Klara and the Sun

My kids got me this book for my birthday this year. It is the first Kazuo Ishiguro novel I’ve read. I gather it is not as acclaimed as some of his other books. Maybe I’ll have to try some more.

Klara and the Sun is a fascinating exploration of humanity and technology and our world today, even though it takes place in a strange dystopian future. The world observed through the eyes of an AI mind is jarring but works. I find the idea of seeing ourselves through an artificial mind interesting because it exposes things that we might otherwise not think about.

One of the most curious aspects of the book is the way that the AI assumes a supernatural, causal power in the world. Even though it assumes an animistic view, that too makes sense. Human culture, before special revelation, also assumed such a position. Today, you can interact with AI that is better read than the Klara character, and often get results that presume an intelligent design view of the universe. It makes logical sense.

Other ideas in the book that are merely glanced are:

The problems of society and the ideological solutions are all still present in the dystopia. The tech and context change, but our core problem remains.

Parenting only gets worse the more technologically equipped we are.

No matter how much we value and aspire to freedom, autocracy seems to be our center of gravity.