Westworld Let’s Talk Julian Jaynes

Published March 30, 2020 · Updated July 6, 2022

Hello hosts!

First, I would like to begin by extending my appreciation to the podcast. Recently found out about you guys and it is just the companion piece I needed, listening to others overanalyze the crap out of the show kind of makes me appreciate it even more. To finish this little introduction, shout out to you, Gene, you deserve some love too! Big D is already revered and Ashley is too smart for caring about empty compliments. Also, outcasts deserve love as well, I feel you Gene! Now let’s get into it!

There are a few very interesting parallels and points that can be made comparing season 1 and what we have already seen of season 3. So let’s go back to Julian Jaynes’ work ‘The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind’. I do not have a lengthy knowledge on any of the great (and a little insane) minds discussed on last week’s podcast. However, when a show comes on and incites my brain (see what I did there? lol), I like to delve into the references used by the showrunners to have a better understanding.

Jaynes’ work stated that before man became truly conscious his mind was divided in two. Therefore, humans didn’t have free will, but instead would hallucinate a ‘god’ voice giving commands for them to follow. In season 1 the showrunners adapted this idea and brought it to the hosts in the park. Now, this ‘god’ voice was represented by the code given to the hosts by Arnold and Ford. By introducing reveries, as well as suffering as a cornerstone, Ford was able to induce Dolores’ journey through the Maze..

Now, in season 3, we are seeing the opposite process. This week we saw that the average Joe (Caleb, for example) has the illusion of free will, however, the system has already mapped out the choices and predetermined a path for each individual to follow. Hence, the capability to make choices is, in a way, being deprived of humanity, and the mirror path to the maze is in motion. The AI is acting like the ‘god’ voice in human life, causing the resurgence of the Bicameral Mind. Humans no longer controle their own fate, and are pawns in a larger scheme. If this way of life continues unadapted, soon even the idea of choices will be no more, and Rehoboam will become the ‘god’.

There is one more parallel that I think is very interesting. In his work, Jaynes said that, after humans became conscious, they felt a hole that before was fulfilled by the ‘god’ mind. After its disappearance, humanity created religion, in order to have that god figure with which to talk to and take orders from. In the series, after the completion of the Maze, Dolores diverged from this idea and started to walk on her own path. Instead of creating a god, she became the god (hence the several references this season where she refers to herself as a new god). Now, going forward, it is interesting to conjecture what exactly is her endgame. We thought she hated all humans and was hell bound on destroying mankind. Instead, in this week’s episode we saw, through her conversations with Caleb, that she sees in several members of humanity the lack of choice and opportunity she was once given. What is her plan? To destroy Rehoboam? I don’t think so. In my opinion, she intends to take control and to inverse, to mirror, his actions and give choice to the many and remove free will from the few, the 1% of the 1% that caused her so much suffering.

And here is where I think the beauty of a show like Westworld lies. Like you guys said before, it is not about good or evil. The choices are murky, and we can look at both sides and see reason, understand the rational behind the choices made by the main characters and decide for ourselves with whom our opinions align. Personally, I am team Dolores, let’s be honest. Walking around in this futuristic world ALWAYS in high heels and kicking ass left and right, C’mon, that is pure badass.

That’s all I could come up with, would love to listen to your guys’ take on some of these ideas!

Greetings from Brazil,

Henrique

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