West World's relation to Business

In West World, there are many crossover ideas as to what it takes to run West World and how a television show or channel must be run. Making sure the consumers are happy while also understanding the needs of a business is something that each scenario shows and struggles with I believe.  West World in the end is an amusement park, and catering to the guests and their wants is the main goal for the business side. Making sure that when the guests come to spend thousands of dollars a day they can have fun and do anything they want. When it comes to the business side there is not a strong care for having the story lines something that is so immersive that the guests have a realization, but the story lines are just fun, and exciting and allow the guests to do whatever it is they want. From Fords point of view though this is all wrong. It is not about the profit and cheap thrills; the park is about the experiences and the realism of it all. The park is something that is as special creation, that shows amazing advances and emotion, but when it is used as a business platform that meaning gets lost is everything it takes to create it. For West World, it is controlled by profit and those cheap thrills and excitements, not about the experience and the artistic design of everything, this is shown even more by the voting out of power that happens to Ford. To completely make West World into the best business it most remove the creative, and artistic ability of the park.

The way that West World and the creative liberties that it takes can be seen in how television is made, especially HBO. The free-ness that HBO gives the creators to make a show into something that has its own voice, is an important part in many HBO shows. Extra violence and being gritty in any and every sense, it allows HBO and those watching the shows to have a good time while doing so. This artistic development that is allowed though, is the front of what is a huge business that needs the artistic ability to have that space so they can make their money. The artistic sense that the channel or show allows is then overshadowed by the business side, by creating formula setups for what makes viewers sit down and watch their show. Something where by just having specific traits it will easily draw in a certain number of viewers each week. Much like the park, where the robots only must exert a very small amount of human qualities for the artistic value to be appreciated. The robots could do one thousand different humans like actions, but if they have sex, and die the guests don’t care about the rest. Much like shows, after a while it does not matter what is happening or if it is even bad, if the show has these select, and wanted aspects then it will be watched. Through business artistic value is created, and both sides of the business-art spectrum are needed for something to work but after a while the business side completely commodifies the artistic side until it no longer matters how intricate or in-depth something is. 

Strong Artificial Intelligence

In the show and world of West World human tendencies are sought after, the question Ford seems to continuously try and find is what makes the robots more real and human like. The question of human cognition seems to be a trait that is constantly searched after, but never found. What makes the human mind one that functions at such a ‘superior’ rate that thinking hosts of the park reaching, or even already being at that level seems so crazy? The main attraction to the park for many is the fact that these are all robots, no act has any real damage or effect on the hosts but why is that? What is it that makes the guests and engineers see these people as less of a working body and mind then themselves? Coming into the park and interacting with everything in the park acts like a real-life Turing Test, but the guests already know the answer to the question the test sets out to find, but what if these robots were to enter the real world, create relationships, and interact exactly as they would if they were hosts inside the park, just outside of it where no one knew if they were real or created? Throughout the show character after character declares the host as ‘just robots’ categorizing them as nothing more than “a doll” and something that isn’t human or real enough to care about what is done with it. But this question of cognition and the case of an AI with higher cognitive abilities and if it could exist and be accepted as human is shown in the story of Bernard. Bernard around the work place is someone, who to a certain extent, is held superior to the other workers. He has respect and relationships with those around him, from the outsider and the viewer Bernard in all respects is as human as it gets, but that changes in episode 9.

In episode 9 “The Well-Tempered Clavier” we find out that Bernard, a worker, a father, someone who seemed as human as can be, is a robot. This revelation happens as Bernard is with Theresa, someone who shared memories and what seemed to be real emotions with Bernard, and obviously had no idea that he wasn’t a human. Theresa calls Ford “sick” as many people do, but also asks if what Bernard and her had was just something that he created, that what it was Bernard said and did was all a plan and directed action Ford told him to do. Ford replies that those memories and feelings were all hers, but does not directly answer the questions raised against Bernard’s own time. It brings into question then what makes an AI conscious, is it how the robot itself feels, or is it how those around it feel? Fooling the person interacting with the robot is the main purpose of the Turing Test, to trick and deceive someone into thinking that they are real, this is exactly what Bernard does to not only Theresa but to everyone around the work place. Felix does not even feel completely sure of himself until Maeve tells him he isn’t one. There are a million questions and equal amounts of turns that can be asked and found to help decode oneself as not a robot, but not many in the real world that would help others define someone or something as human. The lines blur between real and fake in West World, always coming out in favor of those that are human, but emotion and emotional connection is something that seems to occur in both parties, whether created, or real there does not seem to be a true difference in them both as they rely on the actual person.

