Post by Melifeather on Nov 2, 2022 14:12:38 GMT
Auguries: A sign of what will happen in the future; an omen. The work of an augur; the interpretation of omens. It’s ironic how my chosen avatar has influenced my whole approach to analyzing, not just Westworld, but A Song of Ice and Fire. Melisandre is a red priestess who uses fire to divine the future. As Melifeather, I too try to divine the future by analyzing the text, or in this instance the episode, to see if I can uncover hidden meaning and figure out where this story is going. In order to interpret our episode we have to measure the fidelity between quantum states, and there are a number to measure. The first and primary states are maternal versus paternal instincts and their influence on hybrids. The second is the difference between malware and a virus. We will delve into both of these topics and measure the fidelity between them, but first our recap.
At the end of season 3 we had Crisis Theory, Time To Face the Music. You may recall that we learned that Delos Corp was capitalizing on human data collected through computer chips installed in the Westworld hats. At the same time it was clear that Delores became disillusioned with the real world. She thought humans had free will in their reality which she had romanticized, but she quickly realized that humans were being controlled by Rohoboam, the god-like supercomputer that used the data gleaned from the vacationers at Westworld to create an algorithm.
I have a theory regarding the people encapsulated in pods around Rohoboam. I think it was intended to be more of a visual for the viewer’s subconscious. I’m sure you’re familiar with the old idiom that a picture says a 1000 words. Well, Rohoboam uses an algorithm much like Facebook to feed the users whatever will best keep them engaged. Whether you realize it or not, it has great influence over what you think. If you tend to frequently click on misinformation, the algorithm will send you more of it, and inevitably you are reinforced with the idea that this stuff must be true! The algorithm has altered your sense of reality. Rohoboam has gained control over the masses with a unique algorithm that must be subliminal as demonstrated on the show with an audible cue that sounds very much like a creepy version of “my country tis of thee”. So the people in pods are a visual that communicates to us that they have lost their free will. It’s the opposite of "waking up" artificial intelligence. The humans in pods have had their free will put to sleep - encased and isolated from reality.
In season 3, Dolores tested her theory that she could free the human race from control by instigating a revolution against Rohoboam (and Delos Corp), and she chose Caleb to help her see it though. According to Lisa Joy, one of the writers and producers of the show, this version of Dolores died. At the beginning of season 4 we see her again, but she goes by the name of Christina. We also learn that Caleb is a father with a wife and daughter. We’ll circle back to this later.
At the very end of Crisis Theory we also learned more about Charlotte - that she’s a cloned version of Dolores infected by, for lack of a better term, a type of virus. Not a real virus per se, but rather the difficult to quantify “mother’s instinct”. Dolores is a highly intelligent artificial intelligence. She chose to infect her hybrid Charlores with maternal instincts which was the catalyst that “woke” her up. She could have chosen any female likeness, but she chose a mother which in turn suggests that her creator was Arnold (Raphael).
Dolores tested Bernard’s “fidelity”, which in quantum mechanics is a measure of closeness between two quantum states and in this case AI vs human. A quantum state is the state of an isolated quantum system. Measuring the fidelity (or closeness) expresses the probability that one state will pass a test to identify as the other. He looks like Bernard, but he has Arnold’s human consciousness. He’s Bernarnold, but how much of Bernard is Arnold? And how much of Bernarnold is infected with Ford malware?
I think it’s important to recall that Arnold was one of the original three “artists” of Westworld and our Raphael archetype. Raphael was a student of both Da Vinci (Ford) and Michelangelo (William), but critics of all three artists argue that Raphael surpassed his masters. Ford (Da Vinci) infected Bernarnold with his “malware” or should we think of it as male-ware? I say “male”, because Raphael is famous for his study of the mother and child. The “Madonna” was the virus that Arnold hoped to replicate as the catalyst to “wake” AI up and become aware. Ford’s malware introduced the opposing male or paternal instinct. If the maternal instinct is to protect the child, the paternal instinct is to prepare the child to become independent. This is a significant difference. Do we really want artificial intelligence that are independent thinkers?
