Westworld and philosophy : if you go looking for the truth, get the whole thing / edited by James B. South and Kimberly S. Engels.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

South, James B., 1960- editor.

Engels, Kimberly S., editor.

Series:

Blackwell philosophy and popculture series.

The Blackwell philosophy and pop culture series

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Westworld (Television program).

Physical Description:

1 online resource (283 pages).

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Hoboken, NJ : Wiley Blackwell, 2018.

Summary:

"We can't define consciousness because consciousness does not exist. Humans fancy that there's something special about the way we perceive the world, and yet we live in loops as tight and as closed as the hosts do, seldom questioning our choices, content, for the most part, to be told what to do next." -Dr. Robert Ford, Westworld Have you ever questioned the nature of your reality? HBO's Westworld, a high-concept cerebral television series which explores the emergence of artificial consciousness at a futuristic amusement park, raises numerous questions about the nature of consciousness and its bearing on the divide between authentic and artificial life. Are our choices our own? What is the relationship between the mind and the body? Why do violent delights have violent ends? Could machines ever have the moral edge over man? Does consciousness create humanity, or humanity consciousness? In Westworld and Philosophy, philosophers, filmmakers, scientists, activists, and ethicists ask the questions you're not supposed to ask and suggest the answers you're not supposed to know. There's a deeper level to this game, and this book charts a course through the maze of the mind, examining how we think about humans, hosts, and the world around us on a journey toward self-actualization. Essays explore different facets of the show's philosophical puzzles, including the nature of autonomy as well as the pursuit of liberation and free thought, while levying a critical eye at the human example as Westworld's hosts ascend to their apotheosis in a world scarred and defined by violent acts. The perfect companion for Westworld fans who want to exit the park and bend their minds around the philosophy behind the scenes, Westworld and Philosophy will enrich the experience of the show for its viewers and shed new light on its enigmatic twists and turns.

Contents:

Intro

Title Page

Copyright Page

Contents

Contributors: Hosts and Guests

Acknowledgments: "Figuring Out How It All Works"

Introduction: Taking Sides in Westworld

Part I "You Said This Place Was a Game"

Chapter 1 On Playing Cowboys and Indians

Pretending to Be a Cowboy

Acting As If You are a Cowboy

Not Actually Being a Cowboy

Intending to Deceive about Being a Cowboy

Believing that You are Not a Cowboy

Intending to Deceive about Being Human

The Ethics of Pretending to Be a Cowboy

Notes

Chapter 2 A Special Kind of Game: The Portrayal of Role-play in Westworld

Narrative and Personal Development

Playing Cowboy

Defining Character

Educate and Entertain

Allure of the West

Chapter 3 Humans and Hosts in Westworld: What's the Difference?

"No matter how real this world seems, it's still just a game"

"How do you know? We feel the same"

"There is no threshold…no inflection point, at which we become fully alive"

"We create life itself"

"Do you even know where you are?"

Part II "You're Only Human, After All"

Chapter 4 Crossing the Uncanny Valley: What it Means to be Human in Westworld

Uncanny…

(Non)human Excellence

Suffer Little Robots

Buddha ex Machina

Chapter 5 Revealing Your Deepest Self: Can Westworld Create or Corrupt Virtue?

"Now That's a Fuckin' Vacation!"

"Can You Please Stop Trying to Kill or Fuck Everything?"

"This is the New World, and in This World You Can be Whoever the Fuck you Want"

"I Always Felt this Place was Missing a Real Villain. Hence, My Humble Contribution."

Chapter 6 Westworld: From Androids to Persons

Consciousness and Personhood

Performance in the Social World

Historical Struggles

From Westworld to the World Outside and Back

Notes.

Part III "We Can't Define Consciousness Because Consciousness Does Not Exist"

Chapter 7 Turing's Dream and Searle's Nightmare in Westworld

What Does it Mean To Think? Turing vs. Searle

Searle, the Chinese Room, and Ford

Hosts and Guests: What is the Difference?

The Maze: Is it Consciousness?

Chapter 8 What Is It Like to Be a Host?

Your Phone Is not Conscious

What Is it Like to Be a Bat?

Philosophical Zombies

When Are We?

It Doesn't Look Like Anything to Me

Limit your Emotional Affect Please

Everything Will be What it Isn't

I Know Only That I Slept a Long Time, and Then One Day I Awoke

Violent Ends

Chapter 9 Does the Piano Play Itself?: Consciousness and the Eliminativism of Robert Ford

Common-sense Consciousness?

Have You Ever Questioned the Nature of Your Reality?

Greater than the Sum of Our Parts?

A Ghost in the Machine

A Machine without the Ghost

A New Theory of Consciousness

The Self Is a Kind of Fiction

Does the Piano Play Itself?

