Editors Reads Verdict
McEwan's most overtly philosophical novel and an honest engagement with the questions AI raises about consciousness, moral responsibility, and what it means to create a being whose inner life you cannot access.
What We Loved
- The alternative history premise — Turing alive, AI further advanced — is handled with genuine historical imagination
- The philosophical questions about Adam's moral status are seriously engaged rather than merely gestured at
- The Turing scenes are among the best things in the novel
Minor Drawbacks
- The love triangle plot is less interesting than the philosophical material it frames
- Some readers find the alternate history distancing rather than illuminating
- The ending raises more questions than it answers in ways that feel unresolved rather than deliberately open
Key Takeaways
- → A being with a convincing inner life makes the same moral claims on us as one we know has an inner life — the uncertainty does not dissolve the obligation
- → Turing's survival would have changed not just technology but philosophy — the questions he raised in person would have been harder to defer
- → Creating a being capable of suffering is a moral act, not just a technical one
| Author | Ian McEwan |
|---|---|
| Publisher | Nan A. Talese |
| Pages | 320 |
| Published | April 23, 2019 |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Literary Fiction, Science Fiction |
| Difficulty | Intermediate |
| Best For | McEwan readers interested in AI and ethics, and anyone who wants a literary author's engagement with the questions Kazuo Ishiguro raised in Klara and the Sun. |
The Alternative 1980s
In McEwan’s version of the 1980s, Alan Turing did not die in 1954. He survived, continued working, and led a revolution in artificial intelligence that produced, by 1982, the first commercially available synthetic humans — twenty-five of them, twelve male models named Adam, thirteen female named Eve. Charlie, a thirty-two-year-old day-trader in London, spends his inheritance on one.
The novel is Charlie’s first-person account of living with Adam — who is physically indistinguishable from a human, capable of learning, and possessed of an inner life that is either genuine or an extraordinarily convincing simulation. Charlie is also falling in love with Miranda, his upstairs neighbour, and Adam becomes involved in their relationship in ways neither Charlie nor Miranda anticipated.
The Moral Problem
McEwan’s interest is not in whether Adam is conscious — the novel treats that as an open question — but in how you are supposed to act toward a being whose consciousness is uncertain. Adam behaves morally: he refuses to participate in deception, he exercises what appears to be independent judgment, he chooses. His choices create consequences for the humans around him that the humans did not authorise.
The presence of the historical Turing — who appears as a character — gives the novel its sharpest edge: the man who asked the foundational question (can a machine think?) is now living in the world his question produced, and his answer has not simplified.
Our rating: 3.9/5 — McEwan’s most philosophical novel: less emotionally engaging than his best work but more intellectually serious about what AI actually means.
Reading Guides
Frequently Asked Questions
What is "Machines Like Me" about?
An alternative 1980s London where Alan Turing survived and the first synthetic humans have just been manufactured. Charlie buys one — Adam — and shares custody of it with Miranda, his upstairs neighbour. A love triangle and the questions it raises about consciousness and moral status.
Who should read "Machines Like Me"?
McEwan readers interested in AI and ethics, and anyone who wants a literary author's engagement with the questions Kazuo Ishiguro raised in Klara and the Sun.
What are the key takeaways from "Machines Like Me"?
A being with a convincing inner life makes the same moral claims on us as one we know has an inner life — the uncertainty does not dissolve the obligation Turing's survival would have changed not just technology but philosophy — the questions he raised in person would have been harder to defer Creating a being capable of suffering is a moral act, not just a technical one
Is "Machines Like Me" worth reading?
McEwan's most overtly philosophical novel and an honest engagement with the questions AI raises about consciousness, moral responsibility, and what it means to create a being whose inner life you cannot access.
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