What does it mean to be human? An analysis of humanness depicted through relationships with technology in Ishiguro’s Klara and the Sun

Abstract

This essay explores the meaning of humanness through the relationships that characters have with technology in the novel Klara and the Sun, by Kazuo Ishiguro. In this near-future setting, Ishiguro introduces various normalised technologies including gene-editing platforms, environment-polluting machinery and, crucially, artificial robotlike friends, such as Klara. In the novel’s society which appears largely desensitised to these technologies, Ishiguro’s narrative encourages the reader to consider what qualities truly make us human and what is at stake should humanness be lost. Incorporating anthropological concepts such as boundary kin and personhood, this paper highlights the concerning nature of technology becoming ever more humanlike whilst humans simultaneously become increasingly devoid of human qualities. This existential philosophical tension is evident through Ishiguro’s frightening portrayal of the narrow gap between the nature of human characters and advanced humanlike technology, which acts as a stark warning against the unquestioned normalisation of such technologies.