Westworld: Recaps of the Recaps

All of Season One, through the lens of AI and VR

Westworld, HBO’s remake of the 1973 blockbuster, overlays techno-futurism onto a retro Wild West landscape for a mind-bending tour of the opportunities and ethical dilemmas we may see in the coming AI era. Westworld is a Western-themed amusement park where the uber-wealthy can have a total immersion 19th century experience interacting with androids. (And by interacting, we mean mostly having sex with them and occasionally shooting them. As with any new technology, the first human impulse is to either fuck it or break it.)

One of the show’s central appeals for us is that it incorporates many of the core ethical issues that plague AI development. If AIs develop human-like consciousness, what do we owe them? Do they have rights? Is it okay to make them suffer?

If you’re watching Westworld from scratch?—?which we highly recommend!?—?we invite you to follow along with our recaps, written in alternating weeks by Steve Bryant (of Dicks & Betties) and myself (founder of the VR analytics firm The Insurrection, which publishes There Is Only R). As the season progressed, we were dazzled by the characters, the color palette, and the show’s recurring motif of twos and threes, even as we were frustrated by some of the more outlandish soap-opera plot twists (or “whatever devices,” as we called them). The show has been renewed for a second season, but that won’t come until 2018. So in the meantime, settle in and catch up!

The Robots Are Coming For Us: Westworld, Episode 1. An AI and VR perspective on the show’s premier.

A Bongard Problem: Westworld, Episode 2. Steve finds the show’s theme park akin to a pattern recognition problem made famous in Godel, Escher, Bach.

The Voice of God: Westworld, Episode 3. We get clues about our hosts that raise as many questions as they answer.

Exploding Cigars! Westworld, Episode 4. Steve explores Westworld’s smoking fetish and what it says about reality.

Modest Little Loops and Whatever Devices: Westworld, Episode 5. Dolores may be unraveling?—?literally and metaphorically?—?and I start to wonder about those plot twists.

Follow the Forward Chain: Westworld, Episode 6. Ford’s control may be illusory and Maeve takes a tour?—?and Steve takes a look at interference engines.

The Host With The Most: Westworld, Episode 7. We learn something new about Bernard. So do Theresa and I.

Westworld Is An A/B Test: Westworld, Episode 8. Steve explores the show’s recurring themes of duality.

Westworld As Soap Opera: Westworld, Episode 9. Too many implausible twists make me hope next season leans harder on character development.

The Golden Ratio Of Westworld: Westworld, Episode 10. Steve looks at how the show follows the classic “rule of thirds” and observes how the tables have turned for Dolores and Maeve.

A Unified Color Theory of Westworld. Steve’s long, revealing look at Westworld’s color palette.