Westworld Q’s: Rehobo’s Self

Published April 9, 2020 · Updated July 6, 2022

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:

Subscribe Now