My wife and I recently purchased one of those robot vacuum cleaners. The kind that scuttles around the floor like a mechanical crab. We named it Klara, for the “artificial friend” in Kazuo Ishiguro’s thought-provoking, poignant and disturbing new novel “Klara and the Sun.” Artificial friends are companion robots for lonely, alienated children of the rich and privileged.

In the novel, Klara is highly intelligent, curious about the world and highly perceptive, especially to human emotions. In some ways, she’s more human than some of the novel’s human characters. The story posits that in the near future (read now) young people have become so mesmerized by technology (cell phones, internet, etc.) that they have lost part of their own humanity. They can no longer connect to other “real” children, so their parents buy them artificial friends to fill the void in their lonely and friendless lives.

Courtesy image

Of course, our Klara is just a lowly vacuum cleaner. The iPhones, laptop computers and voice-controlled virtual assistant (Alexa) we own are a thousand times more intelligent than Klara. And yet, Klara is no dummy. And she moves! The first time we unleashed her on our dirty kitchen and dining room floors Klara spent her time learning the layout of the space, locating where the table and chairs were, and identifying other obstacles that could obstruct her mission to clean. It was fascinating to watch. And a little scary. It got me thinking, as did the novel, what exactly is intelligence? And consciousness? And what does it mean to be human?

These are deeply complex, and to a large degree still mysterious, biological, sociological and philosophical questions. Way beyond my pay grade. But still interesting to ponder. For example, when does a thing (organic or computerized) become intelligent? Is it an emergent quality? When a biological brain – or a box of silicon chips – becomes complex enough, does it suddenly become intelligent? And simultaneously conscious? What, then, is the future of “artificial intelligence?” Or is it an oxymoronic concept, like virtual reality or working vacation?

Damn if I know, but we (the human race) better figure it out pretty soon, as we’re already on a fast-track trajectory to shape our world through mathematics and computer science. Algorithms today interpret our purchasing tendencies and feed back to us our fundamental likes and biases (to buy more things). Think Facebook and Netflix, to name just two popular algorithmically based companies that have a massive impact on our personal lives and society in general.

In the meantime, I get a kick out of Klara doing her thing. The first time we turned her on – for 15 minutes – it felt like she was chasing us around the room, like a giant metal and plastic insect, and we ran away from her like scared children. As we got more used to her, and her strange, relentless, twirling, jerky movements, we got more comfortable with having another robot in the house.

In Isaac Asimov’s famous “I, Robot” sci-fi novels, robots are designed and manufactured to serve humans, and to make sure they cause no harm to humans they are all programmed with a set of rules called the Three Laws of Robotics. These laws state that a robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm. A robot must obey orders given to it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law. And a robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

If I were to create robotic laws to control Klara I might conjure up something like a robot vacuum cleaner must never climb stairs (our bedroom is on the second floor). If I woke up in the middle of the night and heard Klara buzzing around my bedroom I’d likely have a heart attack. Also, a robot vacuum cleaner must never learn to speak French. If she started sounding like a French maid, my wife would become incredibly jealous. And finally, a robot vacuum cleaner must mail in her own warranty, to protect her existence, as I never get around to doing that whenever I purchase a new appliance.

With these protections, I believe Klara and our family can be friends and share a happy life together.

Steven Price is a Kennebunkport resident. He can be reached at sprice1953@gmail.com.