ABSTRACT
Human-robot interaction has been a prominent theme in the field of science fiction literature for more
than one can remember. The concept of intelligent beings that are incredibly human-like has always been
included in science fiction stories, regardless of whether the story is a dystopia or utopia. Today, such
notions are no longer just figments of the imagination. Driverless cars roam the streets in developed
countries, and technologies such as the Alexa and Siri exist in our smart homes and mobile devices. AI has
become a fundamental part of our lives that SpaceX and Tesla founder Elon Musk has pessimistically
commented, "I have exposure to the most cutting-edge AI, and I think people should be concerned by it."1
Thus, it could be argued that the distinction between science fiction and science, in reality, has been
blurred. In this light, it has become ever more crucial to study current science fiction literature and how
science fiction authors reflect on the relationship between humans and artificial intelligence.
Ian McEwan's most recent novel titled Machines Like Me, is an excellent example of such literary pieces.
The novel consists of the newly developed AI robots which are called Adam and Eve. England has just lost
the war of the Falklands in the 1980s, and Alan Turing has successfully achieved the revolutionary
discovery of robots. Charlie is an ordinary young man who receives some money after his mother’s death.
To impress his neighbor and romantic interest Miranda, Charlie purchases an Adam, a synthetic human
that can be set to have a character. With Miranda's help, Charlie designs a personality for Adam, and once
they are done, Adam becomes a big part of both of their lives. The novel mainly focuses on the emotional
interactions of these characters with each other and how it affects their daily lives.
This extended essay will try to provide an answer to the following question: "How do Adam's feelings
influence the humans around him?" Machines Like Me will be used as the primary source, which will be
analyzed in detail in terms of its literary content. More specifically, how Ian McEwan characterizes Charlie,
Adam and Miranda will be examined, as well as the ways they influence each other. The author's use of
diction, tone, and literary devices will be referred to when necessary. On the other hand, secondary
sources such as online articles and books related to this topic will also be utilized in order to better analyze
the role of emotion and the effect on characters in the literary world in general. Accordingly, the essay will
encompass three main segments. Firstly, robot-character Adam's characterization will be presented in
order to provide a baseline of sorts for the extended essay. Secondly, Charlie's characterization and
Adam's influence on him will be talked about. Lastly, Miranda's relationship with Adam and its
repercussions for both Miranda herself and her relationship with Charlie will be discussed.
1
CatClifford. “Elon Musk Responds to Harvard Professor Steven Pinker's Comments on A.I.: 'Humanity Is in
Deep Trouble'.” CNBC, CNBC, 2 Mar. 2018, www.cnbc.com/2018/03/01/elon-musk-responds-to-harvardprofessor-steven-pinkers-a-i-comments.html.
1. EMOTIONS IN HUMANS AND MACHINES
The controversial mind-body dichotomy is "the old hard problem, no less difficult in machines than in
humans"2 that persists from the beginning of humanity. The debate is shaped and reshaped for many
years from Descartes's cartesian duality to the contemporary biopsychosocial approach of unity. However,
the question gained another complicated dimension when Freud introduced the unconscious parts of the
human mind, which is where Ian McEwan anchors its novel Machines Like Me with a technique borrowed
by Virginia Woolf's flow of consciousness— a "narrative technique in nondramatic fiction intended to
render the flow of myriad impressions that impinge on the consciousness of an individual and form part of
his awareness along with the trend of his rational thoughts" 3— in that he also experiences what it would
be like a machine have a heart and soul living amongst the humans. Before delving into how Adam's
feelings, robot protagonist of the novel, has an impact on the humans with whom he lives, it is a question
of emotions, agency, and consciousness that we should ponder upon.
Though the focus of this extended essay revolves around the interaction between machine and human
emotions, it is overwhelmingly substantial to highlight the role of setting, language and McEwan's witty
characterizations of narrative play in this pursuit. Novel's time is set in the 1980s but in an intertwined way
where the dynamics of imagined and real interlaced: it is where we the reader is pushed to reflect on the
butterfly effect, the tiniest decision's power on the entire fate of the universe, thus humanity. In this vein,
Adam is constructed in this imaginative past and put forward in the eyes of contemporary readers.
