At its core, the critically acclaimed series ‘Westworld’, is about the merging of the humans of the present, with the technology of the future. In the series, Westworld is a futuristic western themed amusement park that essentially functions as an alternate world where lifelike humanoid robots, or automatons, play various characters and interact with the people who visit. Westworld is designed to allow high-paying guests to indulge in any fantasy they desire within the immersive and realistic environment of the park.
In the park, some guests’ behaviours and actions are consistent with their character outside the park. But for others, the park brings out from them an entire new side that doesn’t hold back whatsoever enacts every desire they crave. Even those guests that don’t go to the extremes of indulgence, still in smaller ways act out their fantasies and life they desire. Either way, for almost every guest there, the park acts as a medium of expression of desire.
In certain ways, this doesn’t seem too far away from how things are today. We may not have automatons walking around just yet, but we have definitely seen the way technology has been used to offer humans the chance to indulge in their desires, good or bad.
Similar to the series, tech has almost become the primary medium through which humans experience and interact with the world around them today. Our dependence on tech has become so significant that it almost seems like something innate to us as a species.
But this isn’t anything we don’t already know, each of us is likely already aware of the extent to which the world depends on tech, on a collective and societal level but also on the individual level. But what do we do about it? And do we even need to do anything about it at all?
Well, it depends. In ‘Westworld’, the characters that were already filled with violent thoughts and dark urges, inevitably give in to those when they are presented with the opportunity to act on them, because that’s what they truly desire. Whereas the characters with a good moral code and character, end up getting more meaning and connection out of the park, because that’s what they truly desire.
It is very rare that technology itself is ‘bad’ or ‘evil’, but rather it’s the human input and intention behind it that dictates its level of ethical and moral operation. We’ve reached a stage in history where technology can exponentially amplify the outcome of the intention it is used for.
We are entering a world where tech will be able to give us anything and everything we want, so we need to make sure what we want is grounded in the right place. In ‘Westworld’, people turn into an amplified version of themselves when the enabling technology is provided to them.
So since we know that new enabling technologies are being born everyday, we need to ensure that what we use them for is for the betterment of ourselves and not the opposite, we should make sure our intentions, behaviours and desires are rooted in the right place so that we can experience a more meaningful and fulfilling visit to the park that is our life
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Written by Ben Joshua