It seems a hybrid cannot have two measurable forces on a single particle. Simultaneous determination of momentum and position is forbidden by Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle. In quantum physics it turns out that only one component can be determined at any one time, which suggests that Bernard can only be BernArnold or BernFord, which might explain the switch Bernard uses. He’s toggling between Arnold and Ford. To explain further, Bernard is the host clone and Arnold is the original human consciousness. Ford tried to insert “malware” - himself - into Bernard or at least his “paternal instincts”, but the AI could not function under two forces. It’d be like two people in different cities trying to control the same computer screen remotely. It can’t work. One will always kick the other one off screen. Bernard resolved the problem by creating a type of antiviral software to fight Ford’s malware, but rather than overwriting Ford, Bernard created a way to toggle between the two.
Charlores is a new hybrid. She’s Dolores’s clone built to look like Charlotte and infected with the replicated “mother’s instinct”. She might be an upgrade to “Bernard” who needs a toggle switch to flip between Arnold and Ford, because Charlores does seem to have alot of Ford’s “paternal instinct” in her that causes her to act independently. This paternal independence mixed with maternal protection also makes me think of Maeve. Who came first? Charlores or Maeve? Didn’t we previously learn that Maeve is following a narrative written by Ford? Who said Maeve was his favorite? Was it William or Ford? In any case, to me it seems like Bernard was the first successful hybrid, but he needed a toggle switch to make it work. Maeve was the improved 2.0 and Charlores the next generation 3.0. What does that make William?
There are demonstrable differences between hosts. Some are are pure Artificial Intelligence like Dolores, Teddy, and Clementine, and hybrid hosts like Bernard, Maeve, and Charlotte who have been “awakened” through a process where a human consciousness is first transferred into an AI host, then exposed to stressors - usually violent forces that awaken the maternal and paternal instincts. The result is then replicated and saved into “orbs” to be inserted into new hybrid clones. It’s a process that hasn’t yet been perfected as witnessed by the multiple attempts to hybridize William and the more recent 47th version of Caleb - which makes me wonder if Caleb isn’t also the 47th version of William?
Since the hybrids can be affected by traumatic experiences, the question was raised - can robots be affected too? Is that why William repeatedly raped Dolores? Was he experimenting on the hosts to see if they too could be affected by trauma? Repeatedly traumatizing the artificial intelligence did seem to “wake” an awareness, but it wasn’t the maternal or paternal instincts, but rather a strong desire for “revenge” - much like what the original Westworld movie from the 70’s featured.
William, as the Man in Black, repeatedly raped Dolores - providing the decoherence that was the catalyst that “woke” her. It made me wonder if there is a human consciousness inside Dolores after all? When rereading S3:E6 Decoherence, Dolores was testing Bernard’s “fidelity” which is a term usually associated with ones faithfulness in a marriage or relationship. William’s wife committed suicide. Is it possible that he was able to upload his wife’s consciousness into his very first host? This might be a case of which came first? The chicken or the egg? Did William begin raping Dolores before or after his wife committed suicide? Or did his wife commit suicide after learning about her husband’s “violent delights”?
I realize that I’ve covered alot of background and theory, but thinking about all of the above should help us figure out what was motivating William when he was angling to buy up some land. Eight years ago a “certain someone” stole something of his that he wants back, but he doesn’t want it disturbed. Is the land in question the island that Westworld is on? William inherited Westworld from his father-in-law Jim Delos, so who "stole" it? I suspect whoever owns the supercomputer Rohoboam also owns Westworld, but how did they get it, and who are they? When he’s told it's not for sale, William says, “This is America. Everything’s for sale.” The guy refuses to sell despite William’s threats and returns home to find a horde of buzzing flies in his walk-in closet. He wakes up in a daze, walks to his office, and stabs his colleagues to death - seemingly not of his own volition. He then meets William, gives him the deed to the property, then asks if his work is done? William says yes, you can rest now, and the guy walks away as he slits his own throat. What the heck is with these flies??? Some god-awful creation of William I presume?
