Back
Kazuo Ishiguro, 宋佥: 克拉拉与太阳 (Hardcover, Chinese language, 2021, 上海译文出版社) 4 stars

克拉拉是一个专为陪伴儿童而设计的太阳能人工智能机器人(AF),具有极高的观察、推理与共情能力。她坐在商店展示橱窗里,注视着街头路人以及前来浏览橱窗的孩子们的一举一动。她始终期待着很快就会有人挑中她,不过,当这种永久改变境遇的可能性出现时,克拉拉却被提醒不要过分相信人类的诺言。

在《克拉拉与太阳》这部作品中,石黑一雄通过一位令人难忘的叙述者的视角,观察千变万化的现代社会,探索了一个根本性的问题:究竟什么是爱?

Review of 'Klara and the Sun' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

I happened to also be reading a Yuval Harari book where he observes that robots and AI in fiction are often just stand-ins for human characters, and that is definitely the case here. Klara's being "artificial" serves to point out ways that people may or may not be artificial, and allows some fresh perspectives on other human characters. It works if you can accept the starting point.