A novel approach to humanity

"What would it mean," he asked the audience, "to have this human shape in front of you with a sympathetic expression, a warm voice, an intelligent, well-informed manner and to know that this creature was manufactured in a factory not far from Beijing?

"Might your new friend actually be conscious like you? Or is he simply designed to give that impression?"

Having written for 50 years, McEwan has confidence in novels' ability to help humans to truly understand the mind of a robot.

"Only the novel can give us the flow of thought and feeling within the privacy of self-hood, that sense of seeing the world through the eyes of others," he says.

"I've given my life to this form, and I'm certain that it can enter the mind of any man, woman or child on this planet. It can, therefore, enter the mind of a humanoid robot. The novel can attempt to rehearse our future subjectivity, including the subjectivity of those whose minds we will invent."

For him, the "final confirmation that a new kind of conscious being is among us" will come when an artificial human writes "the first original and meaningful novel".