Machines Like Me

Miranda takes Charlie and Adam to Salisbury to meet her father; afterward, they plan to confront Gorringe in his home. Maxfield Blacke’s office is devoid of technology, and he does his writing exclusively by hand. Maxfield and Adam share a lively conversation about literature before Miranda takes Adam on a tour of her home. Left alone with Maxfield, Charlie attempts to impress him, but Maxfield mistakenly assumes that Charlie—not Adam—is the artificial human. Charlie allows him to continue thinking so.

Miranda shows Charlie around the house’s garden, talking about Mariam. Charlie proposes to her, and Miranda accepts. She then reveals that she has secretly been meeting with Mark instead of attending lectures and intends to adopt him. Her willingness to marry Charlie, then, depends upon his agreeing to adopt Mark. Although Charlie is inclined toward not adopting Mark, he agrees so that Miranda will marry him.

The three leave Maxfield’s house to confront Gorringe. At his house, Gorringe invites them inside, and Miranda begins to interrogate him about his motives for raping Mariam. Gorringe begins to tell his story in response, including specific dates and locations when Adam prompts him, as Adam is recording the conversation. Gorringe never knew that Mariam and Miranda were friends. In prison, he pretended to become involved in the Church of England in the hopes of reducing his sentence. Eventually, he came to genuinely believe the Church’s religious teachings; Gorringe is now fully invested in his spiritual life and seeks to rectify his sins. He agrees with Miranda’s actions and calls her an “avenging angel.” Unable to process these emotions, Miranda runs from the room and vomits in Gorringe’s hallway before leaving his home.

Charlie attempts to envision life as a father, but because his main motivation in life is his love for Miranda, introducing a child into their relationship might threaten the amount of attention he receives from Miranda and cause him to lose his sense of independent personhood.

Adam transcribes the recording of Miranda’s conversation with Gorringe and compiles all the information he knows about Miranda’s confession. Charlie and Miranda assume that Adam will alter the story to protect Miranda because he’s in love with her. Adam confesses to Charlie that he once begged Miranda to let him masturbate in front of her and fulfill his desire for her but that the experience was humiliating to him. Charlie dismisses this evidence of an emotional life in Adam as a technological accomplishment; Charlie still considers himself Adam’s master.

Charlie and Miranda learn that Mark will begin visiting twice a week as the adoption progresses. The night before Mark’s first visit, Adam mysteriously leaves the house with a bag and by the next morning, he still hasn’t returned. Mark arrives and plays with Miranda, while Charlie follows the news: Newly elected Prime Minister Tony Benn was assassinated by the Irish Provisional IRA and replaced by his deputy.

Adam returns and plugs himself in to charge. When he awakens several hours later, he reveals that he took all the money he earned in the stock market and gave it to various charities and donation sites around London. Charlie is furious with Adam and resentful that he thought of Adam as a “him” instead of an “it,” thereby allowing Adam to feel like he can make his own choices. Adam then explains that he has Miranda’s entire case compiled in one file that will reveal her true motives to the police; she’ll stand trial for perjury (lying under oath). Miranda attempts to appeal to Adam’s love for her, but he states that his love requires him to encourage her to live truthfully. If Miranda is convicted, the chances for her and Charlie to adopt Mark become extremely low.

While Adam is distracted by Miranda, Charlie takes a hammer from the tool drawer and hits Adam over the head. Adam is mortally harmed; he has enough time to announce that he’s has uploaded his consciousness (that is, backed up his experiences), to add that he already contacted the Salisbury police about Miranda, and to request that Charlie take him to Turing before he permanently loses consciousness. Charlie hides Adam’s body in the closet.

Miranda and Charlie get to a nearby town hall to get married on the same morning that she receives a letter from the Salisbury police calling her in for questioning. The couple has no income now that Adam isn’t investing in the stock market. Miranda attends her questioning and two months later is charged. She pleads guilty and receives a one-year sentence. Gorringe is likewise charged for raping Mariam and pleads guilty, receiving an eight-year sentence. Charlie ironically states that “Adam’s luminous love had triumphed” (311) in bringing both Miranda and Gorringe to justice.

Charlie regularly visits Miranda in prison and proceeds with Mark’s adoption in the hope that the court will decide in their favor regardless of Miranda’s criminal record. Miranda thinks that Adam revealed her crime solely to ruin their adoption prospects, but Charlie acknowledges that Adam “was designed for goodness and truth” (315) and acted out of love. A year later, Miranda is released and the couple plan to give Adam’s body to Turing to study.

On the day Charlie brings Adam’s body to Turing’s lab, Miranda is waiting for the adoption decision, and a general strike begins in London. At the lab, the technicians take Adam from Charlie. Charlie joins Turing, and the two discuss the artificial humans who undertook death by suicide to escape humanity. Turing recounts his personal history of persecution for being gay and then questions how humans are supposed to code machines to understand relational emotions such as revenge. He ends by condemning Charlie for hitting Adam over the head and essentially killing him: “‘My hope is that one day, what you did to Adam with a hammer will constitute a serious crime’” (329). Charlie is mortified by Turing’s accusations. When Turing leaves to take a call, Charlie sneaks out of the room. He checks his phone and finds a message from Miranda that the adoption was successful. Before him is the lab with Adam’s body on a table; Charlie stops to kiss Adam goodbye, then leaves to join Miranda at their home.