Science on Screen: Westworld Science on Screen: Westworld (1973)
Synopsis Science fiction Alexander Adamou Science, fiction
Artificial artificiality
Barbican Cinema 21st February 2017
1/26 Science on Screen: Westworld
Synopsis
Science fiction
Science, fiction
Artificial artificiality
2/26 Agenda
Science on Screen: Westworld
Synopsis 1 Synopsis
Science fiction
Science, fiction
Artificial artificiality 2 Science fiction
3 Science, fiction
4 Artificial artificiality
3/26 Agenda
Science on Screen: Westworld
Synopsis 1 Synopsis
Science fiction
Science, fiction
Artificial artificiality 2 Science fiction
3 Science, fiction
4 Artificial artificiality
4/26 Plot
Science on Screen: Westworld
Synopsis Science fiction Western World is a theme park staffed by robots. Science, fiction
Artificial Human visitors can inflict violence, sex, and death on the robots. artificiality The robots are programmed not to retaliate. The scientists lose control of the robots, but don’t close the resort. The robots massacre the humans.
5/26 Creator
Science on Screen: Westworld
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Science fiction
Science, fiction
Artificial artificiality Written and directed by Michael Crichton. “Westworld was not intended to be profound.”
6/26 Protagonists
Science on John (James Brolin) & Peter (Richard Benjamin) Screen: Westworld
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Science fiction
Science, fiction
Artificial artificiality
7/26 Protagonists
Science on Gunslinger (Yul Brynner) Screen: Westworld
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Science fiction
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Artificial artificiality
7/26 Protagonists
Science on Chief scientist (Alan Oppenheimer) Screen: Westworld
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Artificial artificiality
7/26 Influences
Science on Screen: Westworld
Synopsis
Science fiction Science, fiction Cinematography borrowed from the Westerns of the 1950–60s. Artificial artificiality Crichton: “Most of the situations in the film are clich´es;they are incidents out of hundreds of old movies.” Computers were becoming widespread in business in the 1970s.
8/26 Influences
Science on Screen: Westworld
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Science fiction
Science, fiction
Artificial artificiality
8/26 Agenda
Science on Screen: Westworld
Synopsis 1 Synopsis
Science fiction
Science, fiction
Artificial artificiality 2 Science fiction
3 Science, fiction
4 Artificial artificiality
9/26 What is science fiction?
Science on Screen: Westworld
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Science fiction
Science, fiction
Artificial Ostensibly, an exploration of science and the future. artificiality Really, an exploration of society and today.
10/26 What is science fiction?
Science on Screen: Westworld
Synopsis Recipe Science fiction Science, fiction Create a model of human society. Artificial artificiality Future technology allows us to vary parameters / relax constraints beyond what is currently realistic. Test human response to extreme conditions. → Fundamental (parameter independent) truths about ourselves?
10/26 Science model
Science on Screen: Westworld
Synopsis
Science fiction Science uses a similar recipe:
Science, fiction Artificial d 2θ gθ artificiality + ≈ 0; dt2 L s L T ≈ 2π . g
Vary L, g, m,...
11/26 Sci-fi model
Science on Screen: Westworld
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Science fiction
Science, fiction
Artificial artificiality Westworld reduces social constraints on violence close to zero and explores the human response.
12/26 Sci-fi model
Science on “John. . . this place is really fun!” Screen: Westworld
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Science fiction
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Artificial artificiality
12/26 Sci-fi model
Science on “John. . . this place is really fun!” Screen: Westworld
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Science fiction
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Artificial artificiality
12/26 Sci-fi model
Science on Having fun for over 2,000 years: Screen: Westworld
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Science fiction
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Artificial artificiality
12/26 Agenda
Science on Screen: Westworld
Synopsis 1 Synopsis
Science fiction
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Artificial artificiality 2 Science fiction
3 Science, fiction
4 Artificial artificiality
13/26 What is science?
Science on Screen: Westworld
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Science fiction
Science, fiction
Artificial artificiality
14/26 What is science?
Science on Screen: Westworld
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Science fiction Chief scientist
Science, fiction
Artificial “There’s a clear pattern here which suggests an analogy to an artificiality infectious disease process spreading from one resort area to the next.” Scientist “It’s only a theoretical concept. There are many ways to order that data.”
14/26 What is science?
Science on Screen: Westworld
Synopsis
Science fiction Science, fiction Science is fundamentally a search for what is stationary about Artificial artificiality time-varying phenomena. Scientists hope to find ways of “ordering data” which survive when the data change.