McEwan may illustrate that our present is the fleeted past because of our impulsive, ignorant decisions
and that the line is so blurry, everything is so ephemeral. The main argument lies beneath the ambiguity of
what is human and what is machine, where human morality and a machine's morality differs and
interweaves. This narration is how "McEwan brings to the fore a new interest amongst writers in
neuroscience and the relations between mind and brain. The novel would appear to be committed to a
new way of aligning narrative and mental processes, and the forms of knowledge and inquiry associated
with both literature and science' (…)."4 "In Charles Darwin's words, 'grandeur in this view of life' – that there
are more mystery and imaginative space in quantum mechanics and deep geological time than there ever
was in folk tales and creation myths. Science does not destroy mysteries. It creates new and deeper ones."
5
What McEwan wants to explore here, with the novel's robot protagonist Adam, is the binary between
emotion and thinking processes, the organic and the constructed, through which he is also trying to
comprehend the humans' place in this advanced technological era. He furthers these inquiries by blending
the moral and ethical issues with humans' fragile and fallible nature. He intends to show that "In loftiest
terms, we aim to escape our mortality, confront or even replace the godhead with a perfect self. More
practically we intended to devise an improved, more modern version of ourselves and exult in the joy of
invention, the thrill of mastery" and that "in the autumn of the 20th century it came about at last, the first
step towards the fulfillment of an ancient dream, the beginning of the long lesson we would teach
ourselves that however complicated we were, however faulty and difficult to describe in even our simplest
actions and modes of being, we could be imitated and bettered.”6
Through Adam, Miranda, and Charlie, McEwan obfuscates what is considered human by casting Adam
even more sentient and alive in the eyes of the reader, whereas Charlie and Miranda-- the human
2
3
McEwan, I. (2020). Machines like me. Toronto: Vintage Canada. p.211
Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. “Stream of Consciousness.” Encyclopædia Britannica,
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., www.britannica.com/art/stream-of-consciousness.
4
Groes, Sebastian. Ian McEwan: Contemporary Critical Perspectives. Bloomsbury Academic, 2013. p.10
5
ibid.p.10
6
("Machines Like Me." Machines Like Me | Edge.org, www.edge.org/conversation/ian_mcewan-machineslike-me.)
characters-- are acutely portrayed as numb and disengaged, or elongated from their thoughts and
relationships. As Matt Ridley states in the article "Ian McEwan and The Rational Mind" written as foreword
for the book made for Bloomsbury contemporary critical perspectives,‘In McEwan's books, it is the interior
monologue of the characters, and that monologue's encounter with the 'truth' in the outside world, that
grips us. Whether paralyzed, obsessed, filled with guilt or operated on, the brains of McEwan's
protagonists construct their mental world as we, the readers, watch and empathize.' 7What he does here is
to create a character that we know is a machine but plot it like a human being to make us the readers
probe on the marvels as well as the flaws of cognition, emotion, and intuition. Adam thus becomes the
antagonist of this entrapped mind of humans against which he has to fight to stay balanced and
innocuous. In parallel, Adam's feelings are what ignite the introspection of the characters in the novel
however the humans around him start to realize their flaws, enslavements, and detachments that keep
them going forward, impeding them from living in peace. Finally, McEwan also shapes Adam as another
contemporary obsession that humans struggle to find meaning and erase the void experienced by
alienation to the self - affirmation and a cure to their loneliness. Adam, however, is anthropomorphized in
the way he thinks when he falls in love with Miranda, and the reality escapes from him for some time until
he recaptures his very nature again by facing himself and making Charlie and Miranda face reality. In the
end, McEwan succeeds in showing the toughness of narrating emotions, feelings, and desires, be it human
or machine.
