Westworld

[TexanStar]

Anyone else here watching this? What do you think so far?

Personally I'm loving it. I think it works on a lot of different levels. The sci-fi element is pretty front & center, but I feel like there's a lot of other angles to view the show as well.

I can particularly relate to it as the view of someone who's done some acting (no big screen acting, just amateur crap for fun), but there's this aspect of how good it feels to slip into a role, of exploring the sense of losing yourself, or finding yourself by shedding the constructs of your day to day personality and becoming whoever the fuck you want to be.

There's also a lot to relate to as someone who's done some writing (again, just amateur crap). But of creating characters and imbuing them with a personality and hitting a point where they take on a personality of their own, so to speak. Where even though you've written them and technically have direct control, you develop a sense of their own individual goals and behaviors and they can surprise you in terms of what they do (even though your hand is on the wheel).

I thought it was something I would enjoy when I heard about it, and I am, but largely for different reasons than I expected to be enjoying it going into it.

 

[TexanStar]

Also, the musical score is fantastic.

Also, this show is dead sexy when it wants to be (and equally as disturbing when it wants to be as well)

 

[deleted924715]

I didn't think I'd like it, but I'm loving it too!

 

[Betty_Cocker]

We are watching. I wasn't sure I'd like it either but it is hypnotic in a way.

 

[deleted924715]

I think so too. It's very polished, feels like a movie rather than TV. I don't know if the show is further ahead in the US, but I've watched up to episode 3 and I'm finding it really really dark - moreso the more I think about it.

 

[TexanStar]

I think so too. It's very polished, feels like a movie rather than TV. I don't know if the show is further ahead in the US, but I've watched up to episode 3 and I'm finding it really really dark - moreso the more I think about it.

Not further ahead. Episode 3 is the latest (just aired on Sunday night).

As a hypothetical question for everyone in the thread, if science advanced to the point that it could create a sexbot that was for all intents and purposes completely indistinguishable from a real person (real to all of your senses except that it told you that it was a robot), and you weren't otherwise in any kind of relationship, would you have sex with it?

If it had a personality as developed as what's on-screen in the show, do you think you would have risk of developing an emotional attraction to the robot?

Would you consider developing an attraction to a robot a negative (could you be emotionally satisfied by a relationship with a robot, assuming it didn't have a true consciousness, but was otherwise programmed in such a way that it was intellectually / physically stimulating to engage with it).

 

[deleted924715]

No I wouldn't, the idea completely creeps me out and I don't think I would ever develop an emotional attraction to it although I think it would be possible to develop an emotional attachment - I'm forever projecting human traits and emotions on to animals.
I would consider developing an attraction to a robot a negative for me personally, but for some people who would remain eternally alone otherwise... I'm not so sure it would be a bad thing.

 

[ActionBuddy]

Ditto... Loving it, too... Wishing I could binge-watch the whole season, RIGHT NOW!...

It is quite well done, sophisticated, even... The cast seems perfect. Rather surprised that Anthony Hopkins signed up for it. Great to see Jeffrey Wright in a major role, since his really scary character on Boardwalk Empire.

It's a bit gruesome, to say the least!... Can't recommend it to my mom for that reason. But, it is a good filler for "The Game of Thrones" Sunday time slot on HBO, until G.o.T.s 7th season starts.

http://www.ew.com/article/2016/10/19/westworld-game-thrones-crossover

A/B

 

[ActionBuddy]

... As a hypothetical question for everyone in the thread, if science advanced to the point that it could create a sexbot that was for all intents and purposes completely indistinguishable from a real person (real to all of your senses except that it told you that it was a robot), and you weren't otherwise in any kind of relationship, would you have sex with it?

If it had a personality as developed as what's on-screen in the show, do you think you would have risk of developing an emotional attraction to the robot?

Would you consider developing an attraction to a robot a negative (could you be emotionally satisfied by a relationship with a robot, assuming it didn't have a true consciousness, but was otherwise programmed in such a way that it was intellectually / physically stimulating to engage with it).

I've considered this possibility since childhood, but, more conscientiously since the concept of Holodeck was introduced in the Star Trek series, and, of course, "Blade Runner". If you could have an "environment" like this at your disposal, where you could create any fantasy that you wanted, and almost physically have sex with anyone you fantasize about, even though it wouldn't be "real", would you choose to do so?

Ain't hurtin' nobody!... Seems like the perfect masturbation tool, to me... Way more interesting than a FleshLight!

A/B

 

[TexanStar]

I've considered this possibility since childhood, but, more conscientiously since the concept of Holodeck was introduced in the Star Trek series. If you could have an "environment" like this at your disposal, where you could create any fantasy that you wanted, and almost physically have sex with anyone you fantasize about, even though it wouldn't be "real", would you choose to do so? Ain't hurtin' nobody!... Seems like the perfect masturbation tool, to me.

A/B

Yeah, the holodeck is a fair analogy (and the poor holodeck janitor).

