Sometimes the artificial friend is still human

I'm currently reading Kazuo Ishiguro's recent novel Klara and the Sun. Set in the vague near-future, the story is told from the perspective of Klara, an AF. An AF is an Artificial Friend, a solar-powered companion for lonely kids. Klara is a particularly sensitive and (artificially) intelligent one, and machine learning keeps making her smarter and smarter.

We're not quite there yet, but the more I read about robotics and AI, it's coming. Robotic technology has been deployed (and has been replacing humans) in factories for years. There are already robotic pets keeping company with the elderly. And a fast food place in downtown Boston where the food is prepared robotically. Guys in Japan are dating anime robots dolls, or  - even worse - anime holograms. And I've read about robot teachers, which I'm sure the Betsy DeVos's of the world would just love to replace unionized human teachers with. 

So, warning: the singularity in your mirror is closer than it appears.

But it's not quite here yet, and it looks like we're going to have to put up with humans for a while longer. 

Still, sometimes you need companionship, and who you gonna call when you need someone on your arm?

For years, there’s been a cottage industry in Japan and South Korea of renting strangers to impersonate friends, family members or other acquaintances, as a way to save face at social functions where plus-ones are expected. (Source: Washington Post)

And inevitably, an industry super star has emerged.

...over the past four years, Shoji Morimoto, 38, has built a cult following by offering himself as a warm body who can simply be there, liberating his clients from the social expectations of the spoken and unspoken norms of Japanese society. Morimoto — nicknamed “Rental-san,” incorporating an honorific — has inspired a television series and three books and has drawn international attention through his viral social media posts.

Rental-san recently accompanied just-divorced Akari Shirai out to lunch at an old favorite restaurant, where he was paid about $85 to sit there and do nothing. Akari asked him a few questions - the replies were curt - and told him a bit about her marriage. But mostly Shoji just sat there. 

Shoji doesn't just do meals and social occasions. Someone hired him to wait at the end of a marathon course to greet a finishing runner. Sometimes his clients use him as something of a low-budget shrink. 

One woman hired him to accompany her as she filed her divorce papers. He once sat with a client for a hemorrhoid surgery consultation — with plenty of graphic photos. Someone hired him for a dramatic farewell as they boarded a bullet train to move from Tokyo to Osaka; he showed up and waved goodbye.

I find this incredibly sad - hiring someone to wave goodbye to you - but sometimes you just don't want to bother a friend or family member. Next time I have a colonoscopy, I'd be fine if the person who came to check me out was from Task Rabbit. But that's a situation in which a human is required. 

Dining out? Running an errand? Attending a medical consult and not doing anything but just sit there? Admittedly, I'm a loner, but I don't quite get the need or the desire to have someone with me at all times. 

Sure, I'm not wild about eating out alone. But I've done it plenty of times, mostly on business travel but occasionally just because. And it can be a tiny bit awkward to show up on your own when everyone else is coupled up. But whatever. There's always someone to talk to (and, at a wedding, to dance with, given that the women invariably get up to dance even if their husbands just want to sit there, as do-nothing as Rental-san).

Shoji didn't set out to be a "do-nothing guy." After all, there's really not a job description or place to get trained and credentialed. Instead, he:

...stumbled into the role after being told in previous jobs that he wasn’t doing enough and didn’t have enough initiative to succeed.

...“I was often told that I wasn’t doing enough, or that I wasn’t doing anything, so this became a complex for me. I decided to take advantage of this and make it into a business,” he said.

Well, he showed some initiative when it came to succeeding at doing nothing, somehow managing to prove HR both wrong and right. 

For Shoji, it's paying off. While pre-pandemic, he might have three to four gigs a day, and is now down to one or two, he "makes enough to do his part in maintaining a dual-income household and raising a son." So far, he's been the "do-nothing guy" around 4,000 times.

Shoji better be on the lookout, however. As robots get smarter, more human, more humane, and better looking, there'll no doubt be some version of Ishiguro's AFs out there to replace him. Maybe he can start a business...