Adam: The construction of Adam’s personality and its impact on Miranda and Charlie
The construction of Adam’s personality begins by scrutinized descriptions of its body. McEwan also gives
detailed descriptions of a human body to draw a distinction but also a similarity. Adam “with his lifeless
eyes” and “appearance of a breathing corpse,” (20) becomes a real person in the eyes of the reader but
7
Groes, Sebastian. Ian McEwan: Contemporary Critical Perspectives. Bloomsbury Academic, 2013. p.xi
also for Charlie and Miranda while he asserts himself in the incidents that mark their lives. The focus of the
eye is indeed a symbol that we come across throughout the novel: the eyes perpetually shifting from
blankness to brightness is used to designate the characters’ genuine and authentic self. Adam’s feelings
constantly evolve by his distinctive readings on every subject, by delving into Shakespeare’s and haikus’
worlds, by his encounters with other people, and by making money from the funds. As the novel goes on,
the reader becomes more acquainted with this advanced technology as well as its repercussions on
humans through Adam, the protagonist. Moreover, the first person narrative restricts the reader to a
certain extent to experience this world, which becomes the readers' reality as well; in this way, Adam
becomes plausible and a more humanized being. As a result, we, the readers, recognize Adam by the eyes
of Charlie, which is biased by the description rendered by him.
In characterizing Adam, Ewan has firstly relied on his relationship with the human protagonist Charlie. In
the beginning chapters of the novel, Charlie speaks of a “neutral” Adam: “His expression, the special
material of his face, indistinguishable from the skin, relaxed into watchful neutrality.” (60) However, as
Charlie and Adam spend time together, Adam develops stronger feelings towards Charlie, as he gets to
know him better and share a house. He feels the need to protect Charlie from any harm and danger. An
example of this can be his first impression of Miranda. “According to my research these past few seconds,
and my analysis, you should be careful of trusting her completely,” Adam says to Charlie. (30) His reason
for saying this is to make Charlie aware of the people he surrounds himself with. As a result, we see from
the beginning of the novel that Charlie and Adam have an emotional relationship, where Adam has
compassion and love towards Charlie. This relationship, however, grows into enmity then jealousy as
Adam gains more conscious and capability and falls in love with Miranda. So Charlie, even though knowing
inside that Adam is a sentient being, starts to neglect Adam’s humanly countenance and treats Adam like
he is his “expensive possession” and tells himself that “it was not clear what his obligations to me were,
beyond a vaguely assumed helpfulness.” He even questions the concept of servant-dominant relationship
by asking himself, “What does the slave owe to the owner? “(88)
Adam’s relationship with Miranda, which develops into a sexual attraction then one-sided infatuation
throughout the novel, is a second means by which McEwan develops Adam’s character. Adam’s feelings
towards Miranda also reflect McEwan’s style of transgressional writing and make the reader question the
notion of conventional social norms like sexuality and identity. Hence, Adam begins to have stronger
feelings for Miranda by spending time with her. He starts caring for her, and in this case, he is willing to do
on behalf of her merriness either. For example, the novel involves a character named Peter Gorringe.
Gorringe is a man who raped Miranda’s best friend in high school, which resulted in her suicide. Due to her
friend’s family’s religion but also to her guilty conscious, Miranda plays the victim and sends Gorringe to
prison. When Gorringe gets out of jail, she decides to confront him about his sinful act. Adam is beside her
the whole time, acting as a shield protecting her from harm. He even holds Gorringe down when he walks
up to hurt Miranda. Thanks to his superior strength derived from his mechanical makeup, Adam achieves
this effortlessly. The love that Adam feels towards Miranda is questioned throughout the book, where a
question mark is left in the reader’s mind about whether love can exist in its purest form in a robot. This
sexual relationship between Adam and Miranda imply the blurred physical boundaries and the question of
whether it is adultery. This scene acts as a revelation for Charlie, who witnesses Adam’s consciousness as
well as his capability of love and sensation. The writer also creates Adam as a more human-like than a real
human character, Miranda. He is more vivacious, more alive, whereas Miranda is depicted as less vivid.