14/26 Stationarity
Science on Screen: Time-varying reality Westworld
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Artificial artificiality
15/26 Stationarity
Science on Stationary model Screen: Westworld
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Artificial artificiality
d 2θ gθ + ≈ 0. dt2 L
15/26 What is fiction?
Science on Screen: Westworld
Synopsis Stories are also ways of ordering data. Science fiction Science, fiction They “make sense” when the ordering is robust to changes in data. Artificial artificiality Example
• A large number of coincidental grievances between individuals settled by acts of violence.
• A war between two nations.
16/26 Narratives
Science on Screen: Westworld
Synopsis
Science fiction First narrative is not robust – need to add another grievance for each Science, fiction
Artificial new attack. artificiality Like writing a new equation for every swing of the pendulum. Second narrative is robust – it creates a logical structure that makes sense of existing and new data.
17/26 Science on Screen
Science on Screen: Westworld
Synopsis
Science fiction Science, fiction Models and stories are similar ways of ordering the data around us. Artificial artificiality Science, arts, humanities are not as different as we might imagine. They are both attempts to understand our environment.
18/26 Agenda
Science on Screen: Westworld
Synopsis 1 Synopsis
Science fiction
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Artificial artificiality 2 Science fiction
3 Science, fiction
4 Artificial artificiality
19/26 Bad science
Science on Screen: Westworld
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Artificial artificiality
20/26 Bad science
Science on Screen: Westworld
Synopsis Science fiction Scientist Science, fiction
Artificial artificiality “Perhaps there are superficial similarities to disease.” Scientist “I must confess, I find it difficult to believe in a disease of machinery.”
20/26 Bad science
Science on Screen: Westworld
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Science fiction
Science, fiction
Artificial artificiality Why couldn’t the scientists order the robot data in the same way they would have ordered human data?
20/26 Double standard
Science on Screen: Westworld At the heart of Westworld is a double standard in the narrative used Synopsis by the characters to understand the resort: Science fiction
Science, fiction • humans killing robots is an agreeable leisure pursuit; Artificial artificiality • robots killing humans is a terrifying malfunction.
The most deep-seated distinction made by humans is that between human and non-human. This labelling probably helped us survive in the past. Does it still order the data well in the robot age?
21/26 Double standard
Science on Screen: Westworld We treat artificial intelligence differently from natural intelligence. Synopsis Science fiction Machines run programs; humans have something called “free will.” Science, fiction Artificial We treat artificial phenomena differently from natural phenomena artificiality Example
• Failure of economics models ascribed to irrational humans.
• Failures of physics models never ascribed to irrational atoms.
22/26 Just intelligence
Science on Screen: Westworld
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Science fiction
Science, fiction
Artificial artificiality
23/26 Just intelligence
Science on Screen: Westworld
Synopsis Science fiction Turing took a careful, reductionist approach: Science, fiction
Artificial artificiality • intelligence is entirely a behavioural concept; • therefore its existence should be determined by behaviour not mechanism.
He saw no distinction between artificial and natural intelligence.
23/26 Free will
Science on Screen: Westworld
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Science fiction
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Artificial artificiality
24/26 Free will
Science on Screen: Westworld
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Artificial artificiality
24/26 Free will
Science on Screen: Westworld
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Science fiction
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Artificial artificiality
24/26 Man or machine
Science on Screen: Westworld
Synopsis Science fiction Careless distinctions lead to bad science: Science, fiction
Artificial artificiality • failure to detect robot diseases (robots aren’t like humans); • failure to explain economic crises (humans aren’t like atoms).
Such distinctions create fragile narratives.
25/26 Man or machine
Science on Screen: Westworld
Synopsis
Science fiction Science, fiction Crichton understood the human body systematically. Artificial artificiality Human illness as well-defined component malfunction. Westworld repair unit resembles a human hospital.
25/26 Man or machine
Science on Screen: Westworld
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Artificial artificiality
25/26 Man or machine
Science on Screen: Westworld
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Science fiction Gunslinger’s face removed to reveal technological components. Science, fiction
Artificial artificiality Classical sci-fi narrative: confirms distinction between robot and human, despite human-like behaviour. My narrative: challenges us to ask what, if anything, truly distinguishes us from machines.
25/26 Man or machine
Science on Screen: Westworld
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Artificial artificiality
25/26 Science on Screen: Westworld
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Artificial artificiality
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