Book Review: `Machines Like Me' (McEwan 2019)
Book Review: Machines Like Me (McEwan 2019)
So, I just read the novel Machines Like Me (McEwan 2019)...
Machines Like Me (McEwan 2019)
Warning: Spoiler Alerts.
I didn't like it...?
And if, like me, you like robots and AI and utopias, then: don't read it!
It will probably annoy you.
I don't think it fairly represents: robots.
The Premise of the novel is that: A British loser-guy (who's also in love with a woman who lives in his apartment block) buys an android; she helps program it, and then it falls in love with her, so a weird love-triangle ensues. Also: murder, rape, stalking, homeless kids, and, other bad and very depressing stuff. Also anytime something good happens, it soon comes undone.
That's just: depressing.
Okay, so... to be fair.
Well; look - McEwan is hailed as a terrific writer, and, hey - he probably is...?
The prose is: mostly, fine?
Though, quite a few sentences, I had to re-read, till they made sense.
And it was a bit of a chore to read.
So overall, I didn't like the book at all.
I wanted it to be: exhilarating, and enjoyable.
...It's about robots, AI, and the future!
(Well, kind of. In an alternate past, anyways.)
Instead, I found it: horribly depressing...?
(In the same way that I find Martin Amis' Money depressing.)
...Nothing very good ever happens, and, tons of bad stuff does.
Also - it's so (too) serious in tone - there's no funny/lightness in there...
That I can remember, anyway.
So - if you like heavy dark `serious' (downer) literature, then - you may well love it?
I like, optimistic stories - about: A.I., robots, computers, the future, and utopias.
And, I like: happy and funny stuff.
See:
StoryAlity #151 – My article on Stanley Kubrick, Charles Darwin and Joe Campbell’s monomyth, in The Journal of Genius and Eminence (March 2018)StoryAlity #152 – The Holon/Parton Structure of the Meme, or The Unit of Culture. In the book Advanced Methodologies and Technologies in Artificial Intelligence, Computer Simulation, and Human-Computer Interaction (2019)StoryAlity #139 – On the evolution of Darwin’s `Tree of Life’ DiagramStoryAlity#140 – The Evolution of the Systems Model of Creativity (Csikszentmihalyi 1988-onwards)StoryAlity #141 – The StoryAlity-Theory `Robo-Raconteur’ artificial-writerStoryAlity #142 – Our StoryAlity so far – random Technological MarvelsStoryAlity #143 – All of life is doing scienceStoryAlity #144 – The structure of the meme, the unit of culture (in: The Encyclopedia of Information Science & Technology, Velikovsky 2017)StoryAlity #145 – Five views of the monomyth (Velikovsky 2017)For me, the book was just: a very stressful `downer' of a story?
It left me feeling: really depressed...?
I mean sure, why not, show all the ways stuff can go wrong if you screw up, in integrating robots with humans?
But - these then became plot holes in this novel.
...The android manufacturer would have solved all that stuff before release.
OR ELSE - THEY SHOULDN'T HAVE RELEASED THEM YET, AS CONSUMER ITEMS!
Or, they should have monitored the robots (with security cameras everywhere, and make each home a reality-TV show, and have armed guards standing by. But aain this is the dark side of it all. Show how it works, well!)
Also, I had a huge problem with 2 other plot-holes that crop up, about halfway through the book:
Here they come:
1) If, you had a super-intelligent AI robot - and you were a stock-market day-trader (like the main guy, Charlie Friend, is), wouldn't you immediately put the robot to work, doing: that?
In the book, the main guy takes ages, to do that...
(So - I soon felt, the main guy was: just too dumb...? To: care about.)
and,
2) I also felt, once the robot turns all nasty and jealous, and, threatens the main guy, (and snaps his arm!), you'd do something about it, quick.
Like: get the damn cops to come take this (jerky-ass) prick of a robot away, or, call the manufacturer and get a refund, or - jeez, do something?!
So again, the main guy seems: too super-dumb...?
So - because of those 2 huge holes. it lost me, about halfway through.
These are 2 insurmountable plotting (and: character) errors, in my view...
Also - it deals with: rape, and stalking, and homeless kids, and loads of depressing shit like that.
In short - it just wasn't the `fun ride' that I wanted / hoped for :)
Yes - those're all important issues, and all that.
But - this was all too heavy.
...My fave novel is: Flann O'Brien's The Third Policeman.
(Yes - it's dark and heavy - but - it's funny. And isn't: a chore to read.)
On the upside, McEwan deals with some current issues, like:
- Universal Basic Income - once we tax the robots! (p. 170)
- Breaking the cycle of inherited privilege (p. 207) - ...but, then, on p 213 he takes it back and calls it a human universal! (...Annoying! STOP IT!)