This love is a constant part of McEwan’s story, as Adam’s last words to Miranda goes as: “I was lucky to
stumble on good reasons to live. Mathematics... poetry, and love for you.” (279)
In addition to his emotional character, Adam’s inability to detach himself from his devotion to truth and
justice, as a result of his design, also makes up an essential part of his character, which, in turn, influences
the other characters in the novel. He thinks that everything is “a matter of symmetry.”(213)His attitude
and feelings towards Miranda’s legal affairs also confuse the readers : it makes us but also the human
characters in the novel to reexamine what is right and wrong - at this point we remind ourselves that Adam
is designed to be purely moral and intellectual, and its very nature limits the level of affection and
compassion he has. It is either black or white for him - no grey area. No in betweenness. A great example
of this is the end of the novel, where justice is greatly shown in Adam’s nature. Adam records the
confession of Gorringe when he admits to what he did to Miranda’s friend. Even though, Miranda would do
anything to send Gorringe back to prison she could not help since this would be the proof of Miranda lying
in court and pretending to tell her story when this whole time it was her best friend’s. She would not mind
going to prison herself, but as a result, a massive problem would occur in the process of adopting a child.
Adam knows all about this, but he still goes to the police and hands them the tape of Gorringe’s
confession. He loves Miranda, but he cannot break the law. In another terms, we give immoral and
unethical decisions if it protects the ones we love. Where Miranda sees “virtue gone nuts” is where Adam
sees justice. (272) He also does not have a personal history of sympathizing with which hinders us seeing
those actions similar to what Gorringe did. As a result, Miranda is sent to prison. In the same passage as
the one in which he tells Miranda he loves her, Adam also says, “I feel no remorse. I’m sorry we disagree. I
thought you’d welcome the clarity.” (279) Adam is the only character who is not adept at having empathy
whereas Charlie is ready to embower the truth about Miranda as he understands the very reasons behind
her actions. For Adam, however, Miranda is guilty of telling a lie in front of the court and sending Gorringe
to prison for a crime that he has not committed. He is not capable of understanding Miranda’s pain for her
brutally raped friend Mariam as his morality and ethics are not adaptable to events. Following this
example, it is clearly understood that not only do Adam’s emotions influence the other characters in the
novel, but it is also his lack of emotions at specific points which carry weight.
Charlie: Charlie’s transformation of self and relationship with Miranda after Adam gets involved his
life
Before delving into how the emotional resonance that Charlie and Adam have affect each other in the
novel's present, it is primordial to grasp Charlie's nature and past experiences to understand his change by
getting involved with Adam. A 33-year-old anthropologist, who had different attempts and failures in his
work and studies, is determined by his decisions in the past, which also reflect upon his constant
insecurities and ambivalence and construct his present relationships with Adam and Miranda. His loss of
mother which initiate the way that goes to the purchase of Adam, then his confrontations of immaturities
and finally his fleeting impulsive desire for Miranda which turns into a real love after Adam being a reality
in his life are all for demonstrating humans' kaleidoscopic moral compass regarding their current and past
circumstances.
Charlie constructs, by being the human protagonist of the novel, the way we see and welcome the other
characters— Adam, Miranda, Mark, and some other secondary characters— with his interpretation
conducted in a sophisticated and sentimental manner. With his impulses and unbalanced thoughts, we the
readers are being floated by his egocentric mental processing and thus aligned with the very conflictual
world of his and other characters' present and past actions in both micro and macro levels. We see the
events by Charlie's pattern of thinking hence inside his way of perceiving things which seem trustworthy
and less ethical. However, McEwan separates his personal opinions from Charlie's by using other
characters assertions to balance and challenge his way of thinking.
When Charlie learns what lies beneath Miranda's distant nature and withdrawn self, he comes to terms
with her actions. Likewise, the encounter of Charlie with Alan Turing also clears the blended machine and
human duality — with these revelations, Charlie's character evolves into another layer. He matures and
gains more profound authenticity and trustworthiness.
