Cassie McCullough

This is the point at which you realise the absolute genius of Ishiguro, the ability to do that.

Exactly.

Yeah, and I think those two things you were talking about, the first one, the one at the waterfall, and the first time you suddenly realise what Clara is actually there for is just, it's heartbreaking.

I had to almost put the book down at that point and just breathe.

I was going to say, like, with that question of empathy in this and whether Clara has real emotions or real feelings or develops empathy, it actually led me to this horrific realisation, basically.

I've got a four-year-old daughter and I watch as she's learning these sort of things.

And it occurred to me that...

Maybe all of these things that we consider innate are actually learnt as well.

And that, you know, by the time we reach adulthood, we forget that we've learnt them, right?

We assume that they're some sort of inherent human trait.

But they are in the same way that Clara learns them.

And so do I think that by the end Clara has real feelings and real, you know, real empathy?

I actually kind of feel she does.

But even this idea of like, you know, the way that Ishiguro manages to put it to us in this book, it really had me questioning, are the people I love really who or what I think they are?

Or do I create them or, you know, do we create them ourselves?

And that theoretically...

all of their various aspects could be learned and carried on beyond their actual existence.

And it's kind of a scary thought.

And it's a scary thought as we move towards a future where Clara-type beings, if you want to call them beings, now it sounds like I'm joining the

the political argument that happens toward the ends about whether artificial friends are beings or not, where they might become a reality.