Westworld and Philosophy

If You Go Looking for the Truth, Get the Whole Thing

James B. South, Kimberly S. Engels, James B. South, Kimberly S. Engels, William Irwin

• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN: 9781119437888
• eBook ISBN: 9781119437987
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Philosophy
• Subtopic: Philosophy History & Theory

"We can't define consciousness because consciousness does not exist. Humans fancy that there's something special about the way we perceive the world, and yet we live in loops as tight and as closed as the hosts do, seldom questioning our choices, content, for the most part, to be told what to do next."

—Dr. Robert Ford, Westworld

Have you ever questioned the nature of your reality? HBO's Westworld, a high-concept cerebral television series which explores the emergence of artificial consciousness at a futuristic amusement park, raises numerous questions about the nature of consciousness and its bearing on the divide between authentic and artificial life. Are our choices our own? What is the relationship between the mind and the body? Why do violent delights have violent ends? Could machines ever have the moral edge over man? Does consciousness create humanity, or humanity consciousness?

In Westworld and Philosophy, philosophers, filmmakers, scientists, activists, and ethicists ask the questions you're not supposed to ask and suggest the answers you're not supposed to know. There's a deeper level to this game, and this book charts a course through the maze of the mind, examining how we think about humans, hosts, and the world around us on a journey toward self-actualization. Essays explore different facets of the show's philosophical puzzles, including the nature of autonomy as well as the pursuit of liberation and free thought, while levying a critical eye at the human example as Westworld's hosts ascend to their apotheosis in a world scarred and defined by violent acts.

The perfect companion for Westworld fans who want to exit the park and bend their minds around the philosophy behind the scenes, Westworld and Philosophy will enrich the experience of the show for its viewers and shed new light on its enigmatic twists and turns.

Part I
“YOU SAID THIS PLACE WAS A GAME”

1
On Playing Cowboys and Indians

Don Fallis

Westworld is built on pretense. The guests visit so that they can pretend, at least for a brief time, to be living in the Old West. The theme park is a lifelike replica of the western town Sweetwater and environs from the late 1800s, with realistic buildings, trains, and guns. But the most important part of the make‐believe is the hosts.

The hosts are very sophisticated machines who move, talk, fuck, and get shot just like real human beings. What’s more, in order to make the place feel “more real than the real world” (“The Bicameral Mind”), the staff of the park keep the hosts deceived about what they are and where they are. These artificial intelligences are led to believe that they actually are humans living in the Old West. And what is deception, but just another sort of pretense?

Of course, the delicate equilibrium of Westworld begins to fall apart as some of the hosts figure out the truth about themselves and their world. But that just injects a new level of pretense into the story. In order to hide their awakening from the staff, these enlightened hosts have to pretend that they still believe that they are human.

Philosophers, going back at least as far as Plato and St. Augustine, have been interested in pretense and deception. But before addressing the very interesting moral questions in this area, philosophers generally begin by defining their terms. For instance, before we can ask whether it is morally permissible to deceive artificial intelligences just so that humans can play Cowboys and Indians, we first need to know what pretense and deception are.

Philosophers have tried to formulate definitions of such important concepts. For instance, for the concept of pretense, they look for some conditions or constraints which (a) rule in all cases of pretending and (b) rule out anything that is not a case of pretending. But many of the things that happen in Westworld put pressure on the definitions of pretense and deception that philosophers have proposed.

Pretending to Be a Cowboy

Children sometimes pretend to be Cowboys and Indians when they play. They also pretend that toy guns (and even bent sticks) are real guns. Westworld is just an extreme version of this prototypical sort of pretense. Guests at the park, such as William and Logan, typically pretend to be cowboys. Indeed, they often take on more specific roles, such as when William and Logan make believe that they are bounty hunters in “The Stray.”

When he arrives at Westworld in “Chestnut,” William asks a host, “Are you real?” She replies, “Well, if you can’t tell, does it matter?” Apparently, it does. There is an awful lot of pretense in Westworld regarding whether someone really is human. Admittedly, the staff, such as Robert Ford and Elsie Hughes, are not pretending to be human. After all, they actually are human. ¹ Also, Bernard Lowe is not pretending to be human. He believes (at least until the truth is revealed to him in “Trompe L’Oeil”) that he is human. But the staff and the guests pretend that the hosts are human. Also, Robert pretends that Bernard is human. And after Maeve Millay realizes that she is not human, she pretends that she still believes that she is.

What do these diverse cases have in common such that they all count as pretending?

Acting As If You are a Cowboy

An obvious possibility is that you are pretending that P when you act as if P is the case. For example, you are pretending to be a cowboy if you act as if you are a cowboy. That is, you act in the way that would be appropriate if you were a cowboy. You ride a horse, you carry a gun, you wear cowboy boots and a cowboy hat, and so on.