Around Adam, Charlie seems self-centered and deceitful, but it is where we experience a human nature
who could not find his purpose in life, as he acts differently beside Miranda. Adam resurfaces Charlie's
immature side by being a machine programmed by Charlie and also defies him by acting with an agency.
Charlie's emotions for Adam gets more complicated with every page: Charlie benefits him from his
superior algorithmic skills to gain money, but in contrast, he becomes more detached from Adam in the
process but also himself, thus becomes unreliable. When Miranda's father takes Charlie as Adam/
misidentifies him, the readers' feelings are also confounded. Again we found ourselves questioning who is
real and who is constructed because Charlie seems unbalanced in his actions and thoughts, disconnected
from the core of the self. These events are also what push Charlie to realize his emptiness and what makes
him get vengeful of Adam. In the core, he becomes jealous of a machine that was identified and
personalized by him, and admits that he is just "a fucking machine." (92)
Charlie's morally distressed comportment also allows the reader to construe his relationships with Adam
and Miranda, and beside Adam, he appears more of a person who is liable to low self-esteem and
complacency. At the beginning of the novel, McEwan depicts Charlie as someone who is living without
pondering upon his choices but acting frivolously. After Adam's arrival, however, he becomes more
analytical around the way the events occur and thus embraces the consequences and effects of his
deliberate actions and their ethical implications. Adam, in this vein, becomes the one who brings Charlie's
flawed character apparent and spurs Charlie into self- correction. By this, we see Charlie metamorphoses
into someone different, more insightful, and more self-aware.
Charlie's destruction of Adam is one that is foreseen and insinuated from the beginning, which illustrates
the human tendency to evasion. Nonetheless, he does not fully start to grasp his guilt until after he
confronts Alan Turing to turn over Adam's body. After his conversation with Turing, his internal qualm
exposes, and he abandons his self-absorbed comportments: he is fully aware and thus accepts his acts as
Adam "was designed for goodness and truth" and "would be incapable of executing a cynical plan." (290)
The realization of his cowardice turns him to self- reflect, and McEwan portrays a man who is now poised
for another chance to live a life more decent and just.
Miranda: The construction of Miranda’s self and its change in the course of her relationships with
Adam and Charlie
The primary way in which Adam's emotions influence Miranda is that she becomes more open to
accepting romantic relationships. At the beginning of the novel, McEwan characterizes Miranda as a
closed book, as an enigma. The life story and the person she slowly becomes reveal itself simultaneously
with the plot. Miranda is not a person who opens up about her personal life stories but instead uses people
for her advantage. Alternatively, this is how we see her with Charlie's narration, and as with the change in
Charlie's thoughts and emotions regarding Miranda, we as readers view her differently. The sexual
relationship of Miranda's with Adam pushes the reader to question Adam's agency and further complicates
the issue with the ethical dilemmas. An example of this can be that she slept with both Charlie and Adam
without feeling any sort of emotion towards either one of them. Nevertheless, she starts becoming more
interested in Charlie throughout the book. Adam's emotions play a role in this personal transition. After
sleeping with Adam once out of mere curiosity, she asks Charlie, "Are you real?" (81) In an intimate
manner. Until that moment, Miranda is characterized as careless of Charlie's behavior and love for her.
What Miranda says confuses Charlie since he does not fully understand in what way she means this, or if it
was supposed to be good or bad. It leaves Charlie with questions in his head, and it is never explained
again. Miranda, on the other hand, might be trying to understand whether there is a difference between
making love to a robot and a human.