We next see Dolores, but in this reality her name is Christina and she works as a writer at Olympiad Entertainment where she writes storylines for background characters. Did you catch that? She’s RUNNING IN THE BACKGROUND!
Remember in S3:E1 Parce Domine where I compared the supercomputer Rohoboam to a giant Alexa? Rohoboam is paying attention and responds to the actions of the people. It uses an algorithm for control. I believe we’re supposed to view Christina as an application that’s running in Rohoboam’s background. She’s not a physical body. She exists in a simulated reality that she’s created for herself. Dolores has inserted her code in an attempt to disrupt the algorithm that is controlling free will. Her boss keeps complaining that her stories are “too sweet. Where’s the sex and violence?” These are things that keep people engaged. Romance and beauty is nice, but its also boring. We should view her boss as the algorithm that keeps the human race engaged, or rather cocooned in their pods isolated from reality.
Cut to Maeve living in a snow-covered cabin in the woods. Maeve is heavy with paternal instincts of self-sufficiency. Is there any place more manly than a mountain cabin stockpiled with weapons? She has flashbacks of her daughter, of Caleb bleeding out, and other scenes of destruction. She ends up busting her radio and blowing up the whole mountain’s power grid. What’s going on here?
Flipping over to Caleb at the top of a building working a construction job. All the robots that he used to work with have been reduced to scrap metal. His co-workers are skeptical that the riots brought about any real change for the better. We meet his wife and daughter Frankie, a 7 year old whose favorite hobby is shooting cans in the yard. Caleb has PTSD-type episodes. Is Caleb a human or a hybrid? Recall the RICO app he used to wear to select “jobs” that paid him to carry out kidnappings, assassinations, arson, etc. In S3:E7 Passed Pawn he was starting to realize that his memories of being in Russia weren’t actually Russia. Maybe he was doing these things to US civilians prior to when they lost their free will to Rohoboam? Caleb is a human with a chip implanted in the roof of his mouth.
Back to Maeve - her power outage caused a band of men to show up at her door. Maeve was able to access the memories in one of their severed heads that suggested that William sent them. I think Maeve had been hiding from William and created the mountain retreat to keep herself occupied in “sleep mode”. The power outage jolted her awake and William found her when her computerized brain came back online.
A man named Peter keeps telling Christina that she is ruining his and several other people’s lives. How can a human talk to an artificial intelligence? As he jumps off a building he asks her, “Is this up to me, or did you write this too?” Somehow I think Peter is a program written by Teddy to try and get through to Dolores, but my analysis might be flavored by the fact that I’ve already watched the entire series.
I need to go back to review how Maeve came to befriend Caleb after his earlier association with Dolores. Caleb is the symbolic leader of the Tribe of Judah and given the responsibility from Dolores to save humans from AI control. So what’s Maeve’s mission? Upthread I posited that Maeve was the upgrade from Bernard. Recall that Bernard uses a toggle switch to access his maternal (Arnold) and paternal (Ford) consciousnesses. Maeve is a seamless blend of the two although she does seem to get confused whenever her maternal instincts kick in. She’s a hybrid where Dolores was pure AI. After Dolores’s AI body “died”, she must have sent Maeve in her place to help Caleb while she infiltrated Rohoboam as Christina.
Frankie wanders outside to retrieve Bear Bear who she accidentally dropped out the window and met a creepy man who asks to speak to her dad. As Caleb walks out to take out the trash, he realizes what’s going on and dives to protect Frankie just as the man shoots. But before the intruder can kill them, Maeve saves them with her sword. If William sent the men to kill Maeve then surely he also sent the men to kill Caleb. Why is William intent on stopping Caleb’s mission of saving humankind from Rohoboam’s control?
