Machines Like Me

“In loftiest terms, we aimed to escape our mortality, confront or even replace the Godhead with a perfect self.”

Charlie Friend introduces advances in AI technology, culminating in the creation of Adam and Eve androids, through a moral lens. McEwan compares the fallacies of the human self to the Godhead, or an ideal self that can access and use the full range of its consciousness. He then compares Charlie’s Adam to the “perfect self” that can live with omnipotence and be impervious to death.

“The future kept arriving. Our bright new toys began to rust before we could get them home, and life went on much as before.”

As technology becomes so advanced that many people begin to take its presence in their lives for granted, Charlie proposes that any sense of the “future” has disappeared from public awareness. Technological advances generate little excitement anymore. This contributes to novel’s the dystopian aspect, as Charlie pessimistically feels that global society has reached the end of human innovation.

“There are some decisions, even moral ones, that are formed in regions below conscious thought.”

When first seeing Mark being beaten by his mother, Charlie acts on a moral impulse to intervene and save the boy. This quote reflects the novel’s discussion of moral relativism versus objectivity, as Charlie bases his decision to act on his specific location and emotional context, which has lasting implications for his development as a character.