Ian McEwan: Machines Like Me (2019)

Sandra, Sonja and Andrew play extracts from Ian McEwan’s 2019 novel ‘Machines Like Me’ (read by Billy Howle) and discuss the book.

What’s the book about….? The blurb on the inside front cover reads….

“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….
The novel is set 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 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.”

We discuss the implications of the ideas in the book: whether machine consciousness approaches sentient humans. Is literature dead…with only mechanical haikus left? Is the narrative style almost Kafka-esque?

Music played: The Rolling Stones: ‘Satisfaction’.