Is Rohobo acting like HAL in 2001?

Big D’s theory about Rohoboam acting to preserve its existence and purpose in the world seems suspiciously like the same problem HAL had in 2001. Its prime directive to protect the mission to Jupiter at all costs conflicted with the threat posed by its human subjects to shut it down when it experienced the anomaly of a failed antennae. The conflict in Westworld also involves Charlotte Hale, Delos, and William and they don’t seem to be relevant, at least not yet, to Big D’s “good vs. evil” conflict between Maeve, Bernard, and Delores.

“Free will” may not be real but it is useful. It is the basis for our system of law which would disintegrate if there was no concept of “volition” in causing harm to others. Free will is ultimately based on the perception by sentient beings that there is “someone” that acts with agency. That “someone” is really the interaction of sensory signals and hard and soft wired algorithms that we experience as “me”. By processing the information (fundamentally just photons) in polar coordinates with “me” in the center and “not me” outside we conserve the energy and processing power needed to sustain this illusion. Our behavior is conditioned over time to react to external stimuli which allows us to learn. Language allows us to transfer our individual learning to others over space and time thus improving our species stability and resilience.

So there’s not much difference between the humans and hosts except for their directives or “loops”. Some theorists such as Karl Friston believe the most basic directive for biological systems can be modeled by a “free energy principle” that drives all living things to attempt to alter their external state to best approximate its own internal beliefs about what that external state should be. Maybe this is also what drives the hosts but in their case the internal beliefs were written for them by humans while ours evolved as living systems got more complex.

Looking forward to the next episode,
Dave Wright
San Diego

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