Tegenvallende McEwan

Ian McEwan might be completely right to conclude in this novel that we, humans, are irrational beings and that the superior intelligence of future synthetic humans does not allow that we can ever co-exist in a meaningful manner. Contrary to humans, machines, however perfectly construed, cannot understand and master an ability to conveniently lie and hold grudges - amongst a lot of other irrational peculiarities -, which was relevant in the daily co-existence with the humans and the synthetic human in this story. Synthetic humans will always be straightforward in their behaviour and only obey to the ideal rules as programmed. Fascinating and relevant when you think about the development of artificial intelligence in the near future, when synthetic companions are bound to be introduced into our lives. Although the idea for this novel is quite interesting, I regret to say that the story was not very appealing for me. Another negative was that I had no idea why McEwan found it necessary to alter the recent past. There was no need for it in my opinion, but others might have other ideas about that. I regret to say that I was really luke-warm about his novel. Nevertheless, that does not alter my fondness for McEwan's novels, past and future!