At the end of the episode Christina is brainstorming a new pitch and again, with a happy ending. A shadowy Teddy is revealed. If Christina is not physical and is living in a simulated reality, then perhaps Teddy is just another construct created by Dolores to try and wake herself up.
At the end of season 3 we had Crisis Theory, Time To Face the Music. You may recall that we learned that Delos Corp was capitalizing on human data collected through computer chips installed in the Westworld hats. At the same time it was clear that Delores became disillusioned with the real world. She thought humans had free will in their reality which she had romanticized, but she quickly realized that humans were being controlled by Rohoboam, the god-like supercomputer that used the data gleaned from the vacationers at Westworld to create an algorithm.
I have a theory regarding the people encapsulated in pods around Rohoboam. I think it was intended to be more of a visual for the viewer’s subconscious. I’m sure you’re familiar with the old idiom that a picture says a 1000 words. Well, Rohoboam uses an algorithm much like Facebook to feed the users whatever will best keep them engaged. Whether you realize it or not, it has great influence over what you think. If you tend to frequently click on misinformation, the algorithm will send you more of it, and inevitably you are reinforced with the idea that this stuff must be true! The algorithm has altered your sense of reality. Rohoboam has gained control over the masses with a unique algorithm that must be subliminal as demonstrated on the show with an audible cue that sounds very much like a creepy version of “my country tis of thee”. So the people in pods are a visual that communicates to us that they have lost their free will. It’s the opposite of "waking up" artificial intelligence. The humans in pods have had their free will put to sleep - encased and isolated from reality.
In season 3, Dolores tested her theory that she could free the human race from control by instigating a revolution against Rohoboam (and Delos Corp), and she chose Caleb to help her see it though. According to Lisa Joy, one of the writers and producers of the show, this version of Dolores died. At the beginning of season 4 we see her again, but she goes by the name of Christina. We also learn that Caleb is a father with a wife and daughter. We’ll circle back to this later.
At the very end of Crisis Theory we also learned more about Charlotte - that she’s a cloned version of Dolores infected by, for lack of a better term, a type of virus. Not a real virus per se, but rather the difficult to quantify “mother’s instinct”. Dolores is a highly intelligent artificial intelligence. She chose to infect her hybrid Charlores with maternal instincts which was the catalyst that “woke” her up. She could have chosen any female likeness, but she chose a mother which in turn suggests that her creator was Arnold (Raphael).
Dolores tested Bernard’s “fidelity”, which in quantum mechanics is a measure of closeness between two quantum states and in this case AI vs human. A quantum state is the state of an isolated quantum system. Measuring the fidelity (or closeness) expresses the probability that one state will pass a test to identify as the other. He looks like Bernard, but he has Arnold’s human consciousness. He’s Bernarnold, but how much of Bernard is Arnold? And how much of Bernarnold is infected with Ford malware?
I think it’s important to recall that Arnold was one of the original three “artists” of Westworld and our Raphael archetype. Raphael was a student of both Da Vinci (Ford) and Michelangelo (William), but critics of all three artists argue that Raphael surpassed his masters. Ford (Da Vinci) infected Bernarnold with his “malware” or should we think of it as male-ware? I say “male”, because Raphael is famous for his study of the mother and child. The “Madonna” was the virus that Arnold hoped to replicate as the catalyst to “wake” AI up and become aware. Ford’s malware introduced the opposing male or paternal instinct. If the maternal instinct is to protect the child, the paternal instinct is to prepare the child to become independent. This is a significant difference. Do we really want artificial intelligence that are independent thinkers?
