MACHINES LIKE ME by IAN McEWAN (2019)

It's surprising how often I serendipitously happen to read something and watch something on television simultaneously which correspond as to theme and/or subject matter. For example, I just finished re-watching all five seasons of the science fiction series Battlestar Galactica. The premise of the show is that human-created machines (robots) evolved and rebelled against their creators. Some, which were subsequently created by the machines themselves, were even indistinguishable from humans. As it turns out, these artificial intelligences were superior in some ways to the humans who originated them. Some Cylons (as the machines became known) and humans even fell in love. Just as I was finishing this binge-watch, I read the newest novel by one of my favorite contemporary authors, Ian McEwan. I chose to read it because of the author, having no clue as to the subject matter, although the title should have given me a hint. McEwan is ordinarily a writer of literary fiction rather than anything even vaguely resembling science fiction, so it is not surprising that this novel is much more thoughtful than one would anticipate, considering the subject matter.

The narrator, Charlie, is drifting through life when he unexpectedly receives an inheritance. Rather than spend his new wealth wisely, he impulsively buys one of the newly manufactured "synthetic humans," which are visually indistinguishable from actual humans. Since it is up to the owners to program the personalities of their purchase, Charlie enlists the help of his lover Miranda in creating what they perceive to be the perfect "human." As it turns out, Adam, the name they give him, is perhaps more perfect than they actually wanted him to be, exhibiting values and actions which his programmers might aspire to and consider ideal, but which they themselves fail to adhere to. And then Adam falls in love with Miranda.

Both the television series and this novel examine what it means to be human and whether we are, in fact, capable of ever reaching the perfection we would aspire to. As a secondary theme would be the question of what exactly distinguishes human from machine. Is there a soul, and if so, who or what has one?

Ian McEwan has won England's Booker Prize for Amsterdam and has been short-listed for six other novels. This is not his best book, by far. That would be Atonement, in my opinion. But this one is very interesting and a better novel than most current offerings.