4 Criteria of Arnold’s AI Construct of Consciousness

Published October 28, 2016 · Updated July 6, 2022

Hey Guys,

Let me preface by saying sorry for this being so long. Love the show I’m really glad there’s such an avid following already. Just a couple thoughts:

1. I know everyone has been theorizing about who the voice is that Dolores hears and that some people thinks it’s Arnold or Bernard controlling/ordering her in some way. This seems like a misinterpretation and/or a mis-application of the bicameral mind theory. My understanding of the theory is that the inner voice a person hears inside their own head, which they interpret to be God communicating with them, is actually just their conscious interpretation of their cognitive processes.

Some people say it’s the right brain interpreting what the left brain is saying, although this is an oversimplification of how the two hemispheres interact. While this theory doesn’t accurately explain human consciousness, Ford says Arnold wanted to use it as a rubric to construct an artificial consciousness where the hosts would hear their base programming much like we hear our inner monologue. In the case of humans, we understand this inner voice is just a byproduct of cognition, but for an artificial intelligence they would presume their inner programming is being communicated to them by their creator.

This is all a very long way of saying that I think when Dolores hears that voice that says remember or kill him, there isn’t someone else ordering her to do those things. These inner thoughts are a product of her own reasoning which she perceives as the voice of God.

I think Dolores is the one who buried the gun herself. So when she goes into her front yard and says out loud Here? she is basically having a 2-way conversation with herself. On one side, her inner voice is communicating to her conscious mind previous memories, but the way her conscious mind perceives this inner monologue is as the voice of God, who in Westworld is their creator Arnold.

Remember much like Kill Him is a command she is able to execute in spite of her pre-programmed loop, because she is able to meet all 4 criteria of Arnold’s AI construct of consciousness (memory, improvisation, self-interest, & the Bicameral Mind).

2. I think the maze is Arnold’s final test of these 4 levels of AI consciousness. The only way a host can complete the maze is by achieving all 4 levels of that pyramid, the sum product of which is free will. At that time a host will be able to escape the shackles of their programmed loops inside the park, and physically pass through to the real world where they can truly be free.

Ford says Arnold had a particularly dim view of humanity and much preferred the hosts. I think Arnold got to a point where he had greater sympathy for the hosts than he did humans and so wanted to set the hosts free into the our world, blurring the line between fiction and reality.

This conflict between what is real and what is fake, who is human and who is not is one of the fundamental themes of the show and so blurring that line results in great peril for these characters. The maze was Arnold’s way of doing that and I think Ford killed him inside the park before he could let the genie out of the bottle because Ford wanted to maintain his omnipotent power.

I think Ford will ultimately become the big villain of the story because he enjoys playing God too much and does not want to relinquish his control by letting the hosts be free. You’ll see that whenever he’s in the park he always wears a black hat (the 1 time Bernard was in the Park he wore a white baseball hat). By the way I know you guys said Ford was able to stop everyone at the plantation without doing anything but you’ll see when he un-pauses the whole scene he seems to flick his left index finger.

3. I know everyone else is high on the William is the Man in Black theory but I think Logan is actually going to end up being the Man in Black. I think William will end up being purely our white hat hero protagonist. These Violent Delights have Violent Ends is a quote from Romeo and Juliet and this may be a stretch, but I think that as Dolores achieves progressively greater sentience that the William-Dolores romance will become Westworld’s star-crossed lovers parallel. Logan is the one who is much more interested in the trappings and the game aspect of the park (he’s the one going after the easter eggs and excited about the best ride in the park). He’s already dressed in all black and when he gets shot during the bounty he doesn’t flinch much like MiB.

Once again sorry this was so long, I actually have a lot more that I can’t remember at the moment. Loving the show so keep it up! – Ajay from Cleveland, OH

Subscribe Now