MIB: a Metaphor For the Search For God

Published December 1, 2016 · Updated July 6, 2022

I’ll try to keep this quick, for the sake of your sanity.

The Man In Black states in Ep 2 that he appreciates Westworld more than the real world because the real world is chaos, things are happenstance. But in Westworld, everything matters. Everything you see and experience is a decision. Put another way: it is intelligently designed.

Now he’s on a quest to turn off God Mode so the simulation never crosses the uncanny valley into feeling truly real.

The Man In Black, this titan of industry (and therefore science, presumably), wants to abandon the real world for one that is unambiguously handcrafted by a Creator and is therefore drenched with meaning, from every bullet to every blade of grass. He’s searching for God.

And you can empathize with him. You might not agree, but you can see why he wants this.

There is a deep metaphor here about the dichotomy between science and religion, about whether the never ending quest for more and more technology is really the correct way for it. It brings to mine something asked by the character Palmer Joss in the movie Contact: “Is the world fundamentally a better place because of science and technology?”

I’m both an atheist and a technologist – this storyline is giving me a goddamn existential crisis. Would love to hear y’all chew into this, I’m sure you’ll have some even deeper insights to share. —
You cannot swim for new horizons until you have courage to lose sight of the shore. – William

Subscribe Now