J. J. Abrams HBO Westworld series

Discussion in 'Visual Arts' started by soundboy, Aug 30, 2013.

  1. rjp

    rjp Senior Member

    Location:
    Ohio
    a little better this week in moving the story ahead, although still very very ambiguous and open-ended in oh so many respects.
     
  2. I never bought into the blackmail angle. As soon as it was revealed that Delos was harvesting DNA, it seemed to me that perpetual life was the true end game.
     
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  3. vince

    vince Stan Ricker's son-in-law

    the name DELOS is a little too close to....
    DELORES!!!!
    dun-dun-DUUUUUUUNNNNN!
    Edit: Thanks, BG!
     
    Last edited: May 8, 2018
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  4. NettleBed

    NettleBed Forum Transient

    Location:
    new york city
    I certainly don't feel that with Game of Thrones...
     
  5. Luckless Pedestrian

    Luckless Pedestrian Forum Resident

    Location:
    New Hampshire, USA
    I think it's a fair criticism to say that the plot is advancing very slowly - and again, in the show's defense, this is the nature of its looping, non-linear approach to storytelling. It's an interesting and laudable approach, but to this point I think there has been a problem with the pacing of individual episodes, an overall lack of momentum, tension; either the editors haven't been up to the challenge, or they are hindered from a lack of quality raw material with which to fill each hour. I hope they can turn it around (S2E2 seemed a bit better in this respect). Maybe they will give Floki something to do soon. Also, more Ed Harris, where did he disappear to last week?
     
  6. Other than the fact that it is spelled DOLORES, top marks for the observation. :)
     
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  7. NettleBed

    NettleBed Forum Transient

    Location:
    new york city
    Delos is a Greek island and the mythical birthplace of Apollo.
     
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  8. As the robots gain more self-awarness, I believe that Maeve's story, contrasted with Dolores' story, is that Maeve's self-awareness is one of the "heart," while Dolores is one of the "head." Dolores is more advanced than Maeve, but recall that Maeve's intelligence got amped up to what is arguably more intelligent than a human. Still, I guess I'm answering my own question above, is that just like humans some of us are more heart driven and some more head driven, though both Maeve and Dolores showed a bit of both in Episode 3, exactly like us, regardless of our primary directives. After all, Dolores knew better, yet she still called Abernathy her father.

    The robots get these attributes from their programing, where they just can't help themselves. It could be argued that humans fly by their own set of emotions, as it is in our programing, as well. We even cut against what we know we should do, according to our programming, which is exactly what Maeve is doing according to hers.

    All in all, Maeve is letting us know that she's becoming more human than a robot. Dolores pictures a world "out there" dominated by humanoid machines, while Maeve pictures a world inside of herself, dominated by family, even amongst the automatons. If there is anger and wrath, there can also be love. This, of course, also explains the gooey sentiments she's expressing to the Bandito, and vice versa. Though, let's not forget that Maeve played off holding hands with him as "stupid anyway." Yeah, that's pretty human.
     
  9. Deesky

    Deesky Forum Resident

    In a host's situation, one can keep second guessing their memories and whether they're real or implanted. That sort of thing could really do a number on you, never truly feeling confident that you 'really' know or remember something. Maybe she needs to see for herself as a means of truly verifying or refuting what she thinks she knows.

    I also like EVOLVIST's take on her becoming more human and family oriented vs Dolores more clinically analytical desire to turn the tables on the meatbags!
     
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  10. Deesky

    Deesky Forum Resident

    That's an interesting take, but how would it actually work? Just because you have a person's DNA does not mean you can recreate that person, even as standard clone. The clone would have no memories or lifetime experiences of the donor - it would be a different person that just looks like the donor. So what's the DNA for?

    The only way to achieve immortality in this scenario would be to 'download' a person's entire brain-state into a host 'pearl' and to make the host body look like the original person. Now, determining a person's brain-state and somehow transferring it to a neural net is pretty farfetched, but even so, of what use would be the collected DNA?
     
  11. Ain’t my job to make it work. :)

    I do think the comment that daddy Delos made at his retirement party about maybe not having to retire suggests something more than a major medical breakthrough. In fact, there is a short video with one of the showrunners who highlighted that exact comment.

    Perhaps they have worked out a way to combine human cloning using the DNA with host technology and implant the donor’s consciousness? DNA was how Crichton created his dinosauers in Jurrasic Park, right?

    Probably none of the above, as it would be unlike the writers to tip their hand so early, but blackmail seems too easy.
     
  12. Deesky

    Deesky Forum Resident

    But human DNA is the weak link if you want immortality. It degrades, the body ages and eventually dies. So you want something that wouldn't be susceptible to such degradation, like pure host bodies and/or host brain/neural net.

    Yes, but he wasn't recreating an exact instance of a dinosaur that existed 70 million years ago, just a clone (and not even a perfect clone because they had to fill in some of the missing DNA sequences). Cloning does not recreate the original, only its appearance (and sometimes not even that, due to epigenetic effects).
     
