Klara is a humanoid robot that is of the sort bought for children as a companion in a totally different world to what we know. She can observe, analyse, store data and make decisions based on her knowledge. There doesn't seem to be an Internet where she can access a pool of knowledge. She is a model B2 , but is better than other B2s in the story. She also has the ability to regain her balance quickly like some AI robots available today.
She is bought for Josie, who at this point in the story I think is not well with some recurring problem.
Later in the book it became much less of a Science-Fiction novel, and more of a fairy tale. It is hard to know where it is all happening, but a few clues indicate America, with an origin in England, and Housekeeper going to California. Time is not consistent either. First mention that I noticed of being on-line was on page 247, as was the comment about genetic engineering of people. At best I would give it 6.
Interesting read about why Robots should be humanoid. It references the R2-D2 vs C-3PO debate.
https://sixdegreesofrobotics.substack.com/p/the-human-form-is-flawed-so-why-do
We will have a BILLION humanoid Robots by 2040
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/six-degrees-of-robotics_activity-7207908002949906433-cp1W/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_android
https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/intersubjective/202105/becoming-human-discussion-klara-and-the-sun
Today's news:
📅 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐤 𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐂𝐚𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐚𝐫𝐬!! The newly formed 𝐇𝐮𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐨𝐢𝐝 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐚𝐫𝐝𝐬 𝐒𝐭𝐮𝐝𝐲 𝐆𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐩 under the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society umbrella will hold its kickoff meeting on July 17th at 10 am US Eastern time.
Meeting 27/6/24. Only 4 present and me on WhatsApp call. Marks were 8,8,6,6,4 = avg 6.
Ali thought it reminded her of 'Never Let me Go'.
Rick was the only nice character in the book. Others picked up that Josie had been genetically Engineered "lifted" and this had not worked well which is why she was sick. Had the mother been lifted? We thought that this was a recentish innovation in the culture. Everything about the society in the book was quite vague. The idea of all the children learning in isolation on their 'oblongs' at home as in the story pre-dates the Covid lockdown where this happened as the books was published before this.
There was a comment about Guardian reviews of the book and whether an AF would be capable of love.
A dog is programmed from birth to give unconditional love. Made me think of the three laws of robotics.
FW has not read any Sci-Fi really in the past, and enjoyed this as it was a simple read. At the ending she wanted to know more about other people. She thought that Klara needed more introspection.
How tall was Klara? - about the size of a 10-12 year old we thought.
50 years on - will people have AFs? AW thought that they were already partly available in old peoples homes, particularly in North America.
It was brought to an end quite quickly, Usually the thing of an author who has not got a satisfactory ending. AW thought Klara was like a discarded toy that Josie had grown out of, and quoted 'Puff the Magic Dragon' .
