Book Report: Klara and the Sun

TLDR: Combine Gattica, WALL-E, Blade Runner, and Her

WARNING: Contains mild spoilers.

Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro touches on the nature of emotion, cognition, loss and loneliness all under the backdrop of a futuristic society. Ishiguro articulates a future where artificial intelligence augments or replaces the need for human companionship. The book is about the relationship between Klara, an Artificial Friend (AF) and her owner Josie, a teenage girl. The book is written entirely in the first person perspective of Klara. By this mechanic, author captures a kind of personality that is familiar and alien at the same time. Because her purpose is to be a friend, she has a genius for empathy that rivals any human. Klara comes off as some kind of ideal person, a living angel. As the story progresses you start to feel very bad for Klara and the way that humans treat her, even though because of her profound empathy, she herself sees nothing wrong with it.

Genetic engineering is applied to small children. This creates a deeply unequal and unstable society, where those who are not genetically engineered live a terrible existence. It is implied there is a uprising going with the non-engineered humans which the engineered humans are able to suppress. Artificial intelligence has also taken most people's jobs, and those who are "substituted" become impoverished wardens of the state.

The key philosophical question in the book is if artificial intelligence truly can capture human emotion. The book concludes that yes, AI can capture emotion. In fact, the book implies that AI can be more human than humans which is similar to the theme of the movie WALL-E. However, the book ends with the idea that AI will never be able to capture sentimentalism. That's the key philosophical message. This is similar to how many people prefer "hand-made goods". They will also prefer the company of humans merely because they are humans.

Summary

WARNING: Contains intense spoilers. Do not read if you intend to read this book, as it will ruin it for you.

The book starts with Klara in a shop and he experience with other AFs. It notes how much Klara enjoys being near the window of the shop because she can feel the sun which "provides her with nourishment". Klara is solar powered and essentially treats the sun as a deity. At the window she describes the outside in very specific detail, even describing the inner feelings of people passing by.

Klara's personality is very obviously robotic and a robot designed only for the purpose of interacting with humans. Sometimes it breaks into the way she's seeing things. For example, she often is only able to see formless shapes and boxes until she sees a human in her field of view. She can sense astonishingly complex emotions just from people's eyes or tiny microexpressions. She can determine the emotional intent of a human way before any normal person would be able. She becomes deeply concerned when she senses that humans she cares about feel tense, lonely, or sad.

One important event to the story is her observation of a homeless beggar and a dog apparently dying on the street. This makes Klara very sad. However, the next day she sees that the homeless man and dog came back alive (they were probably sleeping). Klara however deduces that this is due to the sun's nourishment.

Another important event to the story is her observation of a construction vehicle (she calls the Coodings Machine) across the street from the store. It creates a lot of pollution and blocks out the sun. Since she loves the sun very much, this frustrates her.

Eventually a bubbly girl named Josie buys her. Josie is very sick with something that is implied to a very bad disease. This is a key plot device of the story.

In this world, school no longer exists and instead children learn from home. Children are antisocial and require "interaction events" to learn how to communicate with each other. It also also implied that people live in a rather diffuse society where everything is far away.

Josie lives in a rural area with only one neighbor named Rick, which is also her boyfriend. Although it's never explicitly stated he is her boyfriend, he behaves in that manner. In Josie's world, children have to be lifted to go to college, with few exceptions. It is implied that going to college is a very important thing in this society. Later in the book, lifted is explained to be a form of dangerous genetic engineering to make children super-intelligent. Josie is sick because of this procedure. Actually, she is dying. Rick never was lifted. It is implied that because of this his future is more like the movie Mad Max. People who don't go to college become impoverished outcasts in this society. This is also similar to the plotline of the movie Gattica.

Josie gets progressively sicker in the story, and it makes Klara very sad. She remembers how the sun saved the life of the beggar outside of the store, and she is determined to ask the sun for help. She believes if she destroys the Coodings Machine, the sun will save Josie.

Meanwhile the mother is assuming that Josie will die. She is planning to replace Josie with Klara. Klara has all this time learned so much about Josie that she is able to imitate her. She goes to a scientist that is working on creating the image of Josie on Klara.

Klara with some help manages to destroy the Coodings Machine. Although the next day, the construction workers bring a new one in. She is dismayed and believes the sun will hate her for not stopping the pollution, and ultimately not save Josie. She prays one last time to the sun while in a barn far away, telling him that he a kind sun and he needs to save Josie because she loves Josie and Rick loves Josie. There is some crazy weather the next day and the sun shines very brightly and it is implied that this somehow made Josie better, at least in the mind of Klara.

Josie eventually survives and goes to college, while Rick prepares for his Mad Max life. They drift apart. Without any more purpose, Klara is dumped in a junkyard where she just contently replays her memories with Josie and the family until she slowly decays away.