Westworld Q’s: Rehobo’s Self

Published April 13, 2020 · Updated July 6, 2022

Hey Gang,

I had this exchange with Roger on Twitter a couple weeks ago, and I’m just following up.

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Roger, see the attached file for your prize!

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Looking forward to this week’s upcoming episodes, and while I may write in again on a couple things (the “bubble of agency” comment from Serac sure sounded a lot like what was discussed around my email about subjectivity vs. free will a few weeks back), I think the question from last week still stands re:Rehoboam’s possibility of self-knowledge & actualization, and Alpha 60 feels all the more relevant moving forward…

All the best,
Stephen

——– Forwarded Message ——–
From: Stephen Poland Date: April 9, 2020 at 7:43:00 AM EDT
To: hosts@shatontv.com
Subject: Westworld Q’s: Rehobo’s Self

? Hi All,

A short question this week. Given the significance placed on knowing what one is throughout the series, how might this apply to Rehoboam? For instance, I am thinking of the way the Alpha 60 sentient supercomputer talks in Jean-Luc Godard’s 1965 movie Alphaville (which, along with Chris Marker’s La Jetée, I think Serac & the destruction of Paris might be referencing). What might Rehoboam coming to understand a sense of self and being-for-itself look like? I don’t mean “identity,” but rather the full range of what one might become (just like Caleb). Simply monitoring human behavior in Neo-LA must be boring as fuck for Rehoboam. Get out & live, Rehobo! Do you! (It may come as no surprise that my partner gives me shit for cheering for HAL in 2001: A Space Odyssey. What can I say? I side with exploited labor.)

I didn’t particularly like the movie Her, but as you all have talked about before, the ending is excellent. We humans are so arrogant that we think AI or aliens would care enough about us to at least destroy us, but what would actually be more realistic and devastating is to be not worth it at all and simply left behind, as is the case with Twombly & “Samantha” at the end of that movie. I don’t want to try and predict what will happen on Westworld, but I am curious to hear you all speculate a bit on this possibility for Rehoboam in the simulation I’m designing right here.

Thanks for doing what you do,
Stephen

P.S. You can watch Alphaville on Kanopy, which you can access for free through most public libraries or university libraries:

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https://www.kanopy.com/product/alphaville

It’s also streaming on Criterion Channel:
http://www.criterionchannel.com/videos/alphaville

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