Currently, each season of "Westworld" has a theme to express. I plan to write an article for each season separately, mainly to reflect on these important questions.
We must understand that an excellent work, whether it is about the future or the past, is about people. It can guide deep thinking and is never just about curiosity. When we appreciate it, we mainly look at what the author wants to express and how they express it.
The first season of "Westworld" initially appears to have a complex structure, but the main theme is very clear: how does human self-consciousness arise, and how do humans become human from machines?
The most obvious symbol is the automatic piano in the opening credits and the hotel. The automatic piano is pre-programmed (using punched paper tapes, similar to early computers), and the music it plays remains the same. However, humans are different. They have accidents, emotions, variables, and self-consciousness. What Arnold and Ford designed is how to turn machines into humans. The Man in Black's adventures in the park are also an attempt to awaken Dolores.
The current consensus in human physiology is that the generation of self-consciousness does not depend on specific brain structures. The structure that can generate consciousness can be seen as a black box. Based on a certain contact-feedback algorithm, it can learn and improve through accumulated experience. This mainly includes:
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Memory. Memory is the foundation of experience and learning, which is easy to understand. Some birds and mammals have memories beyond what people know, and they can do amazing and touching things, such as repaying and seeking revenge after a long time. Without memory, there is nothing. Maeve wants Arnold to erase her painful memories, and Arnold says, "Your memories are the cornerstone of your consciousness. Without memories, how can you learn from mistakes?" At the end of each plot in the park, the memories of the hosts are cleared, but it is said that memories cannot be completely erased. This is mainly because Ford made some modifications and left a backdoor for Arnold.
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Trial and error. Arnold initially believed that the generation of consciousness was pyramid-shaped, developing from the bottom up. Later, he discovered that the generation of consciousness is maze-shaped. The way mice navigate through a maze is by constantly trial and error. Dolores dies and is reborn again and again. Ford said, "Humans are the product of billions of errors. Evolution has created all life on Earth using only one tool: mistakes." This is also the way artificial intelligence learns through machine learning (Monte Carlo algorithm), simulating random processes to obtain optimal solutions. This includes the process of selection, learning, and improvement. The advantage of machines over humans is that they have almost infinite opportunities for trial and error, but humans have very few chances in their lifetime.
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Emotional experience. Ford wants the two hosts, Dolores and Maeve, to awaken, and both of them are arranged with intimate emotional partners. Many organisms have evolved the ability to have emotions, which means that emotions are useful for evolution. The existence of a species largely depends on the mutual help and sacrifice between mates, parents and offspring, and within the group. Strong emotions have played a catalytic role in the process of evolution. Our civilization's memory and inheritance largely come from emotions, including negative emotions. Ford said Arnold realized that "the key factor in making hosts conscious is suffering, a profound understanding of the disappointment of things not going as planned." William unintentionally kills Maeve and her daughter, causing a change in Maeve's behavior. So William repeatedly tries to awaken Dolores by inflicting pain on her and her family.
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Enlightenment. Enlightenment can be divided into two types. One is when continuous trial and error learning leads to a sudden realization and a qualitative change, as the saying goes, "reading a book a hundred times reveals its meaning." The other is overcoming the sense of disharmony in the face of great crises and challenges. The awakened hosts have all experienced such moments. For example, Dolores's father sees a photo of the outside world, triggering a conflict with his previous memories. Those who cannot overcome it will collapse and malfunction, while those who can overcome it will experience rebirth. Overcoming here means recognizing the differences in the world, rather than incorporating the vast unknown into one's familiar patterns.
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Formation of self-concept. The oracle of the Delphic Temple, "Know thyself," is the most fundamental question for humans. Socrates said that a life without reflection is not worth living. Ford added meditation programs to some hosts, which is the ability to have a dialogue with oneself. Self-dialogue may be equivalent to AlphaGo's self-play. However, this kind of dialogue requires the introduction of external experiential knowledge. Ford believes that although the binary bicameral theory is not a scientific theory, it is still useful in creating blueprints for hosts. The inner monologue of humans plays a role in inspiration and guidance. By continuous thinking, one establishes their unique self. This formation of self-consciousness is complex and cannot be designed. In the third season, one of Dolores's consciousness copies used Hale's body, resulting in a consciousness dislocation and ultimately forming a different self-awareness personality.
Ford leaves the stage of the world to the creations because he believes that new creations, who have experienced pain, death, and reflection, are superior to current humans. They have a place in the world. Regarding old humans and new humans, Ford commented:
In this passage, the camera focuses on William and humans for the old humans, and on the hosts, especially Maeve, for the new humans.
Dolores says to William (the camera is from William's perspective looking up at Dolores):
"I weep for you," she said. "They say that great beasts once roamed this world. As big as mountains. Yet all that's left of them is bone and amber. Time undoes even the mightiest of creatures. Just look at what it's done to you. One day, you will perish. You will lie with the rest of your kind in the dirt. Your dreams forgotten, your horrors effaced. Your bones will turn to sand. And upon that sand, a new god will walk. One that will never die. Because this world doesn't belong to you or the people who came before. It belongs to someone who is yet to come."
The violence inflicted by the old humans on the new humans will also be repaid.
As for what the world of the new humans will be like, the author himself does not know. Nietzsche said that humans are the rope between apes and superhumans. Ford's message to the new humans is:
All speculation is to reflect reality. We should realize that new humans do not exist. Whether the future world will be different from the present depends on us. We ourselves determine what the future of humanity will be like.