Memory as a Narrative

By Shaili T. Shah

Watching the first three episodes of Westworld made me curious about the differences between the hosts and the guests, and what is the line that are keeping them separate. The technological advancement achieved in the show is remarkable. The host's appearance, gestures, and emotions are indistinguishable from the guests. They are even able to have unexpected conversations with the guests by fitting what they are programmed to say to fit into any situation. If it weren't for the glitches with the code, we would be unable to tell the hosts apart from the guests. Throughout the show a major theme that is brought up is memory. Ideally, what keeps the real separate from the AI is our ability to have memories and learn from our past experiences. In the third episode we learn from Dr. Ford that his partner was striving to make the hosts as real as possible through his theory illustrated in a pyramid. In the diagram it showed that allowing the hosts to have memory will lead them to improvisation of their scripts, which will lead to self-interest and finally the bicameral mind which I understood to be our consciousness, an inner voice that is our own. 

From the first episode we see that the hosts are given limited access to their memories in order to add complexity to their gestures. But as the story continues we begin to see the hosts piece more an d more of their pasts together. First we see some of them tapping into past roles that they were programmed to play and eventually we see that they are able to remember the horrible things that the guests are doing to them and other hosts that they care about. Already after only three episodes we see the hosts move through the first three stages of the pyramid: they have access to their memories which is causing them to go off script, and some are beginning to act out of self-interest such as Delores lying about not having the ability to harm a living being. So far, there has been no proof on the show that any of the hosts have reached bicameral thought, but it is possible.

If the hosts are able to reach this point, then should they be considered human? They are able to cross the threshold what the employees of Westworld consider to be the line between humans and AI, so does that mean we are the same? They are able to move, see, bleed, and experience emotions like us. They have the potential to learn from experience and lose their initial innocence. The hosts can even die and potentially reproduce by learning the same means that were used to create themselves, and become self-sufficient without the help of their creators. The only difference I can think of is our bodies. Our bodies grow, have the ability to heal minor wounds, and catch/fight disease. Maybe being human doesn't have anything to do with our minds and it just means that we have bodies that can grow and evolve.