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  13. I've heard a story, it may be true or a fake, that Barbra Streisand got two of his dog cloned after they died from DNA samples of them, and now that she has her cloned dogs she complains because they are not the same dogs she had, that the clones don't behave like them. If this is true,which I don't know or even if it can be done regardless of the money one has, then Barbra Streisand seems to know nothing about experience, enviroment and randomness.
    The picture on my avatar was of my Lisy, my sweetheart little dog-girl, she died on last September. As much as I miss her and cried for her (I even had to go to the psycologist after she died) I wouldn't want by any means a clone for her. Look at her very same face, her eyes, her style and ease while walking or lying on the coach, but being an a$$ of a dog that is not minimaly cheerful as my Lisy was.
    Stop, I'm crying now.
     
  14. Deesky

    Deesky Forum Resident

    I'm not familiar with Streisand's case, but I can tell you that the cloned dogs would be different individuals. Many people have the expectation (probably through sloppy pop-culture tropes) that if they clone their pet, they will get a carbon copy of the original.

    It's simply impossible. What makes an individual, be it person or pet, is the sum total of their experiences, interactions with the environment and other individuals, emotional development, etc, etc.

    I spoke of epigenetics before (a clone can have the same genes, but they can be expressed differently due to external factors), and this is particularly important when cloning pets (or anything). Dogs or cats can have certain colored patterns in their coats. These patterns are determined not by genes but by epigentic factors (which cannot be cloned). This causes the cloned animal to look different than the original because their coats end up having different color patterns, despite having identical genes.

    A little bit of education goes a long way in managing expectations when choosing to clone a beloved pet!
     
  15. Thinking about cloning my beloved Lisy just creeps me out. I think if I saw a carbon copy of her walking and barking I'd die of a heart attack, and the cloned Lisy may be a sweetheart of a dog just like my Lisy or in a different way,but I'd definetely wouldn't like to experience this. She had her time,she was a beautiful little dog-girl, she was all about being cheerful and make people happy, but now she's not anymore with us, but we had 14 wonderful years with her and we enjoyed together, she and us every single second of those 14 years, and uncountable memorable moments with her. I'll have my time and I wouldn't like to be cloned either even if I can get my memory transfered to a new body, when I'm done, I'm done, and I'm not a religious or overconservative person. Once I'm gone, another person willbe born and he/she will have his/her time also.
    Sorry for the long off topic.
     
  16. stereoptic

    stereoptic Anaglyphic GORT Staff

    Location:
    NY
    :waiting: Yes, please let's get back on topic!
     
  17. Dr. J.

    Dr. J. Music is in my soul

    Location:
    Memphis, TN
    Wow! Last night's episode kept me up all night. Very disturbing. One of the best IMHO.
     
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  18. Deesky

    Deesky Forum Resident

    Two lines of dialog that sum up the show:

    Delos: "I'm not in California any more, am I?"
    William: "If you can't tell, does it matter?"

    Indeed! Excellent episode.
     
  19. mds

    mds Forum Resident

    Location:
    PA
    Concerning the DNA thread I can't help thinking back to S2E1 where Bernard has to touch a screen which reads DNA prior to entering the lab with the featurless AI and they leave him alone due to his DNA read. Why would he have DNA if he was an AI unless the process of intgrating human and AI wasn't already in play. Maybe as someone earlier mentioned the man in black using an AI med kit connects in there also. Could there be two types; AI built with some human DNA and a "Human" in which AI replaces their physicality?
     
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  20. the pope ondine

    the pope ondine Forum Resident

    Location:
    Virginia
    true story. shes talked about it. back to topic
     
  21. GentleSenator

    GentleSenator what if

    Location:
    Aloha, OR
    i wasn't completely sold on this show returning based on the first 3 episodes, but this one had just about everything it needed to hook me. i really feel a gap has been bridged and i'm really interested to see where we go; at least with the william/man in black and bernard story lines.

    let's hope there's going to be something in store to make me care about dolores too.
     
  22. stereoptic

    stereoptic Anaglyphic GORT Staff

    Location:
    NY
    How long was Elsie shackled?
     
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  23. Dr. J.

    Dr. J. Music is in my soul

    Location:
    Memphis, TN
    Question about William's interview with James Delos at his apartment.

    I rewatched the first scene and am confused. I assumed that this was the first interview before James Delos died because they should him with nodes hooked up to his forehead with a briefcase and then gyrating in his bead. When I saw it last night, after the reveal, I thought that this was to show how they captured his memories/consciousness. But at the end of the scene, William passes to him what looks to be the same piece of paper with what I assume was a transcript of a previous conversation after his death. Any ideas?
     
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  24. jojopuppyfish

    jojopuppyfish Senior Member

    Location:
    Maryland
    I would say this was the best episodes in the whole series so far
     
  25. DigMyGroove

    DigMyGroove Forum Resident

    Well that’s that then!
     
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