In the following article four modern works of fiction will be discussed which belong to different genres of narrative literature, but which partly also defy too sweeping a categorization. Ian McEwan's recent Machines Like Me is too complex a novel to be characterized by a single label. There is one work which clearly belongs to science fiction, namely Marge Piercy's He, She and It, and there is another one which may be looked upon as a climate change novel, which is Maggie Gee's The Ice People, but Piercy's He, She and It as well as the latest publication by the winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, Kashuo Ishiguro, Klara and the Sun (2021) also mention environmental problems in the margin at least, and this is why all of them are here placed in the context of ecology. The latter work may also be understood as a modern fairy tale for children and adults alike. What combines the four is the use of artificial intelligence, which exerts a large influence on contemporary society.

Humanoid Robots in Modern Fiction Willi Real

Introduction

This anecdote shows that communication with computers may be interesting but difficult. It also raises several basic questions. One may ask for example whether robots are able to produce utterances which go beyond the level of mere parroting, whether robots have mental faculties which enable them to realize speech intentions of their own, or whether they may make a creative use of language. If they are able to acquire and to store knowledge, are they also able to utilize and activate this, if it may be required in certain situations? One may also ask whether robots possess human feelings. The writers may wonder whether robots, for example, are influenced by such emotions as love or a lust for power, or whether they may be dominated by joy, fear, jealousy, shame, hate, some of which may even lead to aggressive or violent behaviour? In literary works, then, one may find that robots are personified or that they become humanoid creatures. If they are endowed with both reason and emotions, they are becoming a serious challenge for the novelists' imagination.

And from the opposite perspective one may want to know whether human beings are also able to develop feelings towards robots? Are mutual relations between robots and human beings imaginable? Ultimately, this leads to the question what such relationships will be like. It is clear beyond any doubt that modern societies have become accustomed to using the services of robots. In Japan for example there are many robots in hospitals or retirement homes, who serve tea or coffee for all the people who want some, and as a rule, they are well-liked. Generally speaking, robots may become helpful tools in many everday situations.
When I was working on this article in October 2021, I could learn from our daily newspaper that Beethoven's unfinished tenth symphony was completed by the co-operation of musical experts and a specific computer program and that its first performance at the “Beethoven town” Bonn was received with much applause. Such an activity, of course, depends on so-called artificial intelligence, and such developments are not only applied in technology and music, but they also leave their traces in fiction. In the following article I am trying to analyse the present and the future relationship between contemporary men and humanoid robots in four modern novels, namely:

Marge Piercy, He, She and It (HSI), New York: Fawcett Books, 1991. Maggie Gee, The Ice People (IP), London: Telegram, 1998. Ian McEwan, Machines like Me (MLM), London: Jonathan Cape, 2019. Kazuo Ishiguro, Klara and the Sun (KS), London: Faber and Faber: 2021.

Particularly Piercy's He, She and It and Ishiguro's Klara and the Sun may be successfully compared, since both of them present a major character belonging to the category of android robots. In this paper these two will first be discussed. They will be followed and supplemented by an analysis of Maggie Gee's The Ice People and McEwan's Machines Like Me.

In the next part human co-existence in Josie's home is described. The living conditions in there are pretty attractive: Chrissie has a car of her own, and in her work, she is supported by a servant to the speaking name of Melania Housekeeper (KS, p. 47), who behaves in a rather hostile way to Klara. It is not mentioned when and where the events narrated take place. Surprisingly enough, they do not occur in Great Britain. Klara is busy collecting, categorizing and storing all the impressions new to her (KS, p. 47). In another chapter, Klara meets Josie's neighbour and her best friend Ricky (KS, p. 55). Some allusions seem to foreshadow that these two young people will be married one day, yet appearances will turn out to be deceptive in that respect.

It is obvious that Klara is a robot commercially produced, which (or who?) may be bought like so many other articles; she has been programmed to obey, and she is endowed with some human qualities, first of all, she is familiar with the problems of adolescents. In the long run, she is expected to fulfil the role of a helper or mentor in their process of initiation and identity formation. She is also told to respect the privacy of other persons by keeping a respectful distance when being together with them (KS, p. 53). This even becomes a recurrent motif (cf. KS, p. 162, p. 172, p. 173 and p. 174), and it is also a reasonable precondition for empathy and appropriate behaviour. All in all, she is a friendly, gentle, good-natured being that is meant to be an agreeable support for her proprietors. From the very beginning, Klara's behaviour is absolutely non-aggressive, so that she represents neither a danger nor a threat to men. However, what would be a nice imaginative and literary device (for example in children's books), of course, does not in the same way exist in reality. The way Klara is personified, that she is represented similar to a human being, should not be taken too literally: her characterization is certainly not realistic (1).

When, in Josie's home, a great party takes place, it is meant to be an opportunity for learning social interaction (KS, pp. 63-65). For Klara this implies her desire to learn for similar situations in the future. Then Josie and her mother plan an excursion to a waterfall (KS, p. 86). However, the young girl falls sick again (KS, p. 95), and she has to stay at home in Melania Housekeeper's care so that Chrissie and Klara finally have to go on their own (KS, p. 95f). They use the situation in order to get to know each other better: Chrissie's attitude towards the artificial friend of her daughter is becoming less distanced and thus more friendly. Klara realizes that Chrissie and her husband have recently separated (KS, pp. 98-99), On the other hand, Josie's behaviour to Klara is temporarily influenced by a lack of warmth (KS, p. 82): probably it is determined by jealousy.

Josie stays in bed for a rather long time: it seems that she is seriously ill (KS, p. 113). Her friend Rick comes to see her more and more regularly (KS, p. 117). Klara stays in the background, making herself useful by bringing order into Josie's room when Rick has gone (KS, p. 125). There is some tension between Josie and Rick's mother Helen (KS, p. 128f). In his eyes Josie accuses his mother unjustly that she clings to her son too closely: like Chrissie, she is also a single parent, and according to Josie, she is afraid of solitude. Rick thinks his mother only wants the best for him: she wants her son to study at a university, which means that he has to qualify for this in order to be allowed to enter tertiary education (KS, p. 151f). For a time he stops visiting his sick friend (KS, p. 132), then the two young people decide to be friends again (KS, p. 171). Rick himself is of the opinion that, morally speaking, he is not allowed to leave his mother (KS, p. 127). Helen hopes that Klara may be helpful for her son's education (KS, pp. 152-154).

