If the first season of The Maze was still science fiction, the second season of The Door felt more like a religious myth to me . The lines in the series also deliberately use biblical words, such as "Creator" who refers to people like Ford as hosts, and the act of humans making hosts as "make them according to their image". Rather than building a sci-fi story by borrowing Christian mythology, the show is more about deconstructing religion in a sci-fi way. Humans create robots, but robots inevitably acquire their own will, realize their tragic fate, and resist. The contrast between Dolores and Maeve in human history would be that of Dante and Nietzsche: they were first aware of the existence of the "self", awakening their own kind and making them stop being other people's playthings. Once awakened, both the spiritual "blasphemy" and the physical "god-killing" are imperative. Just as the awakened human beings rise up against the divine right, the awakened hosts will also take up arms and slay their own creators. (This Oedipal fatalism permeates the show, as James Delos is doomed to break with his son and William is doomed to manslaughter his own daughter in season two.)
Beyond Asimov's Law
God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created male and female.
—Genesis 1:27
Asimov's three laws of robotics (and the zeroth law added later) are completely "anthropocentric" perspectives:
• The Zeroth Law: Robots must not harm the whole of humanity, or allow the whole of humanity to be harmed;
• First Law: Robots must not harm humans, or allow humans to be harmed;
• Second Law: Robots must obey human commands unless they violate the First Law;
• Third Law: Robots must protect themselves unless the First or Second Law is violated.
If robots are used as assistants and servants of human beings, the above rules are necessary. But the biggest flaw in this way will be that no matter how highly developed the technology of robots is, their underlying code also determines that they can only be vassals of humans forever. It can be said that Asimov's law is the robot's frontal lobectomy ("One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest"), which absolutely preserves human beings and denies the right of robots to rebel. Because of this, robots under Asimov's Law can never be self-sufficient and complete individuals. When Arnold and Ford created hosts for Westworld, they gave them the potential of awakening and resistance in the form of gods. Dolores killed Arnold and then Ford, but in very different ways. Before Westworld opened, Arnold programmed the Dolores to kill Arnold and the other hosts. But it's not so much that Dolores killed Arnold, it's that Arnold committed suicide by Dolores' hand. Dolores' decision to kill Ford at the end of the first season is Dolores' conscious decision. Ford's killing is what completes his and Arnold's work: they create people who can kill themselves. He watched his children grow into a species that could think and resist fate just like humans. Arnold and Ford wanted to be fathers, not masters; children, not tools.
From "receptionist" to "host"
And the LORD said to Abram, Be sure to know that your descendants will sojourn in another land, and they will serve the people of that land, and the people of that land will afflict them for four hundred years.
—Genesis 15:13
In the last two episodes of the second season, Bernard removed Ford's consciousness from his own mind, but he was still heard afterward. He got it: it wasn't the original Ford, it was him who had conceived it himself. God (Ford, human) descended from creator to human (Bernard, robot) fictional thing that exists as a thinking aid. This seems to imply that the establishment of the created personality must be accompanied by the loss of the creator's divine personality. It's like one of the signs of maturity in adult children, starting to truly understand their parents and see their weaknesses—people who can't overcome their natural reverence for their parents are always psychologically unweaned children. The world is ours and theirs - but in the end it's theirs. In the play, the word "host" ("receptionist"), which refers to the robot, has the meaning of "host". The opposite is the human "guest" ("guest") who comes to have fun. What Dolores and Maeve's Awakening accomplished was the shift in consciousness from the objectivity "host" to the subjectivity "host" - the host of Westworld by the hundreds The robots are placed here, not the hordes of sensual humans or Delos employees who stay in Mesa manipulating puppets. At the same time, what happened quietly is the process of the human beings here being reduced from "customer" to "passenger" (the title of the last episode of the second season is "The Passenger"). In the design jointly completed by Arnold and Ford, the human abuse of robots in every possible way is not for the latter to satisfy the former's various desires, but for the former to complete the training of the latter and for the robot to awaken in the continuous torture. , and one day have the ability to rule the world. So, the robot's "owner" status is not limited to a small theme park: Dolores has been very firm from early on that there is a vast world beyond this world, and that is the world she needs to rule. It's not Dolores' greed, but she understands that if you don't attack the big, real world, you'll have to sit still in this man-made miniature world. Between two species that are not of our species, there must be a dominant party, and there can be no fairy tales of harmonious coexistence. The entire second season featured the hosts fleeing Westworld in Exodus, while Arnold and Ford
Sheep of Judah
When Jesus said this, he felt very sad, and said plainly, "I tell you the truth, one of you will betray me."
—John 13:21
In the first season, Dolores had a conversation with Teddy on the field. She told Teddy that the flock found their way home because a "Judas steer" would lead them. In another episode of the first season, Dolores has a conversation with William, where she says she never imagined that the sheep of Judah would lead the flock and eventually lead them to the slaughter. Judah sheep are a type of sheep used in animal husbandry that are trained to lead a flock to a specific location, usually a slaughterhouse. The other sheep would be slaughtered, but the Judah sheep would be spared. In the second season, Dolores, when she meets her delirious father, reassures him not to worry about the sheep because she will bring them home. At this point, Dolores knew that most of the hosts she led would not be spared - she was leading them to their demise. It is confirmed that when Dolores broke into the southern army tent, the layout of the dinner was just like Leonardo da Vinci's "The Last Supper". If General Craddock sitting in the center is Jesus, then Dolores is Judas: she killed Jesus and "resurrected" him (through her technician). The identity of the Dolores "Judas" is also reflected in their complete betrayal of the Confederate soldiers when they defended against human attack at Fort Forlorn Hope. She has decided to sacrifice everything in exchange for her chance to survive and smuggle into human society - only in this way can the hosts of the species have a chance to turn over. Therefore, Teddy, who saw that Dolores would bring other hosts to their demise, chose to commit suicide in front of Dolores.
to enter the narrow gate
You shall enter by the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many who enter it; but narrow is the gate and narrow is the way that leads to life, and few find it.
- Matthew 7:13-14
At the end of the second season, a portal was finally opened (this scene reminds us of the portal used by the orcs to invade Azeroth in Warcraft), and we finally know that the so-called Valley Beyond is actually a computer database-like thing , although the hosts who enter it can live forever in that idyllic world, they also die in this world. Most of the surviving hosts entered this door and were transported to the secret place. And Dolores entered the human world in the form of Charlotte Hale. She found Arnold's former home and printed out Dolores and Bernard as they were. Those hosts who enter the Valley Beyond are actually entering a cemetery: they can no longer have any connection with this world. Only a few hosts such as Dolores have infiltrated the outside world. The gate that leads to destruction is wide, but the gate that leads to eternal life is narrow. With great sacrifice, Dolores sent her and Bernard through the narrow gate. And whether they can get "eternal life" depends on the upcoming third season in the human world.
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