Progress is an innate venture of man. The instinctive need to predict and control, instrumented by science and technology, has led to astonishing possibilities for which the long term consequences are unforeseeable. There is, however, no ultimate goal of progress; and as limits continue to be broken, the boundaries of human interference in nature are broadening indefinitely. There is everywhere a sense of the indomitable forces unwittingly evoked to serve the project of progress, bringing the project itself into question. This anomaly has produced three novels that suggest the improvidence of man's quest for sovereignty from natural law; they are: Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, H.G. Well's The Time Machine, and Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley.

The purpose of progress is to attain greater control over the environment, allowing man a sense of certainty and security. With more and more conveniences and enlightenments given by science...