All about McEwan’s new book

McEwan discusses his latest book, “Machines Like Me,” with Professor Brian Clack

Joe Duffy / Asst. A&C Editor / The USD Vista

Can a human be cuckolded by a machine? This is one of many questions posed by “Machines Like Me,” the new novel by acclaimed writer Ian McEwan, who visited the University of San Diego on Friday, May 3.

McEwan came to USD to discuss his new book, which was released in April, with Professor Brian Clack, PhD, a professor of philosophy and the A. Vassiliadis Director of the Humanities Center.

It was indeed a special event, as USD was one of only five venues that McEwan selected for his book tour, and his only stop in Southern California. The night was presented by the USD Humanities Center in collaboration with Warwick’s, a six-year partnership that has most recently brought authors like Chelsea Clinton and Marlon James to the USD campus.

  The British novelist is one of the most prominent writers of his generation and a major cultural figure in the United Kingdom. He is the author of 17 books, and has produced short story collections and screenplays in addition to novels. He won the Booker Prize for Fiction in 1998 for his novel “Amsterdam,” and his next novel, “Atonement,” was made into an Oscar-winning film starring Keira Knightley and James McAvoy.

A large audience of students, faculty, and other visitors turned out for the event, filling up at least the first dozen rows of seats in Shiley Theatre. Once the house lights dimmed, the crowd became quiet and a representative from Warwick’s came to the podium, followed by Noelle Norton, Ph.D., Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, who introduced McEwan.

“The subversive and entertaining novel poses fundamental questions that all of us probably need to start asking, such as, ‘What makes us human? Our outward deeds or our inner lives? Can a machine understand the human heart?’” Norton said. “It’s a provocative and thrilling tale that warns of the power to invent things beyond our control.”

Set in an alternative 1980s London—a warped history wherein the mathematician and artificial intelligence pioneer Alan Turing never took his own life, John F. Kennedy was never assassinated, and Jimmy Carter won a second term over Ronald Reagan—“Machines Like Me” explores the moral dilemma that arises when the line between man and machine becomes blurred.

The story follows Charlie, a 32-year-old electronics enthusiast, after he uses the profits from the sale of his dead mother’s house to purchase Adam, one of the first truly life-like androids in existence. He then meets Miranda, a young graduate student who lives upstairs from him, and together they attempt to co-author Adam’s personality. Feelings are laid bare, a love triangle forms, and Charlie is forced to grapple with the question of whether Adam is more “human” than he initially thought.

In their discussion, Clack and McEwan touched on the subjects of science, politics, humanity, and, of course, “Machines Like Me.” Clack began the discussion by talking about the origins of the book, asking McEwan what led him to this book at this time.

The author discussed his relationship with artificial intelligence, describing how over the years he has kept up with some advancements, but mostly disappointments, in AI technology.

“Finally, I feel as if (AI) has arrived on our laps,” McEwan said. “It really has been a 40-year excursion of mine.”

In the course of the discussion, McEwan read two passages from his book, both of which were followed by applause from the audience. One of the passages honed in on the main character Charlie’s ongoing dilemma in determining whether his android more closely resembles a human or robot.

“The important thing for me in keeping curiosity alive was to get the reader to share, along the way, Charlie’s certainty that (Adam) is merely a machine and he’s just playing a computer game, and then doubting himself and feeling that he actually is with a fully sentient being who has a consciousness as rich as his own,” McEwan said.

Clack also brought up McEwan’s stylistic departure and the sci-fi elements present in his new novel. It was a question that felt particularly relevant, as the author had recently come under fire from sci-fi fans who accused him of genre snobbery following an interview with The Guardian, where he seemed to slight conventional sci-fi by saying that novelists could explore the future of artificial intelligence “…not in terms of traveling at 10 times the speed of light in anti-gravity boots, but in actually looking at the human dilemmas of being close up to something that you know to be artificial but which thinks like you.”

McEwan has since commented that the quote was an innocent remark and that he is, in fact, a fan of sci-fi writers like Philip K. Dick and Ursula K. Le Guin, and of movies like “Blade Runner.” He redoubled this opinion in the discussion on Friday night.

“I both honor and like science fiction, but on this planet,” he said.

The discussion between Clack and McEwan lasted for around 45 minutes before it was opened up for an audience Q&A. The first audience member asked McEwan what his vision of an ideal social system would be.

“Most utopias are masks for nightmares,” he responded. “And you have to be wary of utopianists because, if they’re rational enough, they’ll make this simple equation that if you have a set of ideas that will make humanity happy for everyone, it would be perfectly reasonable to kill quite a few people to get to that point.”

Other questions dealt with McEwan’s literary influences—among them John Updike, Gabriel García Márquez, and Jorge Luis Borges—his most shameful Christopher Hitchens story, our manners when dealing with Siri and Alexa, and the ethics of murdering a machine.

USD senior Nina Montejano, who attended the event, found the discussion to be stimulating, and was fascinated by McEwan’s humanistic outlook on literature.

“I liked his comments about how he takes a specifically human-based approach on science fiction,” Montejano said. 

After taking about seven questions, the organizers called it a night and an overwhelming applause rose from the audience once again as Clack and McEwan exited the Shiley Theater stage. The crowd then filed out of the theater and into the night, chatting away with copies of “Machines Like Me” tucked under their arms.