During thanksgiving break, I watched recently released series called Westworld. I highly recommend watching it. It may seem weird and odd, but this series had me hooked. It kept me watching because interestingly enough, it had incorporated views similar to Rousseau which we just read. This series is about a robotic theme park that has been funded for the soul purpose of the rich to relive the past in the wild west. (Spoiler alert skip the rest of this paragraph if you don't want to know much about the series) As you watch the series you learn that the theme park developers strive to increase their progress on the robots to make them truly alive. During these developments, there are constant arguments between the developers and managers of the company whether to keep the robots basic or highly realistic. In the end, the robots are developed to be so realistic, that they leave the park in ruins. This ties to Rousseau's Basic Political Writing, because in his first discourse explained in the introduction of political paradoxes by David Wootton that “progress is a bad thing because it is morally corrupting". The progression of the robots morally corrupt the developers into making them independent and causing the destruction of the park. After watching this, I also see that other movies link to Rousseau such as IRobot, and the terminator. Both of these movies are about humans progressing in technology and developing A.I.(artificial intelligence) which turns against humanity causing regression. These are just some of the many movies and television series today that relate with Rousseau's paradox, that progress leads to regress.
1 Comment
Ben Garceau
12/13/2017 04:34:38 pm
I also love Westworld. I think it's a super interesting show, and the connections you make to Rousseau are really interesting. It also brings up some paradoxes, however, in that for the "hosts" of Westworld to get to a point where they take their future into their own hands, they have to become more advanced technologically and intellectually... so while it is bad for the developers of the park, it is good for the hosts. Or at least, that's my take on it. I guess we will see when Season Two comes out...
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