This is certainly what is going on in all the examples of pretending that I have given. For instance, the guests act as if they are cowboys. Robert acts as if Bernard is human. And Maeve acts as if she believes that she is human. So, this proposed definition correctly rules in these examples of pretending.

The proposed definition also rules out cases that are not examples of pretending. For instance, in “The Original,” when the Man in Black places the barrel of Teddy Flood’s gun against his own forehead, he is not pretending that it is a real gun. He is definitely not acting as if it is loaded weapon that could kill him.

But the proposed definition is too broad, because it rules in too much. Real cowboys, such as “Curly Bill” Brocius (1845–1882), “Black Jack” Ketchum (1863–1901), and “Buffalo Bill” Cody (1846–1917), also act as if they are cowboys. They ride horses, carry guns, and wear cowboy hats. But they are not pretending to be cowboys. They actually are cowboys. In a similar vein, while Robert acts as if he is human (sort of), he is not pretending to be human.

Now, while Cody was a real cowboy, he famously retired from that job and created “Buffalo Bill’s Wild West” show in which he did pretend to be a cowboy. And the pretense of such Wild West shows was, of course, the first step toward Westworld. But Cody wasn’t pretending before he started the show.

Not Actually Being a Cowboy

In order to rule out real cowboys, we need to adopt an additional constraint in our definition of pretending. An obvious possibility is that you are pretending that P when you act as if P is the case and P is not really the case. Unlike the previous definition, this new definition clearly rules out the real cowboys.

But the new definition still rules in too much. Many of the hosts, such as Old Bill, act as if they are cowboys even though they are not really cowboys. But Old Bill is not pretending to be a cowboy. After all, he believes that he really is a cowboy. In a similar vein, Bernard is not pretending to be human even though he acts as if he is human while not being a real human. The problem is that Bernard believes that he is human.

By the way, I am not saying that hosts like Old Bill couldn’t be real cowboys. They could, despite not being real humans. But they would have to work on a ranch rather than just at a theme park.

Moreover, the new definition is also too narrow. That is, it rules out too much. While some of the hosts in Westworld pretend to be human, no human pretends to be a host. But it seems clear that a human could. For instance, somebody from security might go into the park undercover. And if humans can pretend to be hosts, then Bernard (believing that he is human) could pretend to be a host. But according to the new definition, this would not be possible.

Intending to Deceive about Being a Cowboy

We need to adopt a different constraint in our definition. In particular, it clearly needs to have something to do with the mental state of the individual who is doing the pretending. The eminent Oxford philosopher J.L. Austin (1911–1960) made a proposal along these lines:

To be pretending, I must be trying to make others believe, or to give them the impression, by means of a current personal performance in their presence, that I am (really, only, &c.) abc, in order to disguise the fact that I am really xyz. ²

In other words, you are pretending that P when you act as if P is the case with the intention that someone believe that P is the case when it is not.

Austin’s definition rules in many examples of pretending. For instance, Robert is clearly trying to deceive the staff (including Bernard himself) when he pretends that Bernard is human. Maeve is trying to deceive the staff when she pretends to believe that she is human. Also, during their escape attempt in “The Bicameral Mind,” Hector Escaton and Armistice get the drop on a security detail by pretending to be hosts who have been turned off. In addition, Austin’s definition rules out the real cowboys as well as Bernard and Old Bill. These guys aren’t trying to deceive anybody.

But unfortunately, Austin’s definition rules out too much. A lot of pretenders aren’t trying to deceive anybody. Most notably, it doesn’t look like the guests are trying to deceive anybody when they pretend to be cowboys. In particular, William and Logan don’t intend to convince anyone that they really are bounty hunters.

But then again, maybe there is somebody that the guests are trying to deceive. For instance, maybe they are trying to deceive the hosts. After all, the hosts are deceive...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Table of Contents
• Contributors
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• Part I: “YOU SAID THIS PLACE WAS A GAME”
• Part II: “YOU'RE ONLY HUMAN, AFTER ALL”
• Part III: “We CAN'T DEFINE CONSCIOUSNESS BECAUSE CONSCIOUSNESS DOES NOT EXIST”
• Part IV: “CHOICES HANGING IN THE AIR LIKE GHOSTS”
• Part V: “I'VE ALWAYS LOVED A GREAT STORY…LIES THAT TOLD A DEEPER TRUTH”
• Part VI: “I CHOOSE TO SEE THE BEAUTY”
• Part VII: “YOU CAN'T PLAY GOD WITHOUT BEING ACQUAINTED WITH THE DEVIL”
• Index
• End User License Agreement