Aside from the titles mentioned above, the literary work that comes most immediately to mind when one reads Galatea 2.2 is Karel and Josef Capek's R. U. R., in which the robots perform menial tasks heroically but finally develop to the point that two of them fall in love.

Elements of this novel are related to Powers's second book, Prisoner's Dilemma (1988), which shares with it a strong autobiographical affinity. Galatea 2.2, however, is much more revealing autobiographically than Prisoner's Dilemma. Its autobiographical elements are less fictionalized than they were in Powers's earlier novel.