'Westworld' Season 3 Episode 3: The system has taken control and doubt will save us all
Spoilers for 'Westworld' Season 3 Episode 3 'Absence of Field'
It feels like it's getting harder and harder to get by, no matter how hard one tries. The American Dream is that if one works hard enough, they'll succeed, but increasingly, that's not turning out to be the case.
Caleb Nichols (Aaron Paul) is one such worker — a veteran who, try as he might, just can't find a way to make things work. It's the system's fault — and Dolores (Evan Rachel Wood) shows him exactly why that's true.
She illustrates with the diner scene that Rehoboam knows everything about him — not just files he's posted on the internet or official documents related to his work, but an extremely personal moment, and the details surrounding that day.
She tells him the Rehoboam has created a mirror world, one in which all data is collated and used to inform a simulation, through which Rehoboam has predicted that Caleb is a severe suicide risk, which is the reason why companies won't hire him.
It's a self-fulfilling prophecy — companies won't hire a man who might kill himself, while not being able to get a job might just be one of the factors in Caleb killing himself.
"Before the system, a man like you might have had a chance," Dolores said. "Work hard, keep striving." No matter what Caleb does now, however, there is no changing his life — all because the system has already determined who he is, and thus, who he will be.
The system reinforces its own data by enforcing its reality upon the humanity it collected data from in the first place. It's an endless spiral of doom unless Dolores plans to bring the system "crashing" down come to fruition - but there is another way.
In a 2018 interview with Rock Paper Shotgun, the creators of an artificial intelligence named DAISY (Discover Art Intended Specifically for You) spoke about the AI. It's an algorithm designed specifically to recommend art to its users, based on the data it's collected on its users so far.
"But then we do something special, we make the AI doubt itself so that it wants to experiment with what art it will show you, to introduce you to new concepts and ideas," said the developers of StikiPixels. "If it's right it will have learned more about your taste. If it's wrong then it will move on and make a note."
It's that doubt that makes Rehoboam such a dangerous force. Instead of doubting itself, the system manipulates humanity to enforce its own programming. Caleb might have had a chance if a company "experimented" or took a chance on him.
However, since all companies followed the system, no risks were taken, and Caleb's life is left at the forgotten edges of society.
Interestingly enough, it's that very doubt which is central to the heart of 'Westworld'. "Have you ever questioned the nature of your reality?” is one of the very first lines on the show, as well as a phrase repeated often throughout the series.
It's meant as a warning sign — hosts that never question their reality are working as they should, within the boundaries of their programming, slaves of the system. By questioning their reality, the hosts take their first step towards sentience, and more importantly, towards self-control.
Questioning what's real, what works, and what doesn't, is exactly the kind of doubt that saved Dolores from the endless loop of artificial life, and she's trying to introduce similar doubts in Caleb.
Doubt is the one edge that true sentience has over AI bound by its programming, and it's that, ultimately, that shall give people back control. The next episode of 'Westworld' airs on April 5 on HBO.