Sadly, [[spoiler: Cid]] and his wife were unable to prevent the government form using [[spoiler: Chaos']] powers for destruction. This (among other things) eventually led [[spoiler: Chaos]] to hate his "father". Later he successfully repeated the experiment and created the [[spoiler: Warrior of Light]], who's life took a more positive direction.

* In ''{{GURPS}}'' "neogenesis" is the ultimate biogenesis technology and classified as [[TechnologyLevels TL11]] development, the creation of a truly viable species doesn't occur until [=TL12=].

* ''FarOutThere'' has [[MotherlyScientist Tabitha]] creating the zombie children Bridget and Alphonse. Surprisingly, despite how it sounds, [[http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a183/blitzkrieg1701/familyalbum3.jpg this]] [[http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a183/blitzkrieg1701/TabithaKidsSleepinked.jpg has]] [[http://faroutthere.smackjeeves.com/comics/1090304/bridget-and-alphonses-horrifying-christmas-page-13/ gone]] [[http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a183/blitzkrieg1701/familyalbum14.jpg very well]].

* In ''Disney/{{Frozen}}'', the 'rightness' of creating life through magic varies depending on the mage's mindset. For example, when Elsa is upset, she creates a hulking snow...thing that is easily angered and attacks her sister. When Elsa is happy, she creates Olaf, an friendly creature that is PurityPersonified and helps the protagonists. It's basically the logical conclusion of PersonalityPowers- a mage's feelings and desires come through in whatever they make.

[[AC:{{Film}}]]

* In ''Disney/{{Frozen}}'', the 'rightness' of creating life through magic varies depending on the mage's mindset. For example, when Elsa is upset, she creates a hulking snow...thing that is easily angered and attacks her sister. When Elsa is happy, she creates Olaf, an friendly creature that is PurityPersonified and helps the protagonists. It's basically the logical conclusion of PersonalityPowers- a mage's feelings and desires come through in whatever they make.
* ''JurassicPark'' at first plays up the idea of [[EverythingsBetterWithDinosaurs recreating prehistoric animals from fossilized mosquitoes]] from this angle. However, some of the characters don't agree with this. [[JeffGoldblum Ian Malcolm]] seems to believe that CreatingLifeIsBad. After his experience in the Park, Alan Grant seems to have taken up this mindset as well when we see him in ''Jurassic Park III''. However, creating life in general still comes across as pretty awesome; it's just that attempting to control that life and modify it to suit your tastes will lead to disaster.

* In ''TitanAE'', mankind triumphs by creating an entire planet for itself, complete with a fully populated biosphere.
* In [[Disney/{{Pinocchio}} the Disney version of Pinocchio]], the title character is created by the joint efforts of Gepetto (who built his body) and The Blue Fairy (who gave him life). It is all treated as a good thing.

* In ''Manga/MahouSenseiNegima'', the mage known as "the Lifemaker" got his title for a reason: [[spoiler:the Magical World, with its own entire ecosystem and intelligent ensouled beings numbering nearly a billion, was created by him.]] His creating life is never portrayed as a bad thing... it's the fact that he now wants to end said life that makes him the villain.

* Played with in ''ZeroEscape''. [[spoiler:[[RidiculouslyHumanRobots Luna's]]]] creation is not portrayed as morally wrong, but her enslavement [[spoiler:by Sigma and June]] is. (They programmed her to always follow their orders, no matter how unethical those orders were. She has just enough humanity to know that what they're doing is wrong, but not enough to rebel against them without being shut off permanently.)

* Played with in ''ZeroEscape''. [[spoiler:[[RidiculouslyHumanRobots Luna's]]]] creation is not portrayed as morally wrong, but her enslavement [[spoiler:by Sigma and June]] is.

* Played with in ''ZeroEscape''. [[RidiculouslyHumanRobots [[spoiler:Luna's]]]] creation is not portrayed as morally wrong, but her enslavement[[spoiler:by Sigma and June]] is.

** Sapient holograms in the ''Franchise/StarTrek'' universe fall on either side of AIIsACrapshoot.

In many works, CreatingLifeIsBad. An ultimate show of [[ScaleOfScientificSins scientific]] [[{{Pride}} hubris.]] Western literature has its roots in a religious tradition in which the act of creation is the turf of God Almighty. Thus, Mary Shelly's ''{{Frankenstein}}'' not only became very influential, but also constantly interpreted through the lens of this condemning mindset.

* Frederick Frankenstein in ''YoungFrankenstein'' starts off a highly rational man, then gets excited once he finds out it is possible to create life, and once he gets over some fearfulness of his creation, he learns to ''love it.'' Matter of fact, this is one of the very few Frankenstein stories that has a happy ending, because the creator accepts his flawed creation instead of rejecting it.

