Machines Like Me: And People Like You (2019)  is a fast-paced, thought-provoking science-fiction/alternate history novel from Man Booker Prize winner Ian McEwan that is unlike anything he has written before. This book sits happily within the current debate on artificial intelligence; by suggesting the possibilities of machine thinking and artificial consciousness, Machines Like Me dismantles our conceptions of humanity and what it means to be human. McEwan’s novel borrows from the genres of science-fiction and alternative history, plus an embedded romance story, to appeal to readers of many genres. Machines Like Me is set in an alternate 1980s London, where the UK has lost the Falklands War and Alan Turing lives openly with his partner, the quantum physicist Thomas Reah – and in this world, technology has advanced leaps and bounds. But each new technological marvel soon grows stale, ‘the future keeps arriving’ (6), and these bright new gadgets start to rust before they get through the door. The latest product: an android human replicant. Will this fare any differently?

With complex and sympathetic characters who come to life on the page, McEwan offers the fantastical trope of escape and makes it easy to suspend your disbelief and get lost in this alternate reality. McEwan reminds us that ‘the present is the frailest of improbable constructs’ (64) and that things could easily have turned out differently. In science-fiction style, Machines Like Me has a novum: a new technological concept with scientific foundations not explicitly explained. Meet Adam and Eve – artificial humans, each intended as ‘a companion, an intellectual sparring partner, friend and factotum who could wash the dishes, make beds and ‘think’’ (3).

Charlie Friend, the novel’s protagonist, blows his inheritance on an Adam (he wanted an Eve but they sold out almost immediately). Adam’s personality is customisable and Charlie, along with his neighbour and love interest Miranda, answers a multitude of generic personality questions, like whether Adam ‘loves to be the life and soul of the party’ (7). Adam quickly proves to be ‘the ultimate plaything’ (4) but their relationship is put to the test when Adam cannot dismiss his feelings of possession. McEwan symbolises this tension between possessor and possessed with the popular science-fiction concept of the kill switch, which can pause the consciousness of the AI. Early in the novel, after a disagreement, Charlie makes use – or misuse, depending on your view – of this power, suspending Adam’s consciousness for several days. 

Machines Like Me leaves the reader to decide whether Adam is, or should be, treated as an intelligent equal. After all, Adam says: ‘I feel things profoundly. More than I can say’ (116). Charlie finds it difficult to believe in Adam’s sentience and flits between referring to him as a ‘he’ (6) and an ‘it’ (10). Their relationship is further strained by the presence of Miranda, with whom Charlie hopes to ‘parent’ Adam. Nevertheless, romance appears an adjunct to the science-fiction themes of the novel. 

The current debate on AI is raising ethical questions about how this new technology will fit into our modern world, and science-fiction novels such as Machines Like Me allow us to explore these philosophical questions. What rights should beings like Adam and Eve have in our world? How can we know whether machine intelligence is conscious – or, as Turing suggested with his 1951 Turing test, does it even matter: if something appears to be sentient, shouldn’t we treat it accordingly?

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