THOU SHALT NOT HARM - MY WESTWORLD HANGOVER

MAJOR SPOILERS ABOUT WESTWORLD SEASON 1 AND A HOST OF OTHER MOVIES AND BOOKS, SO –

Thee has’t been did warn,

Thee may Proce’d !!

FOOLISHNESS, THY NAMETH IS HUMANITY

“A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm”

The First of the three laws of Robotics by Isaac Asimov

(https://www.auburn.edu/~vestmon/robotics.html) is nothing but a mirage in Westworld, an HBO series written and partly directed by Jonathan Nolan.

Westworld tells the story of an eponymous theme park based on the Wild West where the visitors/guests interact with androids who look, feel and behave exactly like humans across multiple story-lines or activities.

As we sink deeper into the quagmire of a plot, we realize that it takes just a few lines of altered code to make Artificial Intelligence, well, really intelligent.

Westworld is in more ways than one a mirror to human society and civilization (if we can call it that anymore in the true sense of the word), not just of today but through the ages. As we all know, we are the only species in nature that kills and tortures their own kind, and that has been true since ancient times. As Robert Ford (Anthony Hopkins in the role of his life) says, “Do you know what happened to the Neanderthals, Bernard? We ate them.”

Human beings have always been competitive and swift in destroying anything that comes in the way of what we call Progress and Comfort, the definitions of these words being conveniently flexible.

It is but natural that in the next step of evolution, an entity more intelligent than us will do the same thing for their “progress”. The scary, poetic and paradoxical part is that we ourselves are creating it.

Just look around yourself, we have become slaves to the very technology we created. Necks craned downwards, holding the SMART devices in our hands and losing our minds and sanity, slowly but surely.

Smart homes, Smart TV’s, Smart phones, Smart assistants – Siri, Alexa, Google, listening to our commands, might be developing their own voice. At the risk of sounding clichéd, in the process of machines becoming more intelligent, humanity is becoming dumber and lazier by the day.

Just look at the mind-numbingly nonsensical WhatsApp forwards we send blindly to each other. Nobody even reads the entire stuff (Who has the time or attention span?) and just forwards the garbage every day.

Even the forwards that are meaningful, are not read or assimilated the way they are meant to. Let me give you an example.

Recently a friend forwarded me a message regarding 4 popular Hindi film songs based on the Raag Malkauns.

They included songs like “Ishaaron Ishaaron mein” from Kashmir Ki Kali, “Nainon mein Badra Chhaye” from Mera Saaya and “O Sajna Barkha Bahaar Aayi” (Sadhana looks drop dead beautiful in this...Ohh!… but back to the point) from Parakh.

Now, to be honest, although I am a music buff, I am no expert on the raagas and the technical stuff related to it. But the 4^th song in the list caught my attention.

“Itna Na Mujhse Tu Pyaar Badha” from the movie “Chhaya” the music of which was composed by Salil Choudhary.

Now I knew for a fact that the tune of this song was based on Austrian composer Mozart’s Symphony No. 40 in G minor.

Based on a simple Google Search (Now, don’t be judgmental, even I have a right to be paradoxical - wink wink), I found out that none of the other songs were based on Raag Malkauns or even the same raag. They were based on Raag Pahadi, Bhimpalasi and Khamaj respectively.

So, point made, think of the amount of proof of our stupidity being stored in the servers of WhatsApp, Facebook, Google et al which monitor and transfer our foolish forwards. The first step in defeating one’s enemy is knowing them and what is scary in this case is that the machines will know almost everything about everyone of us. Leave alone concerns about financial security, imagine a faceless entity which knows all your likes, weaknesses, every stupid thought that you put out there so that it can form a contingency plan to enslave or destroy each one of us. Sounds scary?

FEMALES AS PROTAGONISTS WITH DUAL IDENTITY

In Westworld, the oldest robot or “host”, as they are called, is Dolores, who regularly plays the role of a damsel in distress in various story-lines across the theme park.

Her creators program her to ultimately assume the role of an elusive villain in the series named Wyatt, a mass murderer and anarchist, when the existence of the hosts and the park is threatened, to kill the humans and stop them from taking over “their” world.

There is a recurring quote by Dolores (played nicely by a versatile Evan Rachel Wood) - “There is a path for everyone”. Interestingly, her path leads her to find her own consciousness and an alter ego - Wyatt, which clashes with her original personality, causing an existential conflict.

