Machines Like Me

Ian McEwan's 'Machines Like Me' covers trodden ground in the novelist's choice of imagining a world where robots become a plausible part of the human experience, a mere piece of merchandise which Charlie Friend orders on internet. Yet instead of rewriting Frankenstein or Asimov's Robot series, McEwan adds a twist of alternative history in imagining a wildly different 1980s Britain defeated during the Falklands War and Alan Turing still around as a vital force in the genesis of artificial intelligence. This chaotic vision of history allows him to highlight the moral dilemma at stake when the cold logic of Adam, a tailor-made android, challenges his owner's position on sexual morality, capitalism and even the very definition of criminal justice in our imperfect world riven by passion. A mesmerizing novel depicting a world which may resemble our own sooner than we think.