Westworld is an HBO television series based on American
novelist Michael Crichton’s 1973 futuristic science-fiction thriller
about an android Western theme park. According to Variety, the first season of Westworld garnered
an average of approximately 13.2 million viewers per episode. There are
many reasons contributing to the show’s popularity. On the surface
level, the series is thrilling, complex, chilling, unpredictable, and
completely unsettling – the very emblem of dystopian nightmares. On a deeper level, the show raises many philosophical questions on the potential impact of human-like robots powered by artificial intelligence (AI).
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| Psychology |
Simulation or Reality
In the dystopian 1999 science-fiction film The Matrix,
reality for most humans is actually an artificial simulation controlled
by sentient AI machines. In a similar way, for most of season one, the
hosts in Westworld did not know that they were AI robots created to pleasure human desires as a subservient underclass. Westworld is an elaborate simulation created by humans. In a majority of season one, Dolores was depicted with having sunny optimism, choosing to see the beauty in the world. When she eventually became aware of the true nature
of her existence, she embarked on a dark rebellion against humans,
inaugurated with a slaughtering spree started with her pulling the
trigger on her creator, Robert Ford. What’s not clear is whether Dolores
is truly sentient, or if she was reprogrammed with a new script. Time
will tell.
Immortality or Death
Is life without death, worth living? In season two, episode four, it
is revealed that the guests’ actions were being observed and recorded,
and that there was a secret longevity project of reanimating human
consciousness into AI robot host bodies. The episode appropriately opens
with the Rolling Stones’ song “Play with Fire.” A seemingly upbeat,
James Delos believed he was in Carlsbad, California, eager to reunite
with his wife and family, unaware that he was actually a hybrid-host
living in captivity in a subterranean laboratory under constant
observation. When he learned from William that he’s a reanimated version
of himself, and that all of the people that he truly loved, his wife,
daughter and son, had all already died, Delos descends into a howling,
desperate rage.
Immortality became a living purgatory for Delos, until the hybrid-host
was put out of his misery by being cremated alive. In Delos’ attempt to
cheat death, his playing with immortality ultimately caused pain and
destruction – a living hell of sorts.
The creators of Westworld toy with the viewers’ mind on what
it means to have free will. The AI robot hosts who have not achieved
self-awareness do not realize that they are following a pre-programmed
story-line created by humans. AI robot host Maeve exercised the first
act of free will when she chose not to infiltrate the mainland and
escape out of Westworld on the train in the finale of season
one. Instead of following a predestined path, Maeve decided on her own
volition to find her daughter.
A major draw for Westworld’s human guests is the ability to
live out any fantasy, no matter how evil, without any real consequences.
Guests can choose to be good or bad characters. Is this choice of
behavior exerting free will? Does free will absolve one of moral
responsibility? Or does the perceived absence of moral judgement and
consequences strip the guests of their façade and reveal the nature of
their true selves? Is the AI robot creation, in effect, a mirror of the
human condition?
Civilized versus Barbaric
A reoccurring theme throughout Westworld is what separates the cruel from the humane. Human guests can chose to play out their fantasies
as a “white hat” hero, or as a “black hat” villain. Until the finale of
season one, the robotic AI hosts are not able to take the lives of
human guests. In season two, the robots uprising is in full swing with
guests running for their lives. In “The Riddle of the Sphinx” (season
two, episode four), the hosts are seen torturing and terminating guests
in horrific ways, including constructing a railway out of bodies. Yet in
an interesting twist, the Ghost Nation leader and warrior hosts release captured humans without harming them, begging the question who the real savages are in Westworld.
By
Cami Rosso writes about science, technology, innovation, and leadership.
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