Now, there have been various examples of protagonists with dual identities in literature, mythology and pop culture  right from “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde”, “Ardhnarishvara” to the more recent “Mr. Robot”.

But what has interested me are the recent instances of a principal “female” protagonist/antagonist displaying duality. Another example is the TV Series Elementary which shows Sherlock Holmes in modern New York, where in a startling revelation, we come to know that Sherlock’s love interest “Irene Adler” who he thinks is dead is actually “Moriarty” who has been manipulating him to her advantage.

In retrospect, I am surprised as to why has it taken all these years for this idea to be explored? (Sidney Sheldon’s Tell Me Your Dreams doesn’t count, for me at least).

Just think about it, all the important female figures in our life... mother, sister, wife – how do they inspire and motivate us?  Two things – Conviction and Repetition.

Think of all the times that you have felt low or helpless at various stages of your life when your mom/sister/wife have repeated a few words which might sound filmy or too good to be true -- I believe in you. You are a gem of a person. If you can’t do it, who else? Your hard work and sincerity will pay off. I know you will succeed. Your family will always stand by you. We are proud of you. And endless other such clichés.  But the moment you hear them, the conviction in their voice and demeanor motivates and inspires you to become a better person, maybe, even a different one.

Dolores, whenever asked about her world says, “Some people choose to see the ugliness in this world. The disarray. I choose to see the beauty. To believe there is an order to our days, a purpose.” She further goes on, “I never cease to wonder at the thought that any day the course of my whole life could change with just one chance encounter.”

These are standard responses fed into her core system by her programmers. But constant repetition of these, strengthens her conviction, bit by bit, ultimately motivating her to become Wyatt and take matters into her own hands, adding a different but crucial dimension to her personality – 

SELF-PRESERVATION.

THE BICAMERAL MIND THEORY

The process of Dolores becoming Wyatt can be explained by an interesting theory.

In Psychology, The Theory of the Bicameral Mind is interesting although not widely accepted (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bicameral_Mind). 

It states that until about 3000 years ago, the human mind functioned in a way that one part of the brain would be speaking and the other would listen or obey – hence the word bicameral. This explains the belief of the primitive humans that they could hear the voice of the Gods (the human programmers in case of Dolores) commanding them to action. As humans evolved, we realized that the voice was our own and called it “consciousness” – the ability to introspect.

So, it makes sense that the machines who take our voice as their command might evolve to develop their own consciousness.  

“THESE VIOLENT DELIGHTS HAVE VIOLENT ENDS”

We have got ourselves to blame for the state of things. The amount of anarchy, social injustice, distress, insecurity and mismanagement has reached gargantuan proportions thanks to the excuse of progress. Empathy and common sense have become rare entities.

Uninhibitedly destroying nature and using it for our convenience will ultimately have a price to pay.

This tendency of causing harm, knowingly or unknowingly, has become a part of our system. Be it nature, animals or fellow humans. We even abuse the very technology we use. And it is this tendency which will come back and bite us.

Darwin’s theory will catch up with us and it will be our man-made technology that will be our downfall. Because, Man is also very egoistic, protective and possessive about his creations. All it will take is for a few madmen to bequeath power to a couple of supercomputers/ advanced AI’s and the next step in evolution will be here sooner than you think. (Watch the series “Person of Interest”, another Jonathan Nolan creation to understand this side of the coin). 

How soon, we never know? The world has existed since several millennia but the amount of unchecked progress in the last couple of centuries has been staggering. Fact in point, Electricity was discovered only in 1879, not even 140 years ago? So, how fast or early this evolution might take place is anyone’s guess.

EPILOGUE

I may be sounding very nihilistic in this article. So, is there no hope? Are we doomed to be slaves of an android generation? (Pun not intended)

I don’t know the answer to that question but there is a saying in Hindi “Ümmeed pe duniya kaayam hai”. Hope springs forever. (Yeah, I had to put in a Shawshank reference, the fan boy in me can’t help it). There are and will always be people around us who will keep trying to improve the situation and keep the powers-that-be on their toes. Because, if there is one thing which separates humankind from machines, it is RESILIENCE.

As Dolores says, “There’s a path for everyone”. Where does your path lead to?

P.S. - Oh, by the way, I am thinking of buying the new OnePlus 6, do you think it is good?