- He talks about a guy who wrote 50 short stories in his 30s... (p 215, ie - First page of Ch 8)
- He mentions how, Shakespeare kinda ripped off Montaigne (p. 222) - but hey that's (kinda) how creativity works anyway. See: Creative Practice Theory .
- He says: tyrannies decide policy by plebiscites (p 257) - but - we agreed on same-sex marriage in Oz with a plebiscite? But, yes - the Liberal (Conservative) Party are kinda tyrannical jerks anyway. And so is Trump.
- He talks about, a robot practising the art of feeling (p 266). ...WRONG! We need to keep emotions out of robots! But - emotions are just algorithms anyway, so if you DID include them, they'd be easy to mimic? McEwan shoulda done more AI research.
- He finally says, The `Moral' Is - the robots just couldn't handle human-decision-making (with: all of its cognitive bias and emotions, etc). SO, AGAIN - If that was true, then - why'd the manufacturers not test the robots, with humans first? ...Yuuuuge plot-hole... And - It makes robots: look bad.
Or else, is a badly-plotted novel...? Neither of those is: good.
- McEwan has Alan Turing castigate the main dumb-guy (Charlie Friend) because: human brains are way better than robot-brains... See the same point as above! ...It was the manufacturer's fault, for selling them before they were safe...! (pp 302-3).
If so many people read early drafts of this novel and missed that, they're dumb.
Sorry. I'm annoyed.
Also - some of the dialog just doesn't ring true, for some specific characters (e.g. Miranda recounting a memory, also, some stuff the rapist-guy verbally recounts... The dialog there, sounds too much like McEwan, and not those characters, as they're set up.).
Anyway, so, I pretty-much, hated it.
...My own stuff about AI and robots and utopias (etc) is: way better.
So - sorry, anyone, if you wanted me to like this novel.
I didn't.
I also didn't like, a lot of the "Alternate History" stuff.
Though I can see why, McEwan set it in the past...
(Cos if he set it in the future it'd become outdated real quick. So, that was kind of a clever move.)
But - even then - he should've given more reasons why Science and Tech advanced much quicker there, than in our shitty universe...
ie He should have given religion a good serve, for holding science and tech back, for one thing.
He was a friend of Hitch's!
Hey see also, this new religion, I made up: Scientism.
In short - I wanted this novel to be great, as, it's by McEwan after all...(!)
And he's supposed to be: a goddamn literary-genius or something.
So - Sheesh.
So now, I guess it's down to me, to write a great and funny novel about AI and robots and whatnot.
Sorry -- I'm just really disappointed in this novel.
Also - it should have had better `end twists',
Like: Charlie Friend turns out to be an android... P K Dick style.
And Miranda too.
Also you should never name 2 main characters, with the same first letter. I kept getting Miranda and Miriam mixed up. Bad character-name choices. (Sorry.)
Anyway so - this just isn't very good science fiction, sorry.
But hey, thanks for reading!
Also, the robots are coming...
And see
MeToo Gnome
Anyway - I'm not the only one who didn't like it (i.e., Machines Like Me)
See the unfavourable reviews (`Pans') at:
https://bookmarks.reviews/reviews/machines-like-me/
and
https://bookmarks.reviews/point-counterpoint-ian-mcewans-machines-like-me/
~JTV
-----------------------------
Dr. Joe T. Velikovsky, Ph.D. (Communication & Media Arts)
& High-Movie-RoI Consultant (see: The StoryAlity PhD)
-------------------
`The word communication will be used here in a very broad sense to include all of the procedures by which one mind may affect another. This, of course, involves not only written and oral speech, but also music, the pictorial arts, the theater, the ballet, and in fact all human behavior... The language of this memorandum will often appear to refer to the special, but still very broad and important, field of the communication of speech; but practically everything said applies equally well to music of any sort, and to still or moving pictures, as in television." - The Mathematical Theory of Communication, (Shannon & Weaver 1949, pp. 3-4).
Also:
“I know you think you understand what you thought I said, but I'm not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant” - (attributed, and ironically, possibly mistakenly, to: Robert McCloskey, namely the children's book author and illustrator, date of quote unknown)
& this autosig is not even near complete yet, asJT Velikovsky is also a:
Transmedia Writer-Director-Producer: Movies, Games, TV, Theatre, Books, Comics
Transmedia Writing Blog: http://on-writering.blogspot.com.au/
& (High-RoI) Story/Screenplay/Movie Analyst - and Evolutionary Systems TheoristSee: https://storyality.wordpress.com/
& Bio-Culture (Science & the Arts) & Transmedia ResearcherAcademia link: https://aftrs.academia.edu/JTVelikovsky
See, also:
Joe Velikovsky on IMDb:
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/joeteevee
Okay - the autosig is over now. You can stop reading.
Anyway the above is probably a satire, that belongs over at Outrageous BS . Unless it isn't. Hard to say.
