Human, this ever-changing creature. Oshiko’s Default Standard by Yukiko Motoya

Abstract

As seen in the classical SF anime film Galaxy Express 999 (1979), relations between human and AI-enhanced transhumans and an AI-controlled dystopian society have always been popular in the Japanese imagination. These relations can be confrontational, or alternatively, affectionate, but often suggest the invaluableness of transitory human essence over the immortality of machines. The novel Oshiko’s Default Standard (Oshiko no deforuto) (2021) by Yukiko Motoya (b. 1979), however, casts doubt upon this possible self-complacency of humans. Set in post-crisis Japan, the novel focuses on an everyday-life sphere – child-rearing and nursery school – in a society in which co-prosperity with the AI is the main national policy. Nursery schools aim to raise children as homogenous as possible, as individuality is now considered vulnerability rather than strength. Most professions have been taken over by white cube shaped robots, and people – especially children and youths – start idealising and imitating them through implanting devices in all body parts. Oshiko, the protagonist, is a mother of two and has adapted well to this society, in which everyone is connected to the internet for 24hours/day and endlessly consumes digitised content. Through close reading, the present paper analyses some of the issues the novel depicts, focusing on the possible changes AI-dominated society makes on humans. The paper also analyses the novel’s defamiliarisation techniques through peculiar use of language, which makes it difficult for this technological dystopia to be translated into other languages.