Machines Like Me

In the strange 1982 science-fictional world of Machines Like Me, technological advancements beyond the present moment suggest the perpetual human desire to escape and negate mortality through cognition and invention. Because the narrative reality of the novel blurs the reader's sense of the historical past with the possibilities of the future, the author is able to explore the ways in which human nature remains unchanged despite the era or its supposed accomplishments. The long narrative drifts into scientific trends or progressions validates the cultural obsession with immortality, with preserving the human mind as a means of attempting a godlike status.

Because much of the novel is interested in the definition of personhood, it makes good thematic sense the author should fully excavate and upturn the human's obsession with authority and dominion. Charlie's explanations of global and political conflicts also work to establish these explorations within the novel's subtext. Charlie's experiences with Adam, of course, are the most readymade example of this dynamic, but the more macro turmoil outside Charlie's apartment second his individual desire to retain power, to live forever, to assert himself over others.