Shelley's treatment of the monster is probably more relevant today than ever.  With the ability of science to create through cloning, the possibility of a man-made creature is frighteningly real.  In the hands of the wrong person, there could be many such creatures that would be preternatural, such as Victor Frankenstein's creature.

Certainly, Aldous Huxley considered the dangers of science and technology superceding humanity in his novel, Brave New World.  In his novel, Huxley's characters who are produced in an artificial hatchery and conditioned what to think through hypnopedia (sleep conditioning) have lost most of their humanity, however, while Victor's creature is, in truth, more human than Victor.

The creature in Shelley's novel is quite relevant to our notions of what is human. Readers are often shocked, like Victor, to discover such a literate, coherent being. Indeed, I think modern readers are probably more shocked, as we've grown accustomed to the hulking, unintelligible, grunting, lumbering monster of Hollywood. And of course, we think his name is Frankenstein. Yet the creature represents the effects of loneliness: the desire of every being to connect to others.

Even the idea of globalization comes into play here. As our world grows metaphorically smaller, we come into contact with different cultures, sometimes with different values. We must learn how to communicate with one another, and realize that rejecting or denying the humanity of others leads to dehumanizing ourselves.