Machines Like Me by Ian McEwan

Pages 306

Book Club Selection

Blurb

Britain has lost the Falklands war, Margaret Thatcher battles Tony Benn for power and Alan Turing achieves a breakthrough in artificial intelligence. In a world not quite like this one, two lovers will be tested beyond their understanding.

Machines Like Me takes place in an alternative 1980s London. Charlie, drifting through life and dodging full-time employment, is in love with Miranda, a bright student who lives with a terrible secret. When Charlie comes into money, he buys Adam, one of the first batch of synthetic humans and — with Miranda’s help — he designs Adam’s personality. The near-perfect human that emerges is beautiful, strong and clever. It isn’t long before a love triangle forms, and these three beings confront a profound moral dilemma.

In his subversive new novel, Ian McEwan asks whether a machine can understand the human heart — or whether we are the ones who lack understanding.

Review

Honestly, I’m somewhat underwhelmed. After I read the blurb and before I opened the book, I expected…more? Something different from what I got for sure. What I thought (hoped) I would be reading was a book about humans coming to terms with a machine that is almost indistinguishable from them, how that might change their perception of what humanity is exactly. And, there was some of that in this book but, to me, it did not feel like the main theme of the story.

What I didn’t expect, and didn’t enjoy, where the long and overly-detailed descriptions of the alternative reality the story takes place in and the technological intricacies of machines like Adam. Why for example, do we get several pages of what reads like listing facts about the political landscape when Charlie states: ‘To me, […] all this […] was a busy hum, dipping and swelling from day to day, a matter of interest and concern, but nothing to compare with the turbulence of my domestic life, […]. Because to me it read as if the story was about that political landscape at least as much as it was about the main characters. It is, of course, possible that I missed something and that there are parallels between that general state of the world and Charlie’s removal from it, but are those relevant if they are so vague that I can’t pick up on them?

I’ve taken the following from the Goodreads blurb: Ian McEwan’s subversive and entertaining new novel poses fundamental questions: what makes us human? Our outward deeds or our inner lives? Could a machine understand the human heart? This provocative and thrilling tale warns of the power to invent things beyond our control.

While the last line of that quote does feel accurate, I can’t say I recognize the book in the earlier part. Charlie and Miranda felt rather underdeveloped as the human characters in this story. In fact, as a result of all the technical descriptions I felt I had a better idea about the workings of Adam’s mind by the end of the story than I had about what motivated Charlie and Miranda.

Something I hadn’t considered before starting the book but greatly appreciated in this story was what being almost human means to a machine who doesn’t, of course, have the same emotional impulses as humans. How do you deal when your algorithms don’t contain the information necessary to deal with the often irrational (as in emotionally driven rather than logical) human emotions and decisions? The answer to this question turned out to be rather heartbreaking.

But, I had more issues with this story. The relationship between Charlie and Miranda never felt real to me. At no point in the story did I feel they had anything in common apart from the pleasure they derived from sex and the input they had in Adam’s final creation. I have no idea what the purpose of the child, Mark, in this story was and can’t help feeling that leaving him out wouldn’t have changed anything about the eventual outcome, nor did it appear to add to the story’s progression.

In final analysis I have to admit that this was almost like reading two books at the same time. One book was a political, technical, and societal study of an alternative history. While some of those details were necessary to for world-building, I wouldn’t have missed anything if it had been reduced by something like 80 to 90%. The other story I read, the story about Adam and his fellow sentient machines and their struggle to learn to live and find a purpose among humans on the other hand, was fascinating and I could have done with a lot more depth there. All of which explains why I gave this book three stars.

As for the book club discussion of this title, goodness only knows if, when, or how it might take place. This book was our March selection by which stage the library had been closed in the national Corona Virus lockdown. Libraries will start to open their doors within days, but as of now, there’s no signs of groups like my book club being allowed to come together again. Which is a shame, because I would love to hear what the others members thought about this book.