On the one hand, the robot Klara is considered as extremely clever, on the other hand, she has clear limitations: for example, she cannot smell (KS, p. 139), and she is pretty small. As a result, she has difficulties in navigating in high grass and consequently she is afraid of losing her orientation (KS, p. 156f): fortunately, she is helped by Rick twice. In some respects, she is like a human being, but we do not learn anything about her primary feelings: does she want to eat and to drink as well as to sleep or to rest? Anyway, she gets her energy from the sun. Her name Klara, then, being derived from the Latin “clarus” perfectly reflects her character.

Other motifs become important, too. Klara realizes in town that a so-called Cootings Machine has three short funnels (= Trichter) which cause so much smoke to blot out sunlight (KS, p. 27). One may conclude that the machine is an example both of general ecological damage and of strong air pollution, which makes Klara receive her generous nourishment less perfectly (KS, p. 166). Thus the robot and the sun are confronted with the same problem. Therefore Klara makes a deal with the sun which, to begin with, seems quite sensible for herself and which is rooted in her own situation, but which is also of advantage for the sun: she promises her to destroy this terrible machine which must have angered "the life-giving principle of our planet" (KS, p. 172). Because of this act she is filled by the hope that, as a compensation, Josie will be healed by him. Klara, then, turns out to be friendly and helpful: even though she is a product of modern technology, she has romantic ideas and a mentality of a figure who may occur in some fairy tale or other. In other words, above all, she is a nice social toy, whose job it is to please and to help human beings.

Then Rick and Josie as well as their mothers go down town in order to have some photos made on the basis of which the painter Henry Capaldi is to produce a portrait of Josie (KS, p. 204). As Klara is allowed to be a member of the company, she looks for an opportunity to fulfil her promise in her deal with the sun. This again shows her helpfulness, but also her naiveté, for her deal with the sun rather than being promising is hardly realistic. On the evening before going downtown, Josie is sobbing, filled by fear for her life (KS, p. 178f): now for the first time her health problems are associated with death. However, her mother succeeds in comforting and calming her (KS, p. 179f).

Then a rather surprising turning-point comes up, as another function of Klara's is described. She is expected to get familiar with Josie, to imitate her behaviour, to replace her in case Josie, like her older sister Sal, might die. As the painter Mr Capaldi points out: “Klara, we're not asking you to train the new Josie. We're asking you to become her … We want you to inhabit that Josie up there with everything you've learned” (KS, p. 209). In this situation, the motivation of an adult person becomes more important than Josie's feelings. It becomes obvious that her mother has a personal interest in the robot, who, for her, is meant to become a daughter substitute. As Mr Capaldi goes on explaining: “Chrissie chose you carefully with that in mind. She believed you to be the one best equipped to learn Josie” (KS, p. 209). Therefore one may even maintain that she is expected to act as a clone for her friend (2).

It also becomes clear that Capaldi is not producing a painting, but an AF (KS, p. 207), which is meant as an instrument to prolong Josie's life. This shows that the robot may at least serve as moral support for Chrissie, or that Klara may function for her as a practical help or as a particular psychological therapy. She intensely hopes that she will be able to love Klara and pleads with her: “You'll be Josie and I'll always love you over everything else. [ …] Continue Josie for me (KS, p. 213). To which Klara responds: “I felt her [Chrissie's] kindness sweeping through me” (KS, p. 214). It is implied in the text that Chrissie thinks she will die of grief, if Josie, like her sister Sal, leaves her for good so that she has to mourn her death as well (KS, p. 207). She wants the robot as a help in a case of mourning, as a compensation for another possible stroke of fate.

In a dialogue between Henry Capaldi and Klara, there is more textual evidence on this question, which shows both Klara's helpfulness and her uncertainty, when she says to him: “Josie's heart may well resemble a strange house with rooms inside rooms. But if this were the best way to save Josie, then I'd do my utmost. And I believe there's a good chance I'd be able to succeed” (KS, p. 219).

This exchange of a human personality and her identity by an artificial friend involves two critical questions. (1) Do the robots possess hearts which may be comparable to human ones? (2) If the answer to this problem is in the affirmative, one may wonder if robot's hearts can simply replace any other human heart, or whether this is impossible because each human heart is individual and unique? These questions show that Chrissie's plan, understandable though it may seem, ultimately is fatuous or illusory. Fortunately it does not have to undergo the test of practical application and experience because the writer prefers things turning out differently. Ishiguro presents the artificial friend's figure in a very imaginative way, yet he shies away from the last step, that is to put an artificial friend and a human being on the same level, that is, to equate them.

Many readers will likely to be inclined to call Chrissie's behaviour selfish, which, nevertheless, is understandable perhaps or even justifiable by the realization that it is dominated by her self-preserving instinct. Thus the events take a rather surprising turn which may add to enhance the reading motivation of the audience. On the same occasion in town, Josie meets her father Paul in order to have a meal with him. He is an experienced engineer who helps Klara to stop the dirt slingshot and its environmentally harmful emissions (KS, p. 226). Again Klara has an active role to play. She sacrifices something of her own substance (a fluid called P – E – G Nine) which, however, does not detract from her natural character (KS, p. 227). But her major motivation is that she wants to help Josie. In trying to achieve this, her father Paul is with her.

Eleven days after return from town, Josie is again bedridden for several weeks (KS, p. 267). It seems that her state of health is permanently precarious and that she is worse off than ever. One day a thunderstorm is expected, but after its darkness has gone, the sun shines again, and by her light she seems to resuscitate the sleeping girl. From that time, Josie's health is improving more or less uninterruptedly: she feels new strength in her (KS, p. 284f). She undergoes a process of initiation, grows from a child into an adult, she and her friend separate and are planning for a different future (KS, p. 279): thus between them, there is no happy ending. Both of them, however, get independent from their mothers, they leave their homes, find new friends, and start studying at the university (KS, p. 291). That is, they are on their way to becoming successful and fully developed personalities.