* ''FarOutThere'' has [[MotherlyScientist Tabitha]] creating the zombie children Bridget and Alphonse. [[http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a183/blitzkrieg1701/familyalbum3.jpg This]] [[http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a183/blitzkrieg1701/TabithaKidsSleepinked.jpg has]] [[http://faroutthere.smackjeeves.com/comics/1090304/bridget-and-alphonses-horrifying-christmas-page-13/ gone]] [[http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a183/blitzkrieg1701/familyalbum14.jpg well]].

* Creating life (well, turning existing life into sentient life, but it's the same idea) is the ''central imperative'' of the entire Galactic culture in the {{Literature/Uplift}} series by Creator/DavidBrin.

* In Fanfic/{{Mutant}},[[MotherlyScientist Kittery Abigail]] believes this.

* [[TheSingularity Transhumanism]].

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To be able to create intelligent life. Not just having a regular baby, but actually ''creating'' something through science or magic. How awesome that would be.

Well. Awesome, assuming that it actually works. And that it works in a benevolent way. In some works, it actually does.

Over the last few decades, more and more authors have been moving away from that old trope, instead moving towards CreatingLifeIsAwesome - either defying the Frankenstein tradition or ignoring it completely. To qualify for this trope, the created life must be good and be treated as such. And of course, it must be created by humans or similar, not by deities in the traditional sense.

** Although some kind of afterlife is implied for his victims his enforcers are brutal (and varying degrees of actual interest in the Lifemaker's cause so only some are {{knight templar}}s).

* Snark aside, it might add perspective to remember that ordinary people of all types are [[CreatingLife creating life]] every day. The "horizontal mambo" has (often desired) consequences. And the issues above of {{pride}} and [[AGodAmI playing god]] are not absent in this example, only less [[ScienceIsBad dramatized]].
** Might not be so awesome anymore when you have to deal with overpopulation...
* Pretty much the ultimate goal of AI research, although this might have [[Series/BattlestarGalacticaClassic some]] [[{{Terminator}} undesired]] [[CrushKillDestroy consequences]].

* Should one consider that a virus is a life-form (and that's a big debate right there) [[hottip:*: A virus is the simplest form of "life" and it doesn't really fit in with a bunch of the traits shown in other life forms, but this is an arguable point because after all it is the most basic form of life]], then technically self-propagating computer viruses are artificial life-forms as well. They don't inhabit the same plane of existence as we do, but StephenHawking and a few others seem to consider them alive. Which goes on to prove that the first lifeform ever created by man was made for destruction.
** There's no debate amongst biologists. Biologists do not define viruses as alive, nor are they the simplest parasitic crystals which are able to replicate inside hosts organisms. That honor belongs to prions, which are normal proteins which have changed shape and stabilized in a very wicked configuration, then go on to stabilize more copies of that protein in the same configuration. Prions would ''also'' fit that definition of alive - and they are nothing more than large molecules with no genome, no metabolism, and no "purpose" except killing their host. Whatever a person's gifts in their field (physics, in this case), it does not make them an authority in another field to attempt an AppealToAuthority by appending their name to an out of context statement, especially in other fields (biology, cognitive science, computer science, and philosophy).
** All in all, cpu needs to do work for computer viruses, they don't do it themselves. And from a very low level view, computer virus is indistinguishable from legal pieces of data - you can't say exactly say that about human ones. And that's when we forget viruses aren't even 'alive' in biological sense.

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* The title wizard of Creator/DianaWynneJones's ''DarkLordOfDerkholm'' creates new life forms all the time, including griffins and winged humans. Some of them contain his own DNA and are treated as family members. Although this creates some unusual parent-child tensions, his creative work is treated as a positive thing on the whole.

* In ''NeverLetMeGo'', the artificial humans are kind and compassionate, and so are the humans who try to help them. Ironically, society doesn't ''want'' them to be good - it's easier to justify exploiting them if one can pretend that they are soulless.

In many works, CreatingLifeIsBad. An ultimate show of [[ScaleOfScientificSins scientific]] [[{{Pride}} hubris.]] Western literature has its roots in a religious tradition in which the act of creation is the turf of God Almighty, along with eating apples and building really high towers. Thus, Mary Shelly's ''{{Frankenstein}}'' not only became very influential, but also constantly interpreted through the lens of this condemning mindset.

** Although some kind of afterlife is implied for his victims his enforcers are brutal (and varying degrees of actual interest in the Lifemaker's cause so only some are {{knight templar}}s)