Klara and the Sun in Reading with Comrades

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Klara and the Sun

Kazuo Ishiguro

Start date: April 1, 2021

Finish date: April 30, 2021

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Apr 19, 2022 Sara Sdqu rated it it was amazing

This novel describes a futuristic world filled with ethical dilemmas about artificial intelligence and cognitive enhancements for humans. In this story, higher-class parents ensure their children are 鈥渓ifted鈥� or cognitively enhanced through artificial/genetic modifications. This society feels isolated; children are home-schooled and spend most of their 鈥減lay鈥� time with solar-powered humanoid robot companions like Klara.

Klara is bought to accompany a severely ill girl Josie, whose illness we fin This novel describes a futuristic world filled with ethical dilemmas about artificial intelligence and cognitive enhancements for humans. In this story, higher-class parents ensure their children are 鈥渓ifted鈥� or cognitively enhanced through artificial/genetic modifications. This society feels isolated; children are home-schooled and spend most of their 鈥減lay鈥� time with solar-powered humanoid robot companions like Klara.

Klara is bought to accompany a severely ill girl Josie, whose illness we find out is a result of a genetic enhancement gone wrong. Being solar-powered, Klara develops a heliocentric religion for herself where she reveres the sun and tries to commune with the sun to save her human Josie. Klara soon discovers a disturbing secret, however, that Josie鈥檚 mother is attempting to create an artificial robot version of her dying daughter. This robot copy of her daughter is in a fetus-like state of construction, and is not meant to replace her daughter, but rather 鈥渃ontinue鈥� the life of her daughter- through Klara鈥檚 artificial intelligence and mimicry.

鈥淜lara and the Sun鈥� evokes questions about a world where there is human obsolescence, where robots replace jobs, 鈥渟eats at the theater,鈥� and now children are being artificially enhanced as well. Ishiguro raises questions about what constitutes human consciousness and whether the 鈥渉uman self鈥� is a special thing that cannot be replicated by algorithms. I really liked how this novel pointed out issues of dehumanization, as Klara鈥檚 autonomy is constantly undermined as people struggle to categorize her as a subject or object. It鈥檚 disorienting to hear Klara鈥攚ho feels as human as we are鈥攂e called a vacuum cleaner. Klara鈥檚 fate, at the end of the novel, is a slow obsolescence in a scrapyard where she organizes her memory through narrative. This ending felt lacking but ultimately aligned with the major themes of the novel on death, obsolescence and continuation of life. ...more

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