Abstract
A narrative reflective of the perils and promises of automation entering the subjective realm of humankind, Kazuo Ishiguro’s latest novel, Klara and the Sun, confronts us with the notion of coexistence between artificial intelligence (AF) and human intelligence (HF) by uncovering a robust structure arising from the contestation amidst a host of binaries: Human versus machine, AI versus HI, self versus the other, science versus nature, and the list goes on. Although a vast majority of analytical inquiries into this novel uncover the incoherence of human identity and consciousness in the society deeply invested in affordances of the fifth industrial revolution, a structuralist intervention into the narrative brings into visibility the fact that AI and artificial friends (AFs), regardless of their claim to universal decipherability, ultimately remain unable to plumb the depth of human heart. In this novel, Ishiguro confirms that the unpredictable vagaries and volatility of the human heart are eternally indecipherable to AI and AFs. Human nature is hieroglyphic to AI. For example, Klara’s failure to rightly assess the future course of Josie and Rick's romantic affinity serves as demonstrative textual evidence. Taken on its terms, the successive navigation of these binary oppositions leads to identifying the narrative structure wherein the coexistence between AI and HI achieves its endorsement. These twin purposes of the narrative—the unconquerability of the human heart by AI and the coexistence between AI and HI—ascend to the centrality of meaning, governing other binaries and producing a compelling rendition of the structure.
Recommended Citation
Mainaly, Shiva H..
"An Affirmation of Coexistence between Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Human Intelligence (HI): An Inquiry into the Structure of Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel, Klara and the Sun."
Critical Humanities
2,
2
(2024).
DOI: https://doi.org/10.33470/2836-3140.1048