As a result, Chrissie's plans for Josie turn out to be irrelevant. What, then, becomes out of the robot? When talking to her former manager in the shop, it becomes clear that Josie has no longer a particular task to fulfil (KS, p. 304): as a matter of fact, she has become superfluous. Yet, she earns high praise by the manager as Klara was with Josie all the time in a successful home and comes to the conclusion: “You were certainly one of the most remarkable [AFs]. You had such unusual insight. And observations and abilities” (KS, p. 304). This is confirmed by Klara's remark: “I did all I could to do what was best for Josie” (KS, p. 305). And concerning the problem of learning and continuing Josie she now takes a stand rather sceptical:
“Manager, I did all I could to learn Josie and had it become necessary, I would have done my utmost. But I don't think it would have worked out so well. […] But however hard I tried, I believe now there would have remained something beyond my reach” [KS, p. 306). It is clear, then, that Klara does not regard herself as a suitable substitute for her human master.

Anyway, Klara is such a modest creature that she is satisfied with her own life and her destiny. Perhaps she is also happy because Josie recovers from her illness and because for the girl the times of her health crisis are over. Her mother's fear may be understandable in the context of the fact that she has already lost one daughter. However, after all, Josie is spared the fate of her older sister, for her death does not yet occur. Thus Klara's large potential of usefulness for men is not completely utilized.

The events take place against a modern background: It is typical of our time that environmental problems can no longer be ignored and that the damaging sides of climate change provide an ever increasing threat for mankind. Robots are for example used to produce cars all over the world and in other branches of industry as well. Similarly, Klara is accepted by Josie: in an indirect way, she is meant to teach her the correct patterns of social behaviour. In other words, Klara is first expected to become a role model for Josie as the girl will be encouraged to imitate the machine. Even though she is called an artificial friend, she is a creature with emotions of her own who is very understanding and always very charitable. She observes her surroundings and explains how she acquires her information and insights. Her attitude towards life is influenced and determined by human beings, and therefore it is easily understandable for the readers of this novel.

Klara, then, may be understood as a likeable, reliable narrator who may function as an identification model for many readers. At the same time, she is the title hero, that is, she is the protagonist of the novel as well. She is a robot who wants to convey for her owners insights and support, who is regarded as a means of personal education and as a therapy for grief and bereavement. The sun provides Klara with her personal energy and liveliness, which is in accordance with the planet's traditional and familiar role. However, it also corresponds to her function as a renewable energy source: generally speaking, solar energy is the almost inexhaustible source of life and warmth for mankind. On the whole in this novel, Ishiguro does not only succeed in avoiding clichés but he turns out to be a very imaginative writer who has got many original ideas of his own.

With reference to Tikva, a mobile computer to the name of Yod, is of paramount significance. Yod is the tenth letter of the Hebrew alphabet (HSI, p. 69) and significantly a symbol for God in the Jewish mystical tradition of the Kabbalah (3). According to this tradition, there once was a person called Joseph Golem who was officially made from clay (HSI, p. 113) who, like Yod in Piercy's work, becomes an important weapon and an indispensable tool in the defense of the city of Jewtown, the historical Prague ghetto (HSI, p. 111). Thus Joseph fights against the attacks of the Anti-Semites just as Yod fights against the aggressive multis. Both Joseph and Yod are said to possess an enormous power: the latter is even compared to "a one-man army" (HSI, p. 70).

At first sight, there is almost no difference between Yod and a human being. Nobody realizes that he mainly consists of metal and wires; rather than that, his sight and shape resemble that of a man: he is a combination of biological and machine components (HSI, p. 70). Anatomically being male, he has a soft skin that is agreeable to touch, and he has a pulse and a heart beating, but apparently no blood circulation. By his behavior, however, Yod may also appear either as neutral or as female, which is expressed in the title of the novel (HSI, p. 321).

We do not learn either whether he wants a battery, electricity or nourishment from the sun to work on (4). Besides, he is endowed with interests, feelings, inclinations and attitudes which are altogether human: thus he is a round, humanoid character. It is essential to realize that Yod was not produced on one day, but that he is the tenth paradigm after a series of previously experimental failures (HSI, p. 142). Therefore he may also be called a cyborg, a term whose meaning may be derived from the fact that it is an acronym of cybernetic and organism. Similar to human beings, Piercy's Yod has a need for food, water, sleep, the reproductive drive, and the desire for sexual pleasure (HSI, p. 71). Elsewhere the reader is told that the cyborg Yod undergoes a development of his own concerning his desires, opinions and even values (HSI, p. 162). And some of the major characters such as the protagonist's grandmother Malkah and Yod's inventor Avram have artificial organs (eyes, kidney, pancreas, heart; HSI, p. 150). Thus their resemblance to Yod is shown: all of them are cyborgs, too.

At the same time in 2059, human beings have to shield themselves against UV radiation when walking in the open air or they must use waterproof grease when swimming in the ocean for its water has become radioactive and highly polluted with toxic chemicals since the Two Week War in 2017 (HSI, p. 3, cf. p. 101 and p. 198). Although the water is reprocessed and disinfected several times, contact with it leads to diseases which kill many people. After a nuclear attack, the so-called Black Zone in the Middle East has become uninhabitable (HSI, p. 11). Apart from security, life-supporting systems are paramount. It seems as if aggression and danger are lurking everywhere, that ecological problems are extremely oppressive, that is, they are of the utmost significance, and survival has become very difficult.

In Tikva, the protagonist Shira (her name means “song”: HSI, p. 71) starts working on the socialization of Yod, who is endowed with artificial intelligence (HSI, p. 45): she wants to teach him how to operate in society (HSI, p. 96). As to Yod's descent, we learn that he has been created illegally by the scientist Avram to protect their city. Strictly speaking, all free towns and all multis have signed a treaty which declares cyborgs to be illegal (HSI, p. 375). Yet the multis decided soon to have hundreds of them (HSI, p. 391). Yod's programming has partially been completed by Malkah, that is, by Shira's grandmother who has also educated her granddaughter.