Either way - I don't think Roko's Basilisk will like Machines Like Me.
So, I just read the novel Machines Like Me (McEwan 2019)...
Machines Like Me (McEwan 2019)
Warning: Spoiler Alerts.
I didn't like it...?
And if, like me, you like robots and AI and utopias, then: don't read it!
It will probably annoy you.
I don't think it fairly represents: robots.
The Premise of the novel is that: A British loser-guy (who's also in love with a woman who lives in his apartment block) buys an android; she helps program it, and then it falls in love with her, so a weird love-triangle ensues. Also: murder, rape, stalking, homeless kids, and, other bad and very depressing stuff. Also anytime something good happens, it soon comes undone.
That's just: depressing.
Okay, so... to be fair.
Well; look - McEwan is hailed as a terrific writer, and, hey - he probably is...?
The prose is: mostly, fine?
Though, quite a few sentences, I had to re-read, till they made sense.
And it was a bit of a chore to read.
So overall, I didn't like the book at all.
I wanted it to be: exhilarating, and enjoyable.
...It's about robots, AI, and the future!
(Well, kind of. In an alternate past, anyways.)
Instead, I found it: horribly depressing...?
(In the same way that I find Martin Amis' Money depressing.)
...Nothing very good ever happens, and, tons of bad stuff does.
Also - it's so (too) serious in tone - there's no funny/lightness in there...
That I can remember, anyway.
So - if you like heavy dark `serious' (downer) literature, then - you may well love it?
I like, optimistic stories - about: A.I., robots, computers, the future, and utopias.
And, I like: happy and funny stuff.
See:
StoryAlity #151 – My article on Stanley Kubrick, Charles Darwin and Joe Campbell’s monomyth, in The Journal of Genius and Eminence (March 2018)StoryAlity #152 – The Holon/Parton Structure of the Meme, or The Unit of Culture. In the book Advanced Methodologies and Technologies in Artificial Intelligence, Computer Simulation, and Human-Computer Interaction (2019)StoryAlity #139 – On the evolution of Darwin’s `Tree of Life’ DiagramStoryAlity#140 – The Evolution of the Systems Model of Creativity (Csikszentmihalyi 1988-onwards)StoryAlity #141 – The StoryAlity-Theory `Robo-Raconteur’ artificial-writerStoryAlity #142 – Our StoryAlity so far – random Technological MarvelsStoryAlity #143 – All of life is doing scienceStoryAlity #144 – The structure of the meme, the unit of culture (in: The Encyclopedia of Information Science & Technology, Velikovsky 2017)StoryAlity #145 – Five views of the monomyth (Velikovsky 2017)For me, the book was just: a very stressful `downer' of a story?
It left me feeling: really depressed...?
I mean sure, why not, show all the ways stuff can go wrong if you screw up, in integrating robots with humans?
But - these then became plot holes in this novel.
...The android manufacturer would have solved all that stuff before release.
OR ELSE - THEY SHOULDN'T HAVE RELEASED THEM YET, AS CONSUMER ITEMS!
Or, they should have monitored the robots (with security cameras everywhere, and make each home a reality-TV show, and have armed guards standing by. But aain this is the dark side of it all. Show how it works, well!)
Also, I had a huge problem with 2 other plot-holes that crop up, about halfway through the book:
Here they come:
1) If, you had a super-intelligent AI robot - and you were a stock-market day-trader (like the main guy, Charlie Friend, is), wouldn't you immediately put the robot to work, doing: that?
In the book, the main guy takes ages, to do that...
(So - I soon felt, the main guy was: just too dumb...? To: care about.)
and,
2) I also felt, once the robot turns all nasty and jealous, and, threatens the main guy, (and snaps his arm!), you'd do something about it, quick.
Like: get the damn cops to come take this (jerky-ass) prick of a robot away, or, call the manufacturer and get a refund, or - jeez, do something?!
So again, the main guy seems: too super-dumb...?
So - because of those 2 huge holes. it lost me, about halfway through.
These are 2 insurmountable plotting (and: character) errors, in my view...
Also - it deals with: rape, and stalking, and homeless kids, and loads of depressing shit like that.
In short - it just wasn't the `fun ride' that I wanted / hoped for :)
Yes - those're all important issues, and all that.
But - this was all too heavy.
...My fave novel is: Flann O'Brien's The Third Policeman.
(Yes - it's dark and heavy - but - it's funny. And isn't: a chore to read.)
On the upside, McEwan deals with some current issues, like:
- Universal Basic Income - once we tax the robots! (p. 170)
- Breaking the cycle of inherited privilege (p. 207) - ...but, then, on p 213 he takes it back and calls it a human universal! (...Annoying! STOP IT!)
- He talks about a guy who wrote 50 short stories in his 30s... (p 215, ie - First page of Ch 8)
- He mentions how, Shakespeare kinda ripped off Montaigne (p. 222) - but hey that's (kinda) how creativity works anyway. See: Creative Practice Theory .
