Teddy And The Allegory Of The Cave

Published May 30, 2018 · Updated July 6, 2022

Hi Shat On TV Hosts,

First I want to say thanks for the pod, it brings a tremendous amount of happiness to my daily loop.

Terminator Teddy has quite the attitude after Dolores modified his heuristics. I think she must have read Plato’s dialog concerning the Allegory of the Cave and realized that if she didn’t help him make the transition into the bright light of the new reality off the island that the “old softy” would not just be a danger to himself (e.g. not selfish enough to kill the other guy first, etc.) but that he would be a danger to his liberator, Dolores, as Socrates of the analysis of the allegory suggests.

I see Dolores’ journey in last season through the maze as not just one of consciousness but of adjusting to a superior reality through a very painful process. This is the same journey that Plato’s character, who is dragged beyond their will out of the cave and forced to endure the pain of gaining the ability to tolerate the intensity of sunlight.

Coming out of the cave is painful. The cave’s prisoners know that leaving the cave will bring immediate blindness. Socrates believed that the prisoners would be so scared by this pain that they would kill anyone (i.e. Dolores/Wyatt) that attempted to force them out into the light and it’s superior reality. Some of the hosts post-Journey Into Night are exhibiting this kind of resistance, such as the Craddock’s adherence to the pursuit of glory narrative and attempt to kill Dolores, or the Shogun’s self-inflicted cortical fluid leak and deafening of his followers.

If Dolores/Wyatt knew that this obstacle lay in the path of liberation, then a work around would be needed to convince the other hosts to come out into the light. This is what Teddy’s heuristics update may have been about.

So here’s a question for us Westworld fans- is it possible to make a sentient host unafraid of the pain and blindness by altering their problem solving, analytical and critical thinking code? And if not, will the result of sentient hosts, afraid of pain and blindness, violently resist liberation?

Thanks so much and keep up the great work!
GT from LA

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