The resemblance of [the golem of Prague] to the golems of our nuclear age staggers the imagination. While we attempt to surpass our enemies and to create new and more destructive golems, the awful possibility is lurking that they may develop a volition of their own, become spiteful, treacherous, mad golems. Like the Jews of Prague in the sixteenth century, we are frightened by our golems. We would like to be in a position to erase the uncanny power we have given them, hide them in some monstrous attic and wait for the time when they too will become fiction and folklore.

—Isaac Bashevis Singer