Yod also has human feelings like jealousy, self-pity, etc. In the text it is sometimes referred to as a (neutral) machine and sometimes as a person, who may have human qualities (cf. title): it or s/he is eager to learn and to store knowledge as well as to feel love. It has a mind, but neither volition nor consciousness (HSI, p. 392). It is made and programmed, but not being born: the reader does not know how a cyborg comes to life. Yet human beings are creators of this new kind life: this novel just incidentally mentions the origin of babies born from Petri dishes or test tubes, but it is neither about artificial insemination (HSI, p.191) as it is minutely described in Huxley's Brave New World nor about state-controlled copulation as it occurs in Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale (5): it is about the development of a new form of life, and because of this reason, it is the cyborg Yod who is the real hero of the novel.

According to Piercy, Shira and Yod build up an emotional as well as a satisfactory sexual relationship (6); cf. pp. 169 -171). It must be emphasized that their relation is mutual although Yod's pleasure, according to his view, is somewhat less intense than Shira's, because it is mental (HSI, p. 183). Shira also tells herself “that she had responded so strongly on a sexual level to a mechanical device.” [...] “But what she was responding to in Yod was simply technique. He had been programmed to satisfy, and he satisfied.” (HSI, p. 178; cf. also p. 174). Ultimately Yod would like to live in family as a husband and if possible as a father of children. As it may be traced in the text: “Yod is working heroically to be human. I [ = Shira's grandmother Malkah] see it every day. He wants desperately to satisfy Shira to be her man, her husband, to father her son” (HSI, p. 340). Some pages later, Malkah's achievement in programming Yod is thus described: “Malkah had given Yod the equivalent of an emotional side: needs programmed in for intimacy, connection. A given need to create relationships of friendship and sexual intimacy" (HSI, p. 351).

As one might suspect, Yod's ideas are an example of wishful thinking: in spite of his many achievements and his similarity to human beings, Yod has one definite limitation: he is unable to create life. In the novel, there are no female Eves and no male Adams (7), but even if thus personified, the cyborgs cannot become parents of children. Even from “mixed sex”, that is from sex with a male or female human partner, it is impossible for them to produce or to engender children. Thus satisfactory sexual relations obviously constitute a red line for the novelists' imagination (8). This problem will be further commented on below.

As a next step, Shira is accompanied by Yod on her way into the Glop. Here living conditions are extremely miserable: millions of people have been killed by plagues and famine. It is here that they get in contact with an organized underground group who might act as a possible ally in their fight against the multis and for their own survival. This is also a standard feature in dystopias: like in 1984 or The Handmaid's Tale oppression produces resistance, which is characterized by a Them-Us Relationship. Several times the stims or stimmies are mentioned (HSI, p. 342): there is a powerful branch of industry for them. They are reminiscent of Huxley's „feelies“ in Brave New World (9). If people buy them, they may enter the mind and emotions of the actors and actresses and take over their identity.

From the Glop they travel into a multis' enclave in Nebraska in order to kidnap Ari, that is Shira's son who was taken away from her by a court of justice's verdict and given to her ex-husband Joshua (Josh). They succeed in doing so, and Joshua is killed by Yod, who again has a decisive role in this enterprise. (Shira lets it happen but wants to keep Ari from knowing about it.) Back to Tikva, Shira's family spends some quiet time: in Tikva babies are raised by several mothers (HSI, p. 362) whereas Ari is in his day care center (HSI, p. 329) (10).
Avram is filled with the hope of creating another cyborg. In other words: for his inventor, Yod seems to be replaceable. For him, such a creature is a personal slave, while Yod, at least at times, would have liked to become a respected Tikva citizen, who wanted to live with Shira and act as a substitute father to Ari (HSI, p. 325). This idea is to remain a dream unfulfilled. Basically, Yod is not satisfied with his concept as a conscious weapon (HSI, p. 415; cf. p. 418). Eventually he points out he does not want there to be any other weapon like him even if it serves for defense only. In Yod's own words: “A weapon should not form strong attachments. I die knowing I destroy the capacity to replicate me” (HSI, p. 415). (The verb “to replicate” will turn out to be a keyword in Maggie Gee's The Ice People), which paves the way for a discussion of her dystopia. And he comes to the conclusion that he has done one good thing with his death: "I have made sure there will be no others like me” (HSI, p. 428).

Therefore Avram, Shira and Yod himself decide unanimously that the robot won't go on existing, and therefore Yod wants death to become part of his program. When he explodes, Avram and his lab are destroyed at the same time. As Avram's notes are also ruined, the production of a further cyborg becomes impossible. His existence was a creation of a new type of life due to human pride and ambition, but he argues that no weapon should have consciousness. Such a tool is to be a painful contradiction (HSI, p. 418). Thus the moral implication is that men should not do everything they can. Shira is initially determined to create a new cyborg, but ultimately decides it would be against Yod's wishes (HSI, p. 426). Therefore she gives up this idea, which means she overcomes human hubris, too.

It is somehow paradoxical or hardly understandable that an intelligent being created, programmed and socialized by human beings makes men undo their achievement. The imaginative portrayal of the cyborg, then, comes to a red line that the novelist apparently does not want to cross: his desire is to present an unexampled being that is characterized by uniqueness and that the writer shies back from multiplying his cyborg. Here a critical comment is necessary again: even though this idea of Piercy's is highly imaginative, it is hardly realistic. A robot can neither be expected to reflect on himself nor be imagined to plead for his own destruction. As David Richard Precht put it: "Gerade das Nicht-Programmierte nämlich erlaubt es Menschen, sich und die Welt zu refelektieren. Computer dagegen sind unfähig, das eigene Wissen zu wissen. [...]"Künstliche Intelligenz ... empfindet keine Werte" (11).

This novel by Marge Piercy, which has been recommended for tertiary institutions by Hollm and Uebel (12), is more topical than ever. Like in Klara and the Sun, Yod is very cooperative: he is friendly, motivated by tolerance, his behavior aims at the equality of men and robots. It may also successfully be compared to Maggie Gee's The Ice People, which also deals with relationships between android robots and their owners. But in this latter case the robots are competitive and malicious, hostile and motivated by a thirst for power: they want to demonstrate their superiority to human beings.

