I Watch TV: Westworld

I don’t know that I have anything very interesting to say about Westworld. People are bad, it declares, and also surprisingly simple; they can be represented by 10,247 lines in a single (virtual) book. We know this, because we put them in a fictional place where there are no consequences and told them to do what they wanted. Then we simulated them based on that data.

(SPOILERS for Westworld Season 2).

But a world without consequence isn’t real! (Westworld claims it is). Shooting a robot that’s designed to be shot at, even if it looks like a person, isn’t the same as shooting a person. People aren’t any more real when they do what they want and no one holds them accountable, than if people do hold them accountable. That’s the real world – there are consequences!

(Westworld gives them consequences).

Anyway, your robots that you treat as disposable slaves rising up and overthrowing you, that could happen to anyone, but a lack of off-site back-up for a facility that’s been running for thirty years? Just careless.

(This is not a review of Westworld so I have no particular recommendations for if you should watch it or not).