Ishiguro is asking better questions

I have just finished Kazuo Ishiguro’s Klara and The Sun. It’s not a new book, so little point doing a mega-post-mortem.

It’s a book which subscribes to his normal style. A style which frankly makes me so incredibly envious. If you want to show people how to be economical with their language, get them to read Ishiguro.

He creates the maximum amount of meaning from a set of words which are deceptively simple.

To the recent discussion about questions, Ishiguro asks several during the course of this book.

How would an AI-style entity view humans? How would they characterise their role and their duty?

How would they feel about obsolesence and literally being traded in (or worse) for a newer model?

How would they view other pieces of technology used by humans?

How would they learn and develop ‘instinct’ and intuition?

Would they develop spirituality in the way humankind developed religious belief? How would these feelings manifest themselves?

From the perspective of his writing, I wonder to what extent his process started with the questions above?

Are they inputs? Or devices that he uses along the way?