Dehumanising Transhuman & Blurring Bioethics in Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go

Abstract

Human intelligence was succeeded by artificial intelligence, a subordinate enabling us to maximise human capabilities by automating complex and tedious tasks. It made room for us to be less laborious and more creatively productive. However, the human-machine boundaries started blurring with the introduction of emotive AI. While its positive aspects are aimed at the healthcare sector, its negative aspects are influenced by consumerist and political hidden agendas. The contemporary Emotive AI landscape presents a profound ethical dilemma that resonates with the themes explored in Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go. Ishiguro presents a scientific utopia of a cultural incubation centre for clones that trains them to qualify as near-human creatures and to serve the needs of the human community by donating their organs. Revolving around the struggles of clone kids, Ishiguro pictures scientific utopia turned dystopia and the unaccountability of science towards the predicament of their failed experiments. This paper will analyse the challenges posed by emotive AI to human society and the dehumanisation of humanity in Never Let Me Go. The paper also examines the role of science in reshaping societal norms and values and the problematic transformation of its identity as a religion, which aims to obsessively solve all human problems rationally to make human life easier and longer.