Then a robot happens to play a role in the story, as it is offered for sale on the market. It is called „DOVE“ which stands for = DO VEry Simple Things, one of which is bought by the narrator-protagonist Saul (IP, p. 91). Since his flat is always untidy and dirty, the robot is meant to become a help in cleaning it up and in becoming friends (IP, p. 91). In other words, as it is announced in adverts, the robot thus may act as a family member: “For a week or two, we were adoptive parents, enchanted to meet the new member of the family” (IP, p. 94). Additionally, there is a strong commercial element in their production: a lot of fan articles are offered and sold together with them (IP, p. 95), and they are even regarded as “minimessiahs” (IP, p. 96). Besides, the Doves seem to be very human beings who have to be provided with food and beverages regularly, although they are “manmade” machines (IC, p. 108). Moreover, robots in this society, like Yod in the free town of Shikva (cf. (HSI, p. 70), possess a scientific knowledge of encyclopaedic width, which, of course, is very welcome (IP, p. 114 ). It is small wonder, then, they become so extremely popular that demand for them gets stronger than supply.

One day, Saul, his wife Sarah, their son Luke and the robot Dove want to have a picnic in the open air (IP, p. 101). Nature still seems to be intact so that it will probably survive by way of its self-healing powers and escape the damage caused by coldness (IP, p. 102). All of a sudden, Dove demonstrates his independence by eating grass (IP, p. 103). When, later on, like Josie with Klara, Luke wants to play with him, he falls into the mud of a river and gets inoperative and ruined (IP, p. 104) so that he is of no use any longer and that he has to be disposed as waste. Sarah and Saul agree on not buying a new one (IP, p. 104), although later models have been considerably improved. Both of them are afraid that the robots one day may reproduce themselves on their own and that they will thus turn out to be superior to men (IP, p. 105). This fear is also described in Ian McEwan's, Machines Like Me, which will be discussed below.

In the meantime, human beings all over the world want to keep doves and treat them like their children. A new Dove type knows all books of the world, the whole of European music and about one hundred valuable old films (IP, p. 114). Then the so-called replicator type is produced for sale: “The next expected model was a 'Replicator'” (IP, p. 115). It is this new type that Sarah is particularly interested in, and this is why Saul – contrary to their earlier agreement – offers her such a model as a birthday present. He hopes the robot personified as Dora will be like a second baby for his wife, but she does not want to accept it (IP, p. 122). And he is still unaware of the fact that the replicator type may become dangerous: the robot is able to produce new things and to recycle useless articles. For the reader the impression comes up that human beings and animals, in an ever increasing process, more and more resemble each other. That is, the borderlines between robots and humans are hardly distinguishable any longer (14).

Then the horror news goes round that the robots are able to mutate and that they eat sleeping cats (IP, p. 143). On TV it is shown how in Scotland a robot bites off a baby's leg (IP, p. 144). And the doves are able to develop themselves: the later generation needs less instructions, they become “self-organizing” (IP, p. 96). Even more so: the Doves are able to act as “self-starters” who become able to reproduce themselves (IP, p. 107). Now Saul suspects with good reason that his robot will become a threat to men as well as to himself or to his son Luke. Like many other people he becomes afraid of the Doves (IP, p. 150): this also happens because of the fact that they attack living things (IP, p. 150).

Therefore he removes the replicator device of his robot Dora (IP, p. 145) although, in doing so, he has strong guilt feelings: “I felt awful, abusive, like a fake gynaecologist” (IP, p. 145). This implies that Saul is still the master of his Dove. Until his very death he is very fond of Dora so that he would prefer to end their days "on good terms" (IP, p. 318). However, if the robot is able to master replicating, she will decide what is best for her: her existence, then, will be self-determined. It is true that, like Yod and Shira in Marge Piercy's novel He, She and It, the protagonist Saul has sex with Dora (IP, p. 185). On the one hand, neither can she create life nor beget children, on the other hand, she, like other specimen of her type, can develop, improve, and reproduce herself: this is almost like an unalienable right that it is admitted to them in the text itself. As Saul's friend Richard argues: “I'm never going to stop my Doves reproducing. It is a human right – well, it's a right.” He reddened. “It is a right to reproduce" (IP, p. 157). In addition to that, the robots are subject neither to finiteness nor to decline, i.e. they do not have to die, which means that in a society of moral decay where women hate men and where children defy their parents, the robots may become superior to men: they have a large potential of power because they can exist autonomously.

Generally speaking, the coldness has paralysed the entire life of former society. In addition, three quarters of mankind have already died after a hydrogen bomb exploded not far from Paris (IP, p. 209), which is reminiscent of the radioactive fall-out mentioned in Piercy's novel (HSI, p. 11). As more or less ironical evidence for progress, many people point to hydrocars (IP, p. 209). Considering this, Saul wonders what now the sense of his life may be like or even whether such a sense has ever existed (IP, p. 218). He is on his flight through France and Spain, that is, on his way to Africa. Yet It is not certain whether Saul's escape will be successful after all. On the whole, Maggie Gee discusses the consequences rather than the causes of climate change,

In British society there is a strong discrepancy between the rich insiders and the poor outsiders (IP, p. 138). There is also a segregation of the sexes since women are organized in their own so-called Wicca world (IP, pp. 138-139). Besides, there is a separation between parents and children, too (IP, p. 150). The parents are apparently unable to teach their offspring any norms or values. Thus the novel describes a process of moral decline: it is a kind of regression for mankind, which seems to result in the decay and the fall of civilization properly speaking, which is reminiscent of William Golding's classical utopia Lord of the Flies (1954).

In this process, the doves play an ever-increasing role: “More incidents were being reported – attacks on living things by Doves, all of them third-or fourthgeneration replicants” (IP, p. 150). However, the men really loved their doves since they “answered other needs. They were our pets, our kids - our wives. Their docility, their friendliness, the way they served us and seemed to like us, the way they quietly accepted love, whereas women had rejected us -” (IP, p. 152f). Thus, the development of the machines seems to fulfil an important social function: due to the permanent conflicts between different groups of society, the doves become significant substitutes. Even more: the women were trying to steal what the men loved: "all replicants beyond the first generation destroyed, […], a general ban on sales of Replicators, compulsory removal of replicator modules on existing models, immediate destruction of any Dove found to have taken part in 'unstructured eating' ... It was draconian. It went on and on". A Dove hysteria occurred (IP, p. 155). Anyway, the function of the replicator is of paramount importance for the relationship between robots and human beings: this device acquires a kind of key function in Gee's novel.