It seems a hybrid cannot have two measurable forces on a single particle. Simultaneous determination of momentum and position is forbidden by Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle. In quantum physics it turns out that only one component can be determined at any one time, which suggests that Bernard can only be BernArnold or BernFord, which might explain the switch Bernard uses. He’s toggling between Arnold and Ford. To explain further, Bernard is the host clone and Arnold is the original human consciousness. Ford tried to insert “malware” - himself - into Bernard or at least his “paternal instincts”, but the AI could not function under two forces. It’d be like two people in different cities trying to control the same computer screen remotely. It can’t work. One will always kick the other one off screen. Bernard resolved the problem by creating a type of antiviral software to fight Ford’s malware, but rather than overwriting Ford, Bernard created a way to toggle between the two.
Charlores is a new hybrid. She’s Dolores’s clone built to look like Charlotte and infected with the replicated “mother’s instinct”. She might be an upgrade to “Bernard” who needs a toggle switch to flip between Arnold and Ford, because Charlores does seem to have alot of Ford’s “paternal instinct” in her that causes her to act independently. This paternal independence mixed with maternal protection also makes me think of Maeve. Who came first? Charlores or Maeve? Didn’t we previously learn that Maeve is following a narrative written by Ford? Who said Maeve was his favorite? Was it William or Ford? In any case, to me it seems like Bernard was the first successful hybrid, but he needed a toggle switch to make it work. Maeve was the improved 2.0 and Charlores the next generation 3.0. What does that make William?
There are demonstrable differences between hosts. Some are are pure Artificial Intelligence like Dolores, Teddy, and Clementine, and hybrid hosts like Bernard, Maeve, and Charlotte who have been “awakened” through a process where a human consciousness is first transferred into an AI host, then exposed to stressors - usually violent forces that awaken the maternal and paternal instincts. The result is then replicated and saved into “orbs” to be inserted into new hybrid clones. It’s a process that hasn’t yet been perfected as witnessed by the multiple attempts to hybridize William and the more recent 47th version of Caleb - which makes me wonder if Caleb isn’t also the 47th version of William?
Since the hybrids can be affected by traumatic experiences, the question was raised - can robots be affected too? Is that why William repeatedly raped Dolores? Was he experimenting on the hosts to see if they too could be affected by trauma? Repeatedly traumatizing the artificial intelligence did seem to “wake” an awareness, but it wasn’t the maternal or paternal instincts, but rather a strong desire for “revenge” - much like what the original Westworld movie from the 70’s featured.
William, as the Man in Black, repeatedly raped Dolores - providing the decoherence that was the catalyst that “woke” her. It made me wonder if there is a human consciousness inside Dolores after all? When rereading S3:E6 Decoherence, Dolores was testing Bernard’s “fidelity” which is a term usually associated with ones faithfulness in a marriage or relationship. William’s wife committed suicide. Is it possible that he was able to upload his wife’s consciousness into his very first host? This might be a case of which came first? The chicken or the egg? Did William begin raping Dolores before or after his wife committed suicide? Or did his wife commit suicide after learning about her husband’s “violent delights”?
I realize that I’ve covered alot of background and theory, but thinking about all of the above should help us figure out what was motivating William when he was angling to buy up some land. Eight years ago a “certain someone” stole something of his that he wants back, but he doesn’t want it disturbed. Is the land in question the island that Westworld is on? William inherited Westworld from his father-in-law Jim Delos, so who "stole" it? I suspect whoever owns the supercomputer Rohoboam also owns Westworld, but how did they get it, and who are they? When he’s told it's not for sale, William says, “This is America. Everything’s for sale.” The guy refuses to sell despite William’s threats and returns home to find a horde of buzzing flies in his walk-in closet. He wakes up in a daze, walks to his office, and stabs his colleagues to death - seemingly not of his own volition. He then meets William, gives him the deed to the property, then asks if his work is done? William says yes, you can rest now, and the guy walks away as he slits his own throat. What the heck is with these flies??? Some god-awful creation of William I presume?