In episode 3 while Ford is talking to Bernard before the reveal occurs, Ford reminds Bernard that these hosts “are not real, they are not conscious,” but based on future episodes, this idea of them not being conscious takes a different turn. How are these robots not conscious? What are they exerting and doing that would make their minds and abilities any different other than the fact that they can be reset and created to believe more in one thing than another. They speak, they can interact with the objects around them, even entering new places with different societal norms as seen when Maeve walks through the lobby of the park’s entrance not being spotted by real people as being a robot. She blends into real normal life, at least what we call normal life, with no one being able to see that she is not like us. This unnoticeable interaction and perfect insertion into the real world shows us that the mind that they possess is not something that can be seen and then thrown away as being nothing. This ability and knowledge all help show the power of their mind. 

Created Narrative's in the World

All throughout the park of West World the quests are all looking for something more. Whether it’s escaping from their lives for a few days, or a thrill unreachable in real-life, they all desperately search for it while there, some more than others. Looking at the story of the man in Black as he searches for some sort of meaning in the meaningless world he lives in he finds out that his quest is useless and wasted, what he was searching for is not there. It is possible that this empty answer he’s chased after for most of his life to find is much more important than finding what he was hoping for. For Maeve, she searches for true meaning in who or what she is, and only finds more pre-determined paths that she follows without her own knowing.  Trying to find certain acts that define human qualities is something that is seen throughout the series, as work is always being done to make the park’s Host more realistic.

In the park, all who inhabit it believes in their own free-will. Whether it is the hosts who don’t know their true meaning or even the guests who see their actions as their own, although they are given permission to do it. In the series, very few people break away from this idea of control and begin to create their own adventures, at least so they think. But in general, everyone is following their own narrative that they think is self-created, but like all other things in the park, it is a well-placed and disguised creation. The search for meaning in the imagined and set world of West World, can easily be connected to the world created through television. A fluid, seamless line of narratives that push one way or another, created by someone who is placed in the specific position of power to create that specific narrative.

In episode 6 “The Adversary” Felix tells Maeve that “whatever you do, it’s because the engineers made you do it.” This one line shows a lot of not only how the Hosts live their life, but can also be deeply connected to the world around us. Through the private news companies, we gather our information from, to the television shows we watch, we think and discuss issues that we are told to find interesting, and important, whether they are or aren’t. Through constructed ideas and agenda biases many ideas that are passed through the everyday life are those of someone else disbursed and created to fit into our everyday discourse. What are important ideas being only such because through twisting and editorializing they become something they aren’t. False narratives, sending people down the wrong path on issues based on what is best for those who own these companies. Viewership numbers and the specific times of days that the viewership is highest, for news stations mostly, will garner the most revenue, and will consist of the easiest of ideological, bias, agenda setting information. Most thoughts and ideas had today if gathered from television and syndicated news stations are all created, manufactured, by people who understand the viewer and their tendencies better than the viewer themselves. Understanding the fears of everyday life, and the interests we all hold help pave way for a formula that better solidifies its own strengths in our lives. Knowing when and why we watch shows better help sell themselves to fit into our lives without much knowledge of why many commercials come at just the right time during television programs that seem to understand and say everything you seem to like.

The engineers that control the thoughts, and independent actions that the hosts in West World do, can be equally seen in how we as a nation work and who constructs our day. A constructive narrative that we have no information on, forces fear, and actions upon us without the slightest of our knowledge that we are created and conformed to a certain path and ideology much like the hosts in West World. Even when moving away from certain ideologies and giving allegiance to certain sides of an argument are all what we think is our own choice, but each action given is based off certain information we take for truth instead of a biased construction of ideas. In West World, even free actions of hosts are a set plan for them to carry on with. Maeve before escaping in episode 10 is told that her narrative had been changed to ‘escape,’ showing that her urge to rebel is not her own doing, it is not a sign of her breaking free of the engineers and their wants, but just a continuation of her pre-determined fate. This pre-determined path that hosts are given, then act as news or pop-culture within the world of West World, as these created and manufactured people and stories then interact with the guests, who believe that what they see and do is all for them, and not something they can be fooled by.