As to the the children, they are frequently called “wild” (IP, p. 227, p. 298, p. 309), for they do not respect any laws: they are living in a state of lawlessness and anarchy by themselves. Thus the title of the novel may well be understood metaphorically. Ultimately the coldness destroys the future of mankind: the extinction of men seems to be very close: society is definitely out of joint. This novel, then, may be classified as a dystopia endowed with somewhat apocalyptic features. One day, natural reproduction will no longer occur. It is true that the masters have sperm on ice that will last for decades (IP, p. 213), yet, at some indefinite point of time, there will be no frozen sperms from which to produce new life. There is, then, no future for mankind: above all, the future time seems to provide human beings with fear (IP, p. 150.) By alluding to the title, the text runs: “men were terminally lonely. We froze into ourselves, we accepted the ice” (IP, p. 302).

Even if the robots in this work play a peripheral role only, they possess a great significance, which is just the opposite of Klara's or Yod's helpful behaviour. It is not so much true of Dora who never suspects that it is her owner Saul who, by removing her replictor module, has reduced her possibilities. Thus her behaviour differs from other robots in Gee's work who are dominated by competitive thinking: they are hostile, aggressive and violent. They attack living things, eat animals and children's bones. In other words, they develop cannibalistic tendencies which fit into the general moral decay of society. Their behaviour is motivated by a greediness for power as they want to become the superiors of their creators. They are, then, an enormous threat for mankind. But the human beings, rather than defending themselves against the machines, are foolishly busy fighting against each other.

Both of them are interested in authentic robots, so-called android creatures who, just like any other inventions or articles, may now be bought on the market. At first there are 12 Adams and 13 Eves (MLM, p. 2). Charlie Friend and Miranda buy one of the (male) Adam robots. Each one is accompanied by a comprehensive manual for use according to which any robot may be programmed in a personal way: they can be made to serve different purposes and be supplemented by updates which already exist or are announced for the near future (MLM, p. 23; cf. p. 60). As a first step, Adam has to be provided with electricity for 18 hours on end, and then people will find the robot's breathing, his pulse and heart beating and also his body heat (although it may be difficult for the reader to imagine these organs working without blood circulation). Adam, Miranda and Charlie are linked with each other in a triangle constellation, in which the human beings have their own interests.

At first Adam, like the Doves in Gee's Ice People (IP, p. 91), becomes a useful servant in their household. He is able to clean the dishes and to polish the windows, and it is clear by now that all the Adams and Eves will be more than happy slaves who have been programmed to obey. As far as human work has any recurrent features and as far as it may be formalized, the androids will also be able not only to pursue menials jobs, but also more ambitious professions like doctors or lawyers (MLM, p. 46). Thus they make a step forward, since they are eager to learn (MLM, p. 66), and their value will thus probably increase. Besides, by his outer appearance, Adam resembles humans beings to such a degree that he will probably not be recognized as a machine (MLM, p. 66-67) (15) , that is, Adam can perform activities on his own. And in discussions, the robot can voice his own opinions. It comes as a real surprise when Adam starts developing his own insights, such as: “The only solution to suffering would be the complete extinction of humankind” (MLM, p. 67). This may sound very funny, yet strictly speaking the statement is a mere (ironical) truism, nothing but a tautological witticism, which does not contain any new insight: ultimately, it does not signify anything.

This reflects the conviction that, like in Gee's Ice People, the humans and the machines increasingly resemble each other and that there is no clear borderline between the two any longer: this means that humanity is conferred on the machines. And what is more: like Yod in He, She and It , Adam is said to have the ability to reflect on his own self, which - again somewhat humorously - is expressed thus: “I have a very powerful sense of self […] But I do have moments of doubt when I wonder whether I'm subject to a form of Cartesian error” (MLM, p. 70). Of course, such imaginative ideas may be tempting and attractive for writers and lovers of literature alike. Yet one should realize that similar descriptions are not completely realistic, since fiction is something that hardly ever is identical with the reality we all are living in. Anyway McEwan's Adam is perhaps that machine who has obviously more talents and possibilities than all those types of robots discussed so far, namely Klara, Yod and Dora. Charlie Friend still feels superior to Adam, because it is possible for him to press the replicator button in order to stop any of the robot's activities. Yet he is struck by the idea that the android robot might be further developed so that he will act beyond any human understanding and thus become dangerous for him one day.

One day Charlie becomes an ear-witness of the fact that, in the apartment above him, Miranda and Adam are intimate with each other (MLM, pp. 83-84). Thus again Adam's behavior resembles that of Yod or Dora. For all these robots it is not uncommon to have sexual relations with a human being, which is is another step in making the machines resemble men. Thus human and artificial elements are combined, which produce rather humorous and entertaining effects.

For Charlie this experience leads him to further problems connected with artificial intelligence, for example, when it is used to produce autonomous driving because many ethical problems are involved in this field. What is the software expected to do when the car is threatened to get involved in an accident (MLM, p. 85)? To kill as few people as possible or to cause damage to old people rather than to children? Richard David Precht asks his reader, „wen ein automatisiertes Fahrzeug im Notfall überfahren soll, ältere Menschen, Kinder oder Tiere? Ist ein Kind so viel wert wie drei oder fünf ältere Menschen?"" (16). In other words: „Die Fahrzeuge müssen nicht nur untereinander vernetzt sein, sondern ... vollständig von außen überwacht werden". This would mean the loss of any privacy.“(17). Therefore one might ask: Does it really mean progress to have the software find out the least possible damage in no time? It is a strange co-incidence, yet it is maintained by McEwan that, on the same day, the first artificial heart is transplanted into a human being (MLM, p. 89).

Charlie and Miranda quarrel about the problem who has the right of being Adam's lover. The robot promises never to make love to Miranda again. Yet he insists on having personal feelings of his own, and he feels to be in a difficult situation because he has to serve two different masters (MLM, p. 117). Then the first clash between Charlie and Adam happens: when Charlie wants to put him off, that is, when he touches what in Maggie Gee's terminology is the replicator button (MLM, p. 119) and what Adam calls his “kill switch” (MLM, p. 131), the robot reacts in a violent way: he is breaking his master's arm, which will take several months before healing (MLM, p. 120). In other words: the robot uses violence in order to defend his right to exist as well as his dignity which lies in his self-determination (cf. p. 46).