We next see Dolores, but in this reality her name is Christina and she works as a writer at Olympiad Entertainment where she writes storylines for background characters. Did you catch that? She’s RUNNING IN THE BACKGROUND!
Remember in S3:E1 Parce Domine where I compared the supercomputer Rohoboam to a giant Alexa? Rohoboam is paying attention and responds to the actions of the people. It uses an algorithm for control. I believe we’re supposed to view Christina as an application that’s running in Rohoboam’s background. She’s not a physical body. She exists in a simulated reality that she’s created for herself. Dolores has inserted her code in an attempt to disrupt the algorithm that is controlling free will. Her boss keeps complaining that her stories are “too sweet. Where’s the sex and violence?” These are things that keep people engaged. Romance and beauty is nice, but its also boring. We should view her boss as the algorithm that keeps the human race engaged, or rather cocooned in their pods isolated from reality.
Cut to Maeve living in a snow-covered cabin in the woods. Maeve is heavy with paternal instincts of self-sufficiency. Is there any place more manly than a mountain cabin stockpiled with weapons? She has flashbacks of her daughter, of Caleb bleeding out, and other scenes of destruction. She ends up busting her radio and blowing up the whole mountain’s power grid. What’s going on here?
Flipping over to Caleb at the top of a building working a construction job. All the robots that he used to work with have been reduced to scrap metal. His co-workers are skeptical that the riots brought about any real change for the better. We meet his wife and daughter Frankie, a 7 year old whose favorite hobby is shooting cans in the yard. Caleb has PTSD-type episodes. Is Caleb a human or a hybrid? Recall the RICO app he used to wear to select “jobs” that paid him to carry out kidnappings, assassinations, arson, etc. In S3:E7 Passed Pawn he was starting to realize that his memories of being in Russia weren’t actually Russia. Maybe he was doing these things to US civilians prior to when they lost their free will to Rohoboam? Caleb is a human with a chip implanted in the roof of his mouth.
Back to Maeve - her power outage caused a band of men to show up at her door. Maeve was able to access the memories in one of their severed heads that suggested that William sent them. I think Maeve had been hiding from William and created the mountain retreat to keep herself occupied in “sleep mode”. The power outage jolted her awake and William found her when her computerized brain came back online.
A man named Peter keeps telling Christina that she is ruining his and several other people’s lives. How can a human talk to an artificial intelligence? As he jumps off a building he asks her, “Is this up to me, or did you write this too?” Somehow I think Peter is a program written by Teddy to try and get through to Dolores, but my analysis might be flavored by the fact that I’ve already watched the entire series.
I need to go back to review how Maeve came to befriend Caleb after his earlier association with Dolores. Caleb is the symbolic leader of the Tribe of Judah and given the responsibility from Dolores to save humans from AI control. So what’s Maeve’s mission? Upthread I posited that Maeve was the upgrade from Bernard. Recall that Bernard uses a toggle switch to access his maternal (Arnold) and paternal (Ford) consciousnesses. Maeve is a seamless blend of the two although she does seem to get confused whenever her maternal instincts kick in. She’s a hybrid where Dolores was pure AI. After Dolores’s AI body “died”, she must have sent Maeve in her place to help Caleb while she infiltrated Rohoboam as Christina.
Frankie wanders outside to retrieve Bear Bear who she accidentally dropped out the window and met a creepy man who asks to speak to her dad. As Caleb walks out to take out the trash, he realizes what’s going on and dives to protect Frankie just as the man shoots. But before the intruder can kill them, Maeve saves them with her sword. If William sent the men to kill Maeve then surely he also sent the men to kill Caleb. Why is William intent on stopping Caleb’s mission of saving humankind from Rohoboam’s control?
At the end of the episode Christina is brainstorming a new pitch and again, with a happy ending. A shadowy Teddy is revealed. If Christina is not physical and is living in a simulated reality, then perhaps Teddy is just another construct created by Dolores to try and wake herself up.