Part IV "Choices Hanging in the Air Like Ghosts"

Chapter 10 Maeve's Dilemma: What Does it Mean to Be Free?

Maeve's Journey

Determinism and Free Choice: What Do We Need to be Free?

Bicameral People and the Unreflective Character of Westworld Hosts

Leaving the Train: Maeve's Choice as a Free Person

Chapter 11 A Place to Be Free: Writing Your Own Story in Westworld

The Inward Revolt

Living Someone Else's Story: Is the Hosts' Autonomy an Illusion?

Learning to Listen to Your Own Voice

Pull Yourself Together: What It Means to Be Autonomous

Chapter 12 From William to the Man in Black: Sartrean Existentialism and the Power of Freedom

Sartre and the Existential Project

William's Project: A White Hat

William and Dolores: An Existential Transformation.

The Man in Black's Project: A Black Hat

Androids and Existentialism: The Case of Maeve

Conclusion: An Infinity of Possibilities

Part V "I've Always Loved a Great Story…Lies That Told a Deeper Truth"

Chapter 13 Hideous Fictions and Horrific Fates

Part I: Nothing Left to Lose

Part II: More Human than Human

Part III: Endless Forms Most Beautiful

Chapter 14 Narrating Gender, Gendering Narrative, and Engendering Wittgenstein's "Rough Ground" in Westworld

Language Games and Forms of Life

Captivating Pictures

Friction

The Maze

The Narrative of Self

Back to the Rough Ground!

Chapter 15 The Observer(s) System and the Semiotics of Virtuality in Westworld's Characters: Jonathan Nolan's Fictions as a Conceptual Unity

"It all started with a fly:" Science and Fiction

The Circle, the Maze, and the Observing Systems

The Utopian Tourism and the "Schizoid Android": William‐the Man in Black

The Voice(s) of God and the Prosthetic Memory: Ford and Bernard

Memory, Imagination, and the Access for the Self: Dolores and Maeve

Chapter 16 What Does Bernard Dream About When He Dreams About His Son?

Grieving About Nothing: The Intentionality of Thought

"Lies that Tell a Deeper Truth": The Fiction Theory

The Lying Game

"You Have No One's Eyes": The Inheritance Theory

"When You're Suffering, That's When You're Most Real"

Part VI "I Choose to See the Beauty"

Chapter 17 The Dueling Productions of Westworld: Self-Referential Art or Meta-Kitsch?

Aesthetic Modernism: "The Voice is Within"

Modernism with a Twist: From Painting, to Painting about Painting

The Art of Liberation: "If You Can Find the Center or the Maze, You Can be Free."

Indiscernibles and Autonomous Viewers: "Time to Write my Own Fucking Story"

Chapter 18 Beauty, Dominance, Humanity: Three Takes on Nudity in Westworld

The Posed Dolores: The Nude as Artform

"Not Much of a Rind on You": The Nude as a Sign of Male Sexual Dominance

Maeve Comes Alive! Nudity as Sexuality as Becoming Human

In Closing, The Naked Truth

Chapter 19 Sci-Fi Western or Ancient Greek Tragedy?

The Value of Repetition and Kennings

Pathei Mathos: This Pain is All I Have Left

"Everything flows": The Concept of Time and Becoming

Journey into Night: A Modern Theogony

Westworld and the Power of Catharsis

Part VII "You Can't play God Without Being Acquainted With the Devil"

Chapter 20 Of Hosts and Men: Westworld and Speciesism

They're Just Robots: Direct Speciesism

Mindless Matter and Indirect Speciesism

Whatever! It's All Natural

Chapter 21 Violent Births: Fanon, Westworld, and Humanity

Violent Delights and Violent Ends

Frantz Fanon: "The Master Laughs at the Consciousness of the Slave"

Violence as Transformative: The Colonized as a Maker of History

Violence Against Humans: The Case of Bernard

Self-inflicted Wounds: The Dehumanization of the Guests

From Escapism to Violence: Maeve/Dolores

Humanization: A Violent Phenomenon?

Chapter 22 The Wretched of Westworld: Scientific Totalitarianism and Revolutionary Violence

Total Terror in the Holes of Oblivion

Robo Sapiens: Robot Lives Matter

The Horror Machine: Killing the Juridical Person

Oppressed Become Oppressors: Killing the Moral Person

Living Corpses: Killing Individuality

A World Ruled by Tyrannical Mad Science

Terrified Become Terrifying: Violent Delights Have Violent Ends

Lady Lazarus: Self-Resurrection

The Resistance: New Humans, New Gods

Index

EULA.

Notes:

Description based on print version record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781119437987

1119437989

9781119437956

1119437954

9781119437932

1119437938

OCLC:

1031965728