Humanity and artificial intelligence in Kazuo Ishiguro's novel Klara and the Sun

Abstract

The relationship between humanity and technology is one of the key focuses in Kazuo Ishiguro’s posthumanist novel Klara and the Sun (2021). This master’s thesis is a literary analysis of Ishiguro’s novel and the aim of this thesis is to investigate the portrayal of humanity in the age of anthropomorphic artificial beings called Artificial Friends. The existential question whether artificial intelligence is capable of humanity’s mimicry becomes inconsequential, as the reader witnesses the story through the first-person narrative of an intelligent artificial being, Klara. Rather, the focus on the relationship between the harmful influences of technological overreach and the human society is exemplified by the juxtaposition of artificial and human characters. Ishiguro’s narration is intentionally vague to emphasize the uncertainty created by such conditions.

The novel provides a critique for the valuation of technological developments over natural and societal limits. These harmful developments are evidenced in the deep divisions of the human social classes and the marginalization of individuals not conforming to the set expectations of society. Humanity essentially becomes dehumanized at the face of pursuit for success. Furthermore, the deep societal divisions are mirrored in the portrayal of indirect communication by humans and the avoidance of emotional accountability. Artificial beings like Klara take intermediary positions in the relationship between humans themselves and humans and nature. The consequences of a society built on nearly anti-humanist values are presented as dire, as the meaning of human connection becomes eroded. The end-result is a fragmented and unstable dystopian society. Ishiguro does not provide a satisfactory conclusion for the future of the human condition, as many insightful observations regarding humanity are left as solitary remarks by Klara, but to the contemporary reader, the narrative functions as a cautionary tale for overreliance on technology.