How Religious Can an Artificial Friend Be: The Case of Klara and the Sun
By Kardelen Damla Başaran
Ishiguro is famous for not having his ideas, themes and subtext pinned down in a single line. Rather, he has the creativity to show and adumbrate what he really wants to tell. His latest book, Klara and the Sun has the same style because the book itself is many things: it is a continuation of Ishiguro’s dystopian pattern or a more sophisticated, contemporary version of Asimov’s robotic world, and maybe a commentary on the unstoppableness of air pollution. Moreover, it also promises a religious relationship, even though it is an implied one.
Klara is the protagonist, the narrator and the storyline follows their journey as a solar-powered artificial friend. In the book, artificial friends are a type of artificial intelligence who were created to be friends-nannies for children. Their life goal is to accompany children until they grow up. Their physical appearance is not fully explained to readers. But from Klara’s observations, we can understand they can be distinguished from humans in a look while still looking human-ish.
The first chapter welcomes us to the store where artificial friends are displayed and sold. There are three friends speaking: Klara, Rosa and Rex. They all have different relationships with the Sun, and I think this is the metaphorical representation of happiness elements: genetics, circumstances, and internal states of mind. In the happiness pie from Sonja Lyubomirsky’s model, these three elements have different percentage influences on our happy mood. For instance, Rex is the male artificial friend from the model who has sun absorption problems. Surely this is not saying “I am not genetically set up for being happy” and there is not such a thing as well. But it can be thought of as Rex’s genetic endowment or his tendency to build a relationship with the Sun. Klara and Rosa, on the other hand, have the same circumstances inside the store but different approaches may be resulting from different states of mind. Because Klara is the one who leans toward the Sun, and eagerly waits for him to show up and bring his lights, not Rosa.
After that beginning chapter, a kid named Josie comes into the store and she sees Klara. After a few more incidents, she picks her and they go home together. This is also the point where Klara’s relationship with the Sun becomes crystal clear and comes into focus. We already knew that artificial friends are solar-powered, but after Klara meets Josie and her responsibilities for Josie begin; she slowly develops a different relationship with the Sun, a relationship that requires active interaction, a relationship where Klara believes the Sun as her God.
The Apa Dictionary of Psychology says there are two components of each religion in general: spiritual beliefs and practices. In Klara’s relationship with the Sun, it is possible to see both. Her kid, Josie has a disability and through the chapters she is experiencing life-threatening sickness. In the meantime, Klara believes the Sun is the foundation of life, a cure for Josie’s health and an unlimited source for hope. She believes the Sun will heal Josie without a second thought and she advises everyone to believe so. But she also supports these spiritual beliefs with practices. And these practices are the same as the ones that are practiced in today’s religions: prayers and religious sacrifices, oblations.
At first, Klara just wants to talk to the Sun. Later, these talks become prayers and she does them in a worship structure. She chooses a farmhouse as her temple because this is where she can be closest to the Sun. She chooses sunset as her prayer time because this is when the Sun can be closest to the Earth. She wants proximity, and also privacy in her worship. She refuses a companion in this temple and insists on going alone.
After those prayers, she commits to higher-level practice, an oblation. An oblation when it is not asked for. But Klara sees that as a promise, an exchange. She wants the Sun to heal Josie, so she thinks she should give him something in return. And she knows the Sun hates air pollution, she knows that city factories pollute Sun’s air. Then she decides to close and destroy that one factory she knows. But that factory is not the only sacrifice. In her -let’s destroy the factory plan-, she needs a piece and she takes that piece from her own robotic body, knowing that it will harm her.
Putting all that together, I do not find myself to be wrong when I say Klara indeed has a religion. What is more surprising, how she could develop a sense of religion and discovered these religious practices when no one told or taught her so? She is aware of the fact that she will only live -be used- through Josie’s childhood. After that, her life goal will be complete and she will be shut down. Therefore, she should not have fear of death or instabilities, for herself at least. But she has those fears for Josie. Her life goal was to keep Josie safe, happy. She did not have any concerns or wants for herself. It was all for someone else, someone besides her and this is not the case we can see in humans, so there is not an explanation or term that might really explain Klara’s thing for Josie. But altruism might be closer.
Klara performed altruistically for Josie. Her oblation for Josie’s sake cost to herself: She lost one essential piece from her body that will much likely ruin her functioning as an artificial friend. But she did that because normal functioning would not matter if Josie, her life goal was dead. In that vicious cycle, her most dominant feeling would be despair, if she was able to talk about feelings. And despair could awaken a need for hope, and a God as an authority figure to make everything right. Like how Mary Shelley wrote hope as a divine gift, sometimes they might even represent the same thing. By making the Sun her hope and her God, Klara tried to defeat despair.
The Ancient Greek critics were right when they said art imitates real life. But then real life started to imitate art as well. Fiction, and especially science fiction has gained the power of fortune-telling and inspiring developments. Whether we like or dislike Klara and the Sun, I believe it still has a lot to show about the psychology of religion. And it is always interesting to read religiosity from a non-human -but written by a human- point of view. And who can say it will not contribute to the future transformations of artificial intelligence, as many other science fiction novels did before.
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Kardelen Damla Başaran is a senior psychology student. Formerly worked with immigrants and children. Always interested in academical, critical and creative writing.