Once again I must accuse myself of pre-judging a novel, deciding that I wouldn't read it, only to discover that it was on Professor Elaine Newton's (Emeritus, York University, Toronto) list of books that she's discussing this year in Naples, Florida. Ms. Newton is one of the closest readers I've ever had the pleasure of listening to so I knew that I'd better get my nose into "Machines Like Me." So glad I did! Especially in light of the fact that I chose Jeanette Winterson's "Frankissstein" as a Library Journal top ten for 2019.
Two decades into the twenty-first century the incredible development of machine technology and artificial intelligence has even been front and center in the latest presidential campaign. Think Andrew Yang. It is also the subject of more novels that once would have read like sci-fi but now read like representations of current times. And though McEwan's story takes place in an alternative iteration of 1980's London, it feels all too plausible.
Because the novel springs from the imagination of multi award-winning McEwan (Booker Prize, Whitbread, National Book Critics Circle) you can trust that it is
constructed of layer upon layer of nuance and moral conundrums that make it ripe for discussion. The basic premise is that Charlie, a thirty-something young man with a degree in anthropology and a passion for all things technological, has spent his life's inheritance on an Adam, one of the first batch of androids created by the still living and working Alan Turing - the scientist made famous in Cumberbach's The Enigma Code.
Charlie plugs Adam in and, while reading over the directions and waiting for him to charge, decides that a clever way to entice a closer relationship with Miranda, the doctoral candidate who lives upstairs, would be to invite her to help him program Adam's traits. Even as I read this I suspected trouble but, oh, I had no idea! Ethical dilemmas quickly arise as Adam's computerized brain works 24/7 to scan the digital universe for all the knowledge that's out there, processing and memorizing large swaths of science, literature, and laws, much like Watson. How, now, can Charlie and Miranda use Adam to cook, wash dishes, and perform menial tasks so far beneath his intellectual heft?
As Adam becomes more and more "human" he exhibits so-called human attributes that confound Charlie; jealousy, love, sorrow, depression. These feelings also confound Adam. Ms. Newton proclaimed Miranda a delightful character while I found her to be manipulative and untrustworthy. Was I channeling Adam? You see, with his wide swath of factual knowledge he has discovered that Miranda has a secret. She has committed a crime and has gotten away with it. Whether or not it was executed with the best of intentions is a moral gray area that Adam is incapable of judging. And now Ian McEwan leads his readers down a twisted rabbit hole of unanswered questions, questions that will fascinate and perplex.
This novel, that I didn't think I wanted to read, was profoundly disturbing, challenging, funny, complicated, and thought-provoking. A friend remarked that for days after finishing it she could think of nothing else. I concur. Ever since Mary Shelley created her Frankenstein readers, writers, philosphers, and scientists have questioned what exactly it means to be human. Our future will no doubt be "peopled" with more and more machines that can replicate our every move. But can they live with us? Can they tolerate our innate ability to weather disasters, devastating illnesses, love and loss, the messy facts of life that dog us every day of our lives and that we face with stalwart resilience at every turn? Think about it. Then run out to your local library and grab a copy of "Machines Like Me." I think you'll thank me.
No comments:
Post a Comment