Machines Like Me

The setting for this new novel from Ian Mc Ewan is England in the mid 1980's but not as we remember it. The Falklands War has been lost and Alan Turing is alive and well and thriving at doing what he does best. He is the brain behind new technological advances, driverless cars, mobile phones and of course the internet. Incredibly it is all here together in the 1980's. I have discovered this type of novel is termed a counterfactual novel or speculative fiction. Basically some of the stated events did happen; but not in that order. One of the more interesting speculations is around the life of Alan Turing. Rather than the tragic facts of a brilliant life cut short by bigotry and the brutal 'treatment' of his homosexuality, McEwan has Turing build on his code-cracking war work.Turing's research, has been employed to design androids that are able to pass for the humans who created them. One such synthetic human is Adam. Then we meet Charlie who is 32 and lives alone in a small flat in south London, where he plays the stock market from a home computer without much success. Charlie is able to buy one of these high end synthetic humans thanks to a recent inheritance from his mother.Charlie is actually trying to begin a romantic relationship with Miranda from the flat above, and harbours notions that 'Adam' could be a shared project or experience. So begins the peculiar menage a trios involving Charlie, Miranda and Adam. Miranda has a dark secret which Adam seems to know about, which will prove to be uncomfortable for Miranda.As the true nature of Miranda's secret becomes clear, the three characters are drawn together, with Adam taking on the contradictory roles of servant and moral superior. The book touches on many themes, but its real subject is moral choice. I found this book entertaining primarily but also quite disturbing.

Submitted by Paula