- He says: tyrannies decide policy by plebiscites (p 257) - but - we agreed on same-sex marriage in Oz with a plebiscite? But, yes - the Liberal (Conservative) Party are kinda tyrannical jerks anyway. And so is Trump.
- He talks about, a robot practising the art of feeling (p 266). ...WRONG! We need to keep emotions out of robots! But - emotions are just algorithms anyway, so if you DID include them, they'd be easy to mimic? McEwan shoulda done more AI research.
- He finally says, The `Moral' Is - the robots just couldn't handle human-decision-making (with: all of its cognitive bias and emotions, etc). SO, AGAIN - If that was true, then - why'd the manufacturers not test the robots, with humans first? ...Yuuuuge plot-hole... And - It makes robots: look bad.
Or else, is a badly-plotted novel...? Neither of those is: good.
- McEwan has Alan Turing castigate the main dumb-guy (Charlie Friend) because: human brains are way better than robot-brains... See the same point as above! ...It was the manufacturer's fault, for selling them before they were safe...! (pp 302-3).
If so many people read early drafts of this novel and missed that, they're dumb.
Sorry. I'm annoyed.
Also - some of the dialog just doesn't ring true, for some specific characters (e.g. Miranda recounting a memory, also, some stuff the rapist-guy verbally recounts... The dialog there, sounds too much like McEwan, and not those characters, as they're set up.).
Anyway, so, I pretty-much, hated it.
...My own stuff about AI and robots and utopias (etc) is: way better.
So - sorry, anyone, if you wanted me to like this novel.
I didn't.
I also didn't like, a lot of the "Alternate History" stuff.
Though I can see why, McEwan set it in the past...
(Cos if he set it in the future it'd become outdated real quick. So, that was kind of a clever move.)
But - even then - he should've given more reasons why Science and Tech advanced much quicker there, than in our shitty universe...
ie He should have given religion a good serve, for holding science and tech back, for one thing.
He was a friend of Hitch's!
Hey see also, this new religion, I made up: Scientism.
In short - I wanted this novel to be great, as, it's by McEwan after all...(!)
And he's supposed to be: a goddamn literary-genius or something.
So - Sheesh.
So now, I guess it's down to me, to write a great and funny novel about AI and robots and whatnot.
Sorry -- I'm just really disappointed in this novel.
Also - it should have had better `end twists',
Like: Charlie Friend turns out to be an android... P K Dick style.
And Miranda too.
Also you should never name 2 main characters, with the same first letter. I kept getting Miranda and Miriam mixed up. Bad character-name choices. (Sorry.)
Anyway so - this just isn't very good science fiction, sorry.
But hey, thanks for reading!
Also, the robots are coming...
And see
MeToo Gnome
Anyway - I'm not the only one who didn't like it (i.e., Machines Like Me)
See the unfavourable reviews (`Pans') at:
https://bookmarks.reviews/reviews/machines-like-me/
and
https://bookmarks.reviews/point-counterpoint-ian-mcewans-machines-like-me/
~JTV
-----------------------------
Dr. Joe T. Velikovsky, Ph.D. (Communication & Media Arts)
& High-Movie-RoI Consultant (see: The StoryAlity PhD)
-------------------
`The word communication will be used here in a very broad sense to include all of the procedures by which one mind may affect another. This, of course, involves not only written and oral speech, but also music, the pictorial arts, the theater, the ballet, and in fact all human behavior... The language of this memorandum will often appear to refer to the special, but still very broad and important, field of the communication of speech; but practically everything said applies equally well to music of any sort, and to still or moving pictures, as in television." - The Mathematical Theory of Communication, (Shannon & Weaver 1949, pp. 3-4).
Also:
“I know you think you understand what you thought I said, but I'm not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant” - (attributed, and ironically, possibly mistakenly, to: Robert McCloskey, namely the children's book author and illustrator, date of quote unknown)
& this autosig is not even near complete yet, asJT Velikovsky is also a:
Transmedia Writer-Director-Producer: Movies, Games, TV, Theatre, Books, Comics
Transmedia Writing Blog: http://on-writering.blogspot.com.au/
& (High-RoI) Story/Screenplay/Movie Analyst - and Evolutionary Systems TheoristSee: https://storyality.wordpress.com/
& Bio-Culture (Science & the Arts) & Transmedia ResearcherAcademia link: https://aftrs.academia.edu/JTVelikovsky
See, also:
Joe Velikovsky on IMDb:
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/joeteevee
Okay - the autosig is over now. You can stop reading.
Anyway the above is probably a satire, that belongs over at Outrageous BS . Unless it isn't. Hard to say.
Either way - I don't think Roko's Basilisk will like Machines Like Me.
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