By Kazuo Ishiguro, 2021
In spite of
the fact that Klara is a robot, or an Artificial Friend, an AF as she is called
– and Ishiguro emphasizes this throughout – she is the most sympathetic
character in the story. Perhaps it’s because she is telling the story and we
see everything through her eyes, but she is also consistently warm, generous,
uncomplaining and thoughtful. The human characters are mostly deeply flawed,
showing selfishness, shallowness, fear and carelessness toward each other,
together with more positive traits. I found that I was more interested in what
was going to happen to Klara than to the human characters. And the ultimate
resolution seemed quite sad, although also satisfying because it fulfilled Klara’s
desires (or programing objectives).
The fact
that Klara is content with her fate is a contrast with the human society that
Ishiguro portrays. The humans seem never to accept their conditions, whether it
relates to their health, their emotions or their economy. It’s never clear
exactly why, but they seem to be living in some kind of social breakdown. It
appears that technology, apparently related to genetic editing, is not only tied
to economic collapse, but has also affected the health of young people. And
this leads to a range of reactions: a new underclass rejects the technology at
significant cost, while those with more assets attempt to overcome the problems
with even more questionable technology. Ishiguro leaves us with the question of
whether stasis like Klara’s might be a better outcome than a continuing, highly
problematic struggle to advance.
Interestingly,
each artificial personality learns from its own experience and builds its own
picture of reality. (This is much like Oliver Sacks’ description of people building
consciousness by mapping their individual experiences.) This means that each AF
is different, and each has some similarity with human consciousness, although
in distinct and unique ways. Thus, they model human consciousness. Klara, for
example, while highly attuned to human emotions is very ignorant about the
basics of life. She thinks of the sun as a godlike male because he gives her
energy and spreads warmth. She makes basic human mistakes like thinking he can
heal illness because she saw someone get better after sunlight fell on him.
This seems like what a pre-scientific human might have understood about the gods,
but it also illustrates how contemporary human thinking is subject to
misperception and false logic. Like us, she can’t distinguish between reality
and the perceptions caused by her sensors and processors. In this way, the
story becomes an exploration of religious belief. Belief and prayer are very
real to Klara.
I did feel
that some aspects of the novel were odd – Klara’s stiff and unnatural use of
language, for example, and her lack of knowledge about basic facts like what
the sun is. Initially, this just seemed to reflect a weak understanding on
Ishiguro’s part (and his editors’) about how programmed machines are likely to work
in human culture. It’s partly explained by indicating that Klara is an early
generation of her type and later generations are more advanced. Perhaps it’s
also a trade-off for the processing power that her emotional analysis and
empathy take. I grew more comfortable with it as the novel moves along, accepting
it as a reflection of Klara’s imperfect learning and understanding. Human
society is complicated and technology does not get it all right. And, we know, developers
are apt to release early technology before all the bugs are worked out.
I like the
quiet thoughtfulness in Ishiguro’s writing, and I’ll look forward to reading
more of his books.
