Mad Science: Sinister and Utopian

Inventors and scientists as a broad category can be subdivided according to intention, whether benevolent or sinister. This distinction can be considered as a matter of perception since the creator generally believes their work to be for good. Even if it causes harm it can be seen by them to be necessary for a greater purpose. When judged by others who are at a greater distance to their work, and are arguably therefore better able to weigh its merits, the same creator or researcher can be perceived as a sinister influence on the world that must be stopped. This change in view is demonstrated by Dr. Muller in Renaissance. Having once been researching a utopian solution to the human condition, he gains new experience through practice, including on his brother, which leads him to perceive what he has discovered as having the potential for terrible consequences and to subsequently hide his research from those who would make use of it. Likewise Dr. Caligari who, in The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, is first perceived as the sinister manipulator of the plot and the antagonist that must be defeated but who becomes, after the revelation of the madness of the narrator and protagonist and the transfer of madness symbolized in makeup and backdrop from the sinister Caligari to Francis, the benevolent Dr. Caligari, the director trying to help the patients of his asylum.