[ExI] In ‘Klara and the Sun,’ We Glimpse an Eerie Future Through the Eyes of a Robot

[John Grigg]

 I very much look forward to reading this science fiction novel, written by
one of the world's finest writers...

"In a store in the center of an unnamed city, humanoid robots are displayed
alongside housewares and magazines. They watch the fast-moving world
outside the window, anxiously awaiting the arrival of customers who might
buy them and take them home. Among them is Klara, a particularly astute
robot who loves the sun and wants to learn as much as possible about humans
and the world they live in.

So begins Kazuo Ishiguro’s new novel *Klara and the Sun*
<https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/653825/klara-and-the-sun-by-kazuo-ishiguro/>,
published earlier this month. The book, told from Klara’s perspective,
portrays an eerie future society in which intelligent machines and other
advanced technologies have been integrated into daily life, but not
everyone is happy about it.

Technological unemployment, the progress of artificial intelligence
<https://singularityhub.com/tag/artificial-intelligence/>, inequality, the
safety and ethics of gene editing, increasing loneliness and isolation—all
of which we’re grappling with today—show up in Ishiguro’s world. It’s like
he hit a fast-forward button, mirroring back to us how things might play
out if we don’t approach these technologies with caution and foresight.

The wealthy genetically edit or “lift” their children to set them up for
success, while the poor have to make do with the regular old brains and
bodies bequeathed them by evolution. Lifted and unlifted kids generally
don’t mix, and this is just one of many sinister delineations between a new
breed of haves and have-nots.

There’s anger about robots’ steady infiltration into everyday life, and
questions about how similar their rights should be to those of humans.
“First they take the jobs
<https://singularityhub.com/2019/07/22/will-robots-take-our-jobs-careful-its-a-trick-question/>.
Then they take the seats at the theater?” one woman fumes.

References to “changes” and “substitutions” allude to an economy where
automation <https://singularityhub.com/tag/automation/> has eliminated
millions of jobs. While “post-employed” people squat in abandoned buildings
and fringe communities arm themselves in preparation for conflict, those
whose livelihoods haven’t been destroyed can afford to have live-in
housekeepers and buy Artificial Friends (or AFs) for their lonely children.

“The old traditional model that we still live with now—where most of us can
get some kind of paid work in exchange for our services or the goods we
make—has broken down,” Ishiguro said in a podcast discussion
<https://www.economist.com/podcasts/2021/03/04/is-ai-capable-of-falling-in-love>
of the novel. “We’re not talking just about the difference between rich and
poor getting bigger. We’re talking about a gap appearing between people who
participate in society in an obvious way and people who do not.”

https://singularityhub.com/2021/03/24/in-klara-and-the-sun-we-glimpse-an-eerie-future-through-the-eyes-of-a-robot/
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