Ian MacEwan’s Machines Like Me takes readers on an AI investigation GlobeArts
Jackie Dives / The Globe and Mai, is a futuristic book set in the past. In an alternate 1982 universe, Britain has lost the Falklands War; personal computers, mobile phones, electric cars and self-driving cars are ubiquitous; the Beatles are back together; and, most pertinent to the story, 25 human-like robots have been made available for purchase at a hefty price.
And of course, we’re about to fill our streets with autonomous cars. We have to decide whether we’re going to favour the driver over the pedestrian in an emergency. And the moment that we decide to let a machine, which can think faster than us, take an ethical decision on our behalf as to whether to swerve into the pavement, hit a pedestrian or swerve into an oncoming truck is a very big moment, I think, historically.
Was that a pleasing prospect to you when you embarked on the project; the idea of having this robot as a companion?Oh, absolutely. I think we’re going to have trouble but interesting trouble and once we get very close to someone who has such sophisticated algorithms that they can really convince us that they’re conscious – and maybe they are. Charlie, the narrator is falling in love with the girl upstairs, Miranda, and Adam, of course, must fall in love with her, too.
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