The New Westworld

Westworld is a science-fiction film (1973) and TV series (2016-2022) that is based on the premise of a theme-park populated by AI robots role-playing the setting of the American “West”. It’s been ten years since I’ve seen the show (and I only watched the first season), so I can’t remember the details well. However, I wanted to reflect a bit on the central premise, and how we are moving toward a real-life Westworld. The American West, as depicted through the Western genre, was a period of settler expansion marked by blurred lines between “civilisation” and “nature”. “Civilisation” in this case means laws, practices, administration, institutions. “Nature” is the wilderness, freedom, the open land, baser instincts. The “Cowboy” stands midway between the two, capable of transgressing the law (or taking the law into their own hands), but ultimately with the aim of protecting and serving the community. The cowboy is never fully settled; the classic Western image is of the cowboy riding off…