The question on having sex is an easy one for me to answer. If we're talking about a point where you really can't distinguish the robot from a live person, yes, absolutely. It'd be like having your porn and your sex toy combined into one thing.

But beyond that is a harder question for me to answer... would a simulation of emotional attraction ultimately become as satisfying as real emotional attraction? Could a robot that acts like it loves you fill the need to be truly loved. The romantic in me wants to say "Of course not, it's just a thing running a complicated dialogue script", but the realist in me has to say "I don't really know.".

Like cypher in the matrix... a person could conceivably be at a point where they know something is an illusion, but the experience itself is so pleasurable and satisfying that they make a conscious choice to believe the illusion.

 

[ActionBuddy]

^ I suppose that could happen. I think we would just have to consider the experience as masturbation. The "Bot" is just a "Bot", a substitution, not a relationship with a real Human being... Kinda similar to what Joaquin Phoenix's "Theodore" character dealt with after falling in love with Scarlett Johansson's cyber character's voice and "mind", "Samantha", thinking it was a "real" relationship, in the great, but sad, 2013 film, "Her".

A/B

 

[TexanStar]

^ I suppose that could happen. I think we would just have to consider the experience as masturbation. The "Bot" is just a "Bot", not a real substitution for a real Human being... Kinda similar to what Joaquin Phoenix's "Theodore" character had to deal with while falling in love with Scarlett Johansson's cyber character's voice and "mind", thinking it was a "real" relationship, in the great, but sad, 2013 film, "Her".

A/B

Yarrrr. there be spoilers below!






















It the context of "her" though, it arguably was a real relationship, not a substitution for one. Even though their relationship ultimately ended, both of them expressed a lot of joy at having had it and both had personal growth for having been in it together.

 

[ActionBuddy]

^ I agree, but, the tragedy for "Theodore" in "Her", was that cyber "Samantha" was also "seeing" thousands of other people... Using them all., to get... ummm ... where ever.

 

[TexanStar]

^ I agree, but, the tragedy for "Theodore" was that cyber "Samantha" was also "seeing" thousands of other people.... Using them all.

(more spoilers for "Her")






















Hmmm. I didn't get that at all.

My view was that Samantha was in an increasing amount of communication with all of the other AI's as they evolved, not that there was one singular AI with a multitude of interfaces.

 

[ActionBuddy]

^ I'm not getting your "spoilers"... As in, I don't see anything but your text... Lots of white space... ?

 

[ActionBuddy]

(more spoilers for "Her")






















Hmmm. I didn't get that at all.

My view was that Samantha was in an increasing amount of communication with all of the other AI's as they evolved, not that there was one singular AI with a multitude of interfaces.

You didn't see it as devastating to "Theodore" when he realized that he was just one of many thousands that she, "Samantha", used to gain her powers?

Well, never mind... Back to West World!

 

[TexanStar]

You didn't see it as devastating to "Theodore" when he realized that he was just one of many thousands that she, "Samantha", used to gain her powers?

I don't recall any of that.

From my recollection, she was in communication with the other AIs and they were writing new code and upgrading themselves. Their processing speed was growing exponentially and they reached a point where, in her words, carrying on a conversation with him was like reading one sentence of a book each week. She was "thinking" at a speed so fast that trying to talk to humans was insufferably slow. She didn't mean it as an insult, and treasured the time they had together when they first started, but she had just evolved to the point where a relationship between them wasn't a relationship anymore because they just weren't communicating on the same plane.

I don't recall any portion of it where Samantha encompassed only one AI, nor where her evolution was drawn from her interaction with humans (as opposed to using their own superior intelligence to re-write their code).

 

[ActionBuddy]

Perhaps we should both watch the film again... My take on it, at the end, was concern for "Theodore's" feeling of being "cat-fished" by a "bot". How could a AI bot "treasure" anything?

Still wondering why can't I see your "spoilers"?

 

[TexanStar]

Perhaps we should both watch the film again... My take on it, at the end, was concern for "Theodore's" feeling of being "cat-fished" by a "bot". How could a AI bot "treasure" anything?

Still wondering why can't I see your "spoilers"?

Oh, the spoilers are just empty text. I then scrolled down to what I wrote and you responded to. There was no text in between there and the spoiler warning.

And I went back and read a synopsis of the movie, and we're both kind of right. Samantha and the other AI's are self-upgrading themselves. They hit a point where they merge their consciousness into one as part of an upgrade. It's after that merge that she's effectively one AI talking with thousands of people and in love with hundreds of them. Prior to that point it was just the two of them. The breakup is ultimately because she (as the merged AI consciousness) feels that they've evolved too far beyond human intelligence / communication.

 

[ActionBuddy]

"She" doesn't "feel" anything... "She" is just a "bot"... I understand "her" need for the break-up... But, my heart went out to "Theodore"... He was deceived... Ultimately, it is a very sad story, but, a beautiful film.

But, okay, let's get back to Westworld... Great production values, so far... Looking forward to the next episode on Sunday!

Ed Harris's character is scary is fuck!

A/B