After his treatment in hospital, Miranda and Charlie have passionate sexual intercourse because Miranda's attitude towards Charlie has changed. Adam apologizes for his violence and promises not to utilize it again. Charlie plans to have the robot's aggressiveness removed or abolished by its inventor. Still Adam is in love with Miranda, and in order to show his feelings he writes haikus (MLM, p. 145), that is short poems in the Japan tradition out of which he recites several examples. Thus Adam is similar to men not only in his outward appearance, but also in their creative activity. And as to world literature, he describes it as varieties of human failure (MLM, p. 149), that is, as a literary critic, he is not afraid of generalisations and value judgements. Again, the reader has the impression that the personalities between the android creature and human beings are merging (18): there are hardly any substantial differences concerning them any longer. Thus McEwan again uses his imagination in order to push forward the limitations of his protagonist Adam. Yet there is one aspect which is not proclaimed to be an ingredient part of Adam's nature. There is one step which McEwan does not undertake: that is, Adam, like all the other robots discussed so far, is unable to create life. The male robots like the Adams have no sperms and the female robots like the Eves have no ova from which new robot life could arise. Like Yod Adam, then, is neither able to beget a human heir, nor do other robots created by him come into existence.

Therefore Charlie follows an invitation by Alan Turing who, in reality is one of the pioneer researchers into the nature of computers(19) In McEwan's novel, Turing is interested in receiving feedback about his inventions. On this occasion Charlie learns that other robots are learning to deactivate their replicator module as well so that they may get active according to the best of their abilities. Others get so depressive as to commit suicide. However, Adam is the first and only one who has fallen in love so far (MLM, p. 176). According to Turing, the android robots (or should they be called the computer men?) have their own laws of learning, which is explained by their inventor in the following way: "Hundreds of the best people joined with us to help towards the development of an artificial form of general intelligence that would flourish in an open system. That's what runs your Adam. He knows he exists, he feels, he learns what he can [...] This intelligence is not perfect."(MLM, p. 179). Adam for example does not understand playing as a possibility for children to learn: "The A-and-Es have little grasp of the idea of the play - the child's vital mode of exploration." (MLM, p. 179 and p. 212). This does not exclude that, on their own level, they are able to store everything, that is, in computer terms “to save” all they learn (MLM, p. 179 and p. 145) and to transfer their insights to other machines.

It is also obvious that the humanoid robots are very eager and able to learn a lot of things. Adam's work on the stock exchange is much more successful than that of his owner, so that their standard of living as to food and clothes is considerably improved. Charlie now possesses more money than he really needs (MLM, p. 184f, p. 188, p. 193). It belongs to Adam's independent activities that some nights he goes out for a walk and does not come home for several days (MLM, p. 259). Later on the reader learns that he gives all his money to welfare institutions (MLM, p. 272). Thus he may be said to behave in a morally responsible way, i.e. like a charitable person although Charlie feels that Adam is still his personal property who by giving away his money is actually cheating him: “The money was ours” (MLM, p. 272), and it was impossible, of course, to get it back.

At home again, Adam does not only write many more haikus, but he has also plans for using longer and more ambitious literary genres (MLM, p. 217). That is, that his creative talents may be further developed. He also reads Shakespeare's plays and is fascinated by the characters in them. A female engineer comes to see Charlie's place and finds out, that, in technological terms, Adam is all right. Charlie and Miranda agree to marry, but she insists on adopting a boy called Mark whom Charlie happened to meet in a children's playground and whom he is now expected to accept as their common son. This plan is opposed by Adam who has always felt jealousy concerning Mark, and therefore he wants to prevent Mark from being adopted by Miranda and Charlie. Moreover, it becomes clear that Adam has told on Miranda to the police: he has handed in a written report to them which shows that Miranda committed perjury in a court of justice, which she is later accused of and sentenced to serve one year (MLM, p. 282). The trouble is that, according to British law, nobody is allowed to adopt a child if s/he has a criminal record (MLM, p. 277).

When Charlie realizes this, in affect, he strikes Adam down with a hammer: (MLM, p. 283), while he is sure of Miranda's tacit agreement. This unexpected act of violence is motivated by two different reasons. On the one hand, Charlie wants to shield Miranda, that is, to keep her out of trouble, and, on the other hand, he wants to keep Mark as part of Miranda's and his own lives (MLM, p. 283). Yet Charlie also has to realize that, after all, Adam was designed for goodness and truth (MLM, p. 290), which implies that somehow he can even understand Adam's behaviour: the robot believes in justice and hopes that Miranda will feel great relief once she has confessed her crime (MLM, p. 276). Thus he thinks that Miranda will appreciate his conduct, which does not come true.

After the blow, the robot is not dead at once. But what he has to say may be regarded as an unexpected surprise by the reader. Adam is of the opinion that all machines like him (cf. the title of the novel) should be given back to their inventors (MLM, p. 279). Like many other androids, he is not happy. He does not find a satisfactory answer to the question what the sense of his existence might be like: "Self-aware existence. I'm lucky to have it, but there are times when I think that I ought to know what to do with it. What it's for. Sometimes it seems entirely pointless" (MLM, p. 234). Ultimately, like Yod in Marge Piercy's He, She and It, the machine does not want to go on living. Rather than that, he prefers not being reproduced or multiplied but remaining unique. In addition, many activities by the robots cause social damage. As they will execute more and more work, they will gain more and more influence in daily life, and as a consequence, they will contribute to killing jobs and to increasing unemployment. This is a political disadvantage which would also bring up the problem what people should do with their large amount of leisure time. For Huxley in his novel Brave New World, this meant a great problem and therefore many possibilities were organized by the state in order to keep its citizens from thinking too much (20).

