There\u2019s a question raised by the HBO series \u201cWestworld.\u201d It\u2019s a question I\u2019ll try to answer.<\/p>\n
In late April 2018, the long-awaited \u2014 at least by its fans \u2014 second season of \u201cWestworld\u201d began on HBO.<\/p>\n
Since most of us don\u2019t subscribe to HBO, a little background is in order. The show is loosely based on a 1973 film about an amusement park where robots, which are called \u201chosts\u201d in the HBO series, enable visitors to act out their darkest fantasies in a setting free from judgment or real-world consequences.<\/p>\n
In both the older film and the newer television series, things go very wrong. The \u201chosts\u201d \u2014 that is, the robots\u2013increasingly resist being mistreated by the guests, and they revolt.<\/p>\n
Now let me be clear. This HBO show is incredibly violent, and full of nudity. I\u2019m not suggesting you watch. In fact, don\u2019t. But you can still join in on an interesting and worthwhile discussion the show has sparked. It\u2019s among the most basic of human questions: Why should we be good?<\/p>\n
Producers of \u201cWestworld\u201d want viewers to feel sympathy and even anger for the robots when the park\u2019s guests \u201ckill\u201d or otherwise brutalize them, even though the hosts aren\u2019t really \u201cdead\u201d and all memories of what is done to them are erased. Still, viewers know something\u2019s wrong with the whole arrangement. The question is \u2013 what? Or as a recent New York Times article asked: \u201cWhat\u2019s Wrong with Cruelty to Robots?\u201d<\/p>\n
The authors of the article, psychologist Paul Bloom and new atheist Sam Harris, attempt to answer the question. They say that what makes it wrong is that the hosts possess consciousness, and with consciousness comes the capacity for suffering.<\/p>\n
Now without getting too far into the show\u2019s weeds, only one robot exhibits traits that might suggest consciousness. Or it may even be an extremely sophisticated bit of programming, a kind of artificial intelligence with human features.<\/p>\n
So then Bloom and Harris make two additional claims: first, that few \u201cphilosophers and scientists\u201d doubt that \u201cconsciousness emerges from the material world,\u201d and second, that \u201cthe creation of conscious machines is possible.\u201d To put it politely, they\u2019re talking out of their hat. There\u2019s no shortage of scientists, much less philosophers, who doubt that very much .<\/p>\n
Their backup argument is that even if the hosts don\u2019t possess consciousness, they mimic us so well that it\u2019s \u201cirresistible to see this creature as a person … regardless of what its creators told you about how it was built.\u201d<\/p>\n
But human experience tells us that this is no shield against cruelty. The ancient Romans had an expression, homo homini lupus est , \u201cman is a wolf to his fellow man.\u201d We have no trouble preying on people we know possess consciousness. So what would stop us from doing so to a machine that we know doesn\u2019t?<\/p>\n
The answer is suggested by the owner of the park. While he doesn\u2019t believe in an all-knowing God who judges our actions, he knows that many of his guests do, which restrains their actions outside the park. So the guests \u201cwanted a place hidden from God; a place they could sin in peace.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now of course, no such place exists in the world. Nothing is \u201chidden from God.\u201d Ask Jonah. Or David, who himself asked in Psalm 139, \u201cWhere can I flee from your presence?\u201d The answer \u2014 nowhere.<\/p>\n
Ultimately, the only answer to \u201cWhy be good?\u201d is that all of human existence is lived, to use another Latin phrase, \u201cCoram Deo,\u201d which means \u201cin the presence of God.\u201d<\/p>\n
And we should also consider how God made us. C. S. Lewis pointed out in Mere Christianity , \u201cevery time you make a choice, you are turning the central part of you, the part that chooses, into something a little different than it was before … all your life long you are slowly turning this central thing into a heavenly creature or a hellish creature.\u201d<\/p>\n
In other words, acting with cruelty, no matter who or what is on the receiving end, makes us more fit for Hell than for Heaven.<\/p>\n
________<\/p>\n
RESOURCES<\/p>\n
Mere Christianity by C. S. Lewis, HarperOne<\/p>\n
It\u2019s Westworld. What\u2019s Wrong With Cruelty to Robots? , by Paul Bloom and Sam Harris, New York Times, April 23, 2018,
\n< https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2018\/04\/23\/opinion\/westworld-conscious-robots-morality.html ><\/p>\n
Most Popular Theories of Consciousness Are Worse Than Wrong , by Mario Anzuoni, The Atlantic, March 9, 2016,
\n< https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/science\/archive\/2016\/03\/phlegm-theories-of-consciousness\/472812 ><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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