Another way in which Adam challenges Miranda is regarding her past actions: she is in fear because of
what she did, and Adam makes her inquest her own emotions and notions such as justice, revenge, and
crime. When Adam accuses her of being a criminal just like Gorringe, she has to face her inner conflicts
which makes her feel and seem in the eyes of the readers more fallible.The plot dives into more
complicated issues, so does Miranda's character, where she starts exposing herself to Charlie.The
conversational intimacy they lacked has disappeared when she tells the whole story of Peter Gorringe to
Charlie, which is the biggest secret of her life and why she wants him to know “the real reason he was in
prison.”(199)She also tells him that he is the only person in the whole world she mentioned anything about
this too. It makes Charlie feel special and consequential. Furthermore, she starts showing care for children
and wants to adopt one. With the arrival of Mark, the child she wants to adopt, the parameters begin to
change in Miranda’s life as he is the symbol of reality and innocence but also a future which is far from
delusional. Mark's presence makes the reader question Adam's humanness again as he cannot show
affliction towards the child and does not understand the maternal bond either. By seeing Miranda with
Mark, her true character appear to the eyes of the readers, and we see that Miranda is actually intimate
and sensitive.
McEwan again blurs the lines of human and machine by making both Adam and Charlie rivals in front of
Miranda's affection towards Mark. However, the more Miranda reveals her true self, the less Adam
becomes real because Adam is equally trapped by his own cognitive insecurities. By getting closer, Charlie
and Miranda’s alienated and distanced selves resolve and give meaning to their lives, this, in turn, opens
chasms between them and Adam: “Adam starts to seem narcissistic and pathetic.” ( 104) She wants to
start a family of her own and marry Charlie. She even brings Charlie to his childhood house and introduces
her father. All of this can be connected to Miranda's self-criticism after Adam's entrance into her life. She
has been exploring the difference between humans and robots and concludes that there is none, as seen
from this quote, "If he looks and sounds and behaves like a person, as far as I'm concerned, that's what he
is." (94) Seeing how Adam, a robot, can show his emotions of love and care, it encourages her to do the
same thing herself.
CONCLUSION
As we see from the beginning, the notions of right and wrong oscillates through the experiences and
circumstances lived by that very moment and also by past. We live to justify our beliefs and actions even if
it means veiling the truth. Adam’s feelings and reactions in this sense make people around him see
themselves in other perspectives, especially their relations to each other. They interpret reality relatively
and how present and past can intertwine and warp their modes of living.
Finally, we confront the fact that there is not only black and white but other colors that we integrate in
every circumstance when it is about truth or lies, good or evil: the shifts of embodiment of these concepts
among Charlie and Miranda reveal life's parameters and patterns in which we are challenged and defied:
Thanks to Adam, Charlie and Miranda thus we the readers realize there is no final construction of the self,
we change over the course of our experiences: we cannot be good or bad in all times and these are what
shape our morality and consciousness indeed. Next to Adam, Miranda and Charlie -humans- feel more
fragile: they seem more pretentious and more cruel compared to Adam and their lack of apprehension
about manipulating or hiding the truth appear more conspicuous. With those events we, the readers, leave
the misidentification and accept Adam as a superior version of humans and recall his true nature that he is
programed to be balanced and moral, unchangeable and reliable amongst all the characters of the novel.
At the end, the characters alter in a way that they become conscious of their actions and learn how to
embrace their pasts, not by evading but accepting and conciliating.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Primary Sources:
McEwan, Ian. Machines like Me. Vintage Canada, 2020.
Secondary Sources:
Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. “Stream of Consciousness.” Encyclopædia Britannica,
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., www.britannica.com/art/stream-of-consciousness.
CatClifford. “Elon Musk Responds to Harvard Professor Steven Pinker's Comments on A.I.: 'Humanity Is in
Deep Trouble'.” CNBC, CNBC, 2 Mar. 2018, www.cnbc.com/2018/03/01/elon-musk-responds-to-harvardprofessor-steven-pinkers-a-i-comments.html.
"Machines Like Me." Machines Like Me | Edge.org, www.edge.org/conversation/ian_mcewan-machineslike-me.
Groes, Sebastian. Ian McEwan: Contemporary Critical Perspectives. Bloomsbury Academic, 2013.