Man with the Machine: Analyzing the Role of Autopoietic Machinic Agency in Ian McEwan�s Machines Like Me

Abstract

The study will attempt to analyze Ian McEwans novel Machines Like Me (2019) to explore issues related to the question of whether it is possible to found a meaningful relationship between man and machine in a culture which is inching towards a Transhuman or Posthuman state while also focusing on the issue that how the very definition of human is bound to undergo a radical shift in an environment where machines not just mimic and flawlessly replicate their human counterparts in many respects but also operate in their own peculiar ways which are incomprehensible to humans. The paper further attempts to show that in an extensionist mode of existence in which man and machine will form a symbiotic and synergistic bond, various humanist and liberal concepts of man will undergo dramatic changes. Also, the study will endeavor to analyze the intricate relationship between artificial general intelligence and Islamic teachings. The study will primarily base its theoretical framework on Robert Pepperells extensionist perspective of the human agency while at the same time also extracting and employing relevant ideas from such thinkers as Rosi Braidotti, Karen Barad, Deleuze and Guattari, Donna J. Haraway and Katherine Hayles