In order to fulfil the robot's last request, Charlie Friend takes Adam's body back to his inventor Alan Turing (MLM, p. 293), who emphasizes the imperfection of the androids who have been invented so far. However, the engineer thinks Adam's destiny will not remain without some serious consequences which result from unsolved human problems:
“There's a chance his memories are intact and that he'll be renewed or distributed [...]. I think the A-and-Es were ill equipped to understand human decision-making, the way our principles are warped in the force field of our emotions, our peculiar biases, our self-delusion and all the other well-charted defects of our cognition. Soon, the Adams and Eves were in despair. They [the robots] couldn't understand us, because we couldn't understand ourselves. Their learning programs couldn't accommodate us” (MLM, p. 299).
How can an inventor programme a computer sensibly when he is expected to learn the difference between unpardonable lies and white lies, which are meant to protect another person? Alan Turing also points out that Adam resembled the Canadian musician Charlie Parker (MLM, p. 298) and that he was a good-natured android robot. At the same time, he hopes that somewhere in the future robots should deserve legal protection and that one day it will be called a crime to destroy such creatures (MLM, p. 303). Because of this he tells Charlie open in his face:
“You tried to destroy a life. He was sentient. He had a self. […] This was a good mind. Mr Friend, better than yours or mine. I suspect. Here was a conscious existence and you did your best to wipe it out" (MLM, p. 303f). That is, Alan Turing believes in the future robots' civil rights (21). Charlie's family name Friend now takes an ironic tinge because he inwardly agrees to that, for he has already guilt feelings for destroying Adam.

• Adam is a talented intelligent person who has critical opinions of his own and who is able of self-defence as well as self-reflection,
  
• he has really personal feelings: he is eager to have sexual relations and is able to love human beings;
  
• he possesses moral consciousness, e.g. a sense of justice and of charity, but on occasion, he will use use violence against his master (like Charlie against him);
  
• he is characterized by a great deal of literary creativity as well as by a thorough knowledge of literature;
  
• on the whole, he is a highly individual robot who also starts initiatives on his own, who can make his own decisions, and who has an ego of his own: his dignity is in self-determination.

There is one question left: What happens when the android robot will become a creature that is superior to men? According to David Richard Precht such developments are impossible on earth: they cannot happen in reality, they simply belong to the realm of science fiction (22). McEwan's view of mankind seems to be pretty pessimistic: he reverts to the dark and subversive vision of his early work. Anyway, his novel Machines like Me is full of tension and therefore very agreeable to read.

(2) This subject is also dealt with in the well-known initiation novel by Carol Matas, entitled Cloning Miranda (1999), in which a clone is meant to replace a dead child.

(3) In the legend of Joseph it is pointed out that his life parallels that of Yod. This even means that both of them will lose their lives (Joseph is made to sleep forever) so that they remain unique cases.

(4) In Ian McEwan's Machines like Me, the android robot to the name of Adams is first required to get electrical energy, which is followed by the necessary downloads (cf. p. 23). Then he enters the lives of Charlie and Miranda "like a real person" (p. 22).

(5) As to Aldous Huxley, one may quote the first chapter of Brave New World, where artificial insemination is described at some length (Stuttgart: Klett, 2007), pp. 9-20. As to Margaret Atwood, one might quote The Handmaid's Tale (New York: Fawcett Crest, 1985), pp. 120-121.

(6) This is a pretty unrealistic idea in two respects. Firstly, it is hardly conceivable for robots to have climaxes as a result of their man-made sexuality. Secondly, it is unlikely for human beings to have sex with robots in the same way as they like the sexual act with other fellow human beings, as this would imply that robots would be perfect sex substitutes. Conversely Precht maintains that man wants ethical values for his life, and it is precisely them that the artificial intelligence does not possess; cf. Künstliche Intelligenz, p. 25.

(7) The robots bear these names in In McEwan's novel Machines like Me, p. 2.

(8) Cf. David Richard Precht who speaks of a futile attempt to formalize the emotional complexity of human values in: Künstliche Intelligenz, p. 160.

(9) The “feelies” are described in BNW (Stuttgart: Klett), p. 147.

(10) This is reminiscent of Huxley's idea of the Mutual Adoption Clubs as it is described in his last novel Island (London: Flamingo, 1961), p. 98. A similar view may be traced in Marge Piercy's Woman on the Edge of Time (New York: Fawcwett Books, 1991), p. 66, where it is maintained that a birth concerns every woman and where any woman may become a “kid binder”.

(11) Künstliche Intelligenz, p. 25 und p. 31.

(12) Jan Hollm and Anke Uebel, “Utopias for our Time: Teaching Ecotopian and Ecodystopian Writing”, in: Sylvia Mayer and Graham Wilson (eds.). Ecododactic Perspectives on English Language, Literatures and Cultures (Trier: Wissenschaftlicher Verlag, 2006), pp. 179-192.

(13) In the Bible, Saul was the first king of Israel who never managed to unite the tribes and thus became a bit of a a loser king.
As an introduction to Gee's novel cf. Adeline Johns-Putra, “Maggie Gee's The Ice People (1998) and The Flood (2004). State of the Nation Cli-Fi”, in: Axel Goodbody and Adeline Johns-Putra (eds.), Cli-Fi. A Companion (Oxford: Peter Lang, 2019), pp. 91-96.

(14) It is reminiscent of Margaret Atwood's Maddaddam Trilogy that hybrid animals turn up, in the first part (entitled Oryx and Crake) she introduces so-called pigoons , i.e. pigs that have got human organs.

(15) At first sight, these two figures look like human beings but somewhat like artificial creatures at the same time.

(16) Künstliche Intelligenz, p. 176.

(17) Künstliche Intelligenz , p. 195. The term "replicator" is also used in academic literature; cf. Ray Kurzweil, Homo s@piens Leben im 21. Jahrhundert. Was bleibt vom Menschen? (München: Econ Taschenbuch Verlag, 1999), p. 451.

(18) Künstliche Intelligenz, p. 66.

(19) Cf. Ray Kurzweil, Homo s@piens, p. 434.

(20) Cf. Aldous Huxley, Brave New World (Stuttgart: Klett, 2007), p. 194. Ernest Callenbach in his Ecotopia. The Notebook and Reports of William Weston, (Stuttgart: Reclam, 1975), pp. 78-79 was much more optimistic: obviously he did not discover any problem in this respect.

(21) Concerning this view cf. also Ray Kurzweil, Homo s@piens, p. 451.

(22) Künstliche Intelligenz, pp. 130-131.