The Substantiality Behind Free Will
By Brian Kim
The story of Westworld encompasses the themes of free will and the authenticity of our reality. The show introduces a world where virtual reality and artificial intelligence has become so sophisticated that immersive virtual worlds serve as digital theme parks for the wealthy to do as they please. In these worlds, the visitors cannot be harmed and they have full discretion to fulfill their desires to their heart's content, no matter how horrible or inhuman those actions may be. This is allowed because the inhabitants of these theme-park worlds possess no sentience and the actions committed by the visitors have no real effect since the state of the world is virtually reset upon the arrival of a new visitor. A problem emerges however when some of the artificial intelligence who serves as the world's "characters" begin to malfunction and gain sentience upon the administration of a new update.
Westworld is a story about the substantiality behind individualism and free will. It makes us question the reality of our lives and what makes humans so different from the artificial intelligence within the virtual worlds created to fulfill humanity's desires. I think an important point to highlight is that humanity, in this world, has essentially taken the position of what is essentially God. As God is said to have created our world and humanity, humanity has created their own worlds and their own self-thinking creatures through the power of their technology and ingenuity. An argument could be made saying that humans are not like the androids they have created for we have free-will, but they do not. Westworld brings the basis of that argument into the spotlight. Are humans free? Do we live by our own direction and make choices for ourselves? Or are we slave to our biological programming, like the code that dictates the way the androids in Westworld go about their day to day life. The keyword that brought about this train of thought was "routine". The androids of Westworld have a pre-determined routine that fulfills a specific narrative. This routine can only be changed through the intervention of a visitor, who will alter the narrative to satisfy their desires. How is this any different from regular human life? In order to live in this world, everyone must have a routine to live by. Wake, eat, work, play, sleep. Life can be simplified into these five simple concepts that cannot be changed. It is so hard-coded into our way of living that any deviation from it causes us to "malfunction" and have the course of our life become disrupted. If there exists some all-powerful cosmic entity, its intervention might be the only thing that can break humans out of this coded existence, just like the androids whose lives change upon the intervention of a human visitor.
The development of advanced A.I. and extremely sophisticated virtual reality sounds great on paper. However, the slew of ethical problems that can arise and the potential assault on the meaning of human life and existence make such an advancement a dangerous path to go down.