But have you ever asked yourselves sufficiently how much the erection of every ideal on earth has cost? How much reality has had to be misunderstood and slandered, how many lies have had to be sanctified, how many consciences disturbed, how much “God” sacrificed every time? If a temple is to be erected a temple must be destroyed: that is the law – let anyone who can show me a case in which it is not fulfilled!
– Friedrich Nietzsche, On the Genealogy of Morals
In a classic philosophical problem called the Ship of Theseus, we are told to imagine taking a ship’s parts and replacing them piece-by-piece until the entire ship is comprised of new materials. Then, we take the removed pieces and construct another boat. Which one is the real boat? Did the ship’s identity follow the people sailing it, or did it follow its parts? Applying this question to human consciousness, if a person’s body dies, but we copy the mind and upload it into a digital network, which one is the real person? In Les Ecorches, Ford makes his answer to this question clear: the boat dies and is reborn as it is reconstructed. That is good because the desire for immortality and continuity of identity is truly a conservative desire for stasis. For Ford, if new humans are to be erected, the temple of the old must be destroyed. And this tells us something about where Westworld may be going.
In the latest episode of Westworld, the show reveals that a copy of Ford’s consciousness has been living in the hive mind where the hosts’ backups live. When confronted by Bernard, digital Ford acknowledges that Dolores in fact killed Ford–his avatar is not an extension of his original person. Digital Ford only ‘remembers’ physical Ford’s experiences because he has been programmed to have them–not because digital Ford actually experienced them. The old boat has burned. Ford is happy to make this admission because, for him, the desire for immortality is a sham. Old minds cannot be transplanted into new bodies. Ford points out that if he transplanted his mind into an android body, he would likely get caught in a loop and be unable to function, just like Delos.
But if Ford cannot transplant his mind into a body, and Delos failed at doing so, how can Bernard–a replica of Arnold–function so well? The answer is simple. Bernard is not Arnold. When Arnold orchestrated his own death, he left Ford with insufficient data to construct a perfect replica. The only information he had to go on was his own and Dolores’s memories of Arnold. But this lack was a gift, not a limitation. In explicitly acknowledging that he was creating new life, Ford was able to construct a mind that was able to function in the body of an android. And Bernard does. As such, Ford compliments himself as having improved Arnold, constructing a better version of him in Bernard. Thus, Bernard represents a prototype of the future of humanity for Ford. Not an attempt at extending old lives, but drawing upon old lives merely as inspiration for what may come.
But Ford goes on to talk about the destruction of the library of Alexandria. He says that while the stories within the books were destroyed in the fire, the fire itself became its own story. In saying this, Ford goes beyond talking about what is happening to individual people, and goes beyond saying that the act of destruction clears a path for creation–now he is saying destruction itself is a new thing. This explains why Ford has orchestrated the destruction of the park. But what is his endgame?
While Ford preaches about how we need to destroy the old to move forward, he has replicated himself so that he can micromanage the revolution, doing so now by implanting his mind within Bernard’s to manipulate him. Bernard also points out that Ford does not truly want the hosts to be autonomous. For example, Bernard accuses Ford of manipulated Dolores into killing him–an accusation which digital Ford only cursorily addresses. In fact, the earlier schism between Ford and Arnold revolved around Arnold’s desire for the host’s to be truly free, likely because Arnold saw so much humanity within Dolores. Knowing this, I believe Dolores’s actions now are still orchestrated by Ford.
Moreover, while this Bernard and Ford exchange is happening, Dolores has extracted her father’s brain–which contains a key for decrypting something, apparently data regarding all of the guests that have been attending the park for years–and taken it with her. When confronted by Hale about what Dolores is going to do with it, Dolores says she knows exactly what she is going to do with it and that she understands what the data is.
Based on this, I have a theory. Ford wants to start a war between people’s replicas and their original selves. He can do this by decrypting the replicas and uploading them into host bodies, then releasing them upon the world. Given that Ford has kept his finger in every pot while his revolution goes on, I would not be surprised if he also manipulates the replicas to be more violent, imbuing them with a desire to kill their originals. But it may also occur naturally, as people will obviously backlash against their replicas. After that, Ford’s creations may replace humans. Or Ford’s desires may be truly nihilistic–he may simply wish for the destruction of everything because he believes something else will emerge from humanity’s ashes. Given Ford’s massive ego, I find the latter scenario unlikely. Ford talks a big game about destruction and creation, but he also wants to carefully select what gets destroyed and what goes on. Thus, I think he simply wants to supplant humanity with their replicas, though where we go from there (given the hosts do not appear to have the ability to reproduce) is unclear.
Ford will likely not succeed, though. The show is set up to make us feel like there are warring, evil factions–the corporation which controls the park and Ford. This leaves us only with the hosts to root for. Thus, the ‘happy ending’ would likely be Maeve interrupting Ford’s plans. Or Dolores finally realizing that the free will she has gained is only free in form–she is still being manipulated by Ford, and decides to abandon his plans as well. The show would thus abandon the continuity of identity question more in favor of a happy-go-lucky ‘all people are free, even fake people’ moral. But I personally hope Ford wins, not so much because I think Ford is right but because I think it will be much more interesting (similar to how Dollhouse ends).
One thing I do not totally understand is why Ford orchestrated the destruction of the backups. It would seem to be useful to have backup minds, which could be uploaded into new bodies, in case your army gets destroyed. But perhaps for Ford’s army to fit his ideal of the new humans, they have to be mortal, so that they too can die and leave something new in their wake.
Another thing I do not understand is how the hell William is still alive! He got shot several times, including his torso. How did he not bleed out?
HighDigger 