<div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_extra">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri">Thanks
to Margaret for prompting us to think about Westworld, and thanks to Sarah for
reminding us that pop culture is a crucial vehicle for introducing the complex
implications of artificial life to a general audience.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Calibri">Why Westworld? Because it asks
so many of the questions we have about what aspects of human life
we feel should be replaced or filled by artificial life because they are too
difficult, too undignified, too guilt-inducing, too sad for humans to perform. And
here I am thinking of the two classes of robots we’ve become accustomed to
seeing in science fiction, especially pop sf: as servants or laborers (the most
familiar) or as some form of entertainment (toy robots to be built, controlled,
or designed/played online). In Westworld, the service robot and the
entertainment robot converge in the robot hosts, which asks questions about
what kinds of labor are uncompensated and exploited in the leisure industry. When
I interviewed science fiction writer Ted Chiang about robots, he said that ‘</span><span style="font-family:Calibri">the original promise and appeal of
robots [was] that they would be slaves without the guilt. You can call
them servants, but they are essentially slaves because they have no options and
no real autonomy. I think that is the unexamined assumption of science
fiction that depicts humanoid robots or human-like AI. These works are
suggesting that it might be possible to have slavery without guilt” (Huang, “Interview
with Ted Chiang, Part II). To me, this question of guilt is an interesting one to
examine in Westworld. We could say that the robot hosts were created for the
human guests to partake in guiltless rape fantasies. And many of the humans in
the park – guests and employees alike – do rape seemingly without guilt. But
Ted Chiang’s observation suggests that human guilt is connected to robot
autonomy. That is, if the robot has no autonomy, then humans won’t experience
any guilt. So, what happens when the robot hosts in Westworld begin to not only
exhibit cognition, self-awareness, desires and volitions, but to demand
autonomy and self-determination? It has been interesting to see how the show’s
writers depict guilt, or lack thereof, in the cast of human characters. Why are
some wracked with it, while others are not? For some humans who seem to feel no
guilt whatsoever at their abuses of the robot hosts, is it because they simply
cannot see that the robots are capable of or desire autonomy? Or is it that
they don’t care if the robot hosts are self-aware and exhibit volition and desires
because they are made of different “stuff,” not human born? Or that whether
they are human or robot, and whether they are self-aware and desire autonomy,
are all irrelevant because they are there to serve at the pleasure of the human
guests, and so nothing else matters?</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Calibri"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Calibri">Margaret also asks
Lawrence and me to think about Charles Yu's role as Westworld's story editor
vis-a-vis the fan fiction piece he wrote for our Smithsonian Asian Pacific
American Center's "CTRL+ALT" fan fiction exhibit. Lawrence and I both
felt that Yu’s fingerprints are all over Westworld’s script, but perhaps
especially prominent in the character of Felix. More on this in the next post! </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Calibri"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Calibri">Those interested in
my interview with Ted Chiang can find it here:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Calibri">Part I: <a href="http://aalr.binghamton.edu/specfictioninterviewchiang/">http://aalr.binghamton.edu/specfictioninterviewchiang/</a></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Calibri">Part II: <a href="http://aalr.binghamton.edu/specfictioninterviewchiang2/">http://aalr.binghamton.edu/specfictioninterviewchiang2/</a></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Calibri"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Calibri">I had also
interviewed Charles Yu for the same interview series. The Yu interview is here:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><a href="http://aalr.binghamton.edu/specfictioninterviewyu/">http://aalr.binghamton.edu/specfictioninterviewyu/</a></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Calibri"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Calibri">Yours,</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Calibri">Betsy</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Calibri"><br></span></p>
<div><div class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div><span style="font-family:garamond,serif"><span style="font-family:garamond,serif"><br>Betsy Huang</span></span><br><span style="font-family:garamond,serif"></span><span><span><span style="font-family:garamond,serif">Associate Professor of English <br></span></span></span></div><div><span><span><span style="font-family:garamond,serif">Director, Center for Gender, Race, and Area Studies (incoming)<br></span></span></span></div><div><div><span style="font-family:garamond,serif">
Clark University</span></div><div><span style="font-family:garamond,serif">950 Main Street</span></div><div><span style="font-family:garamond,serif">Worcester, MA 01610</span><span style="font-family:garamond,serif"><span><span><span><span style="font-family:garamond,serif"><span style="color:rgb(204,0,0)"><br>SABBATICAL June 2016 - August 2017</span><br><br></span></span></span></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family:garamond,serif"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Contesting-Genres-Contemporary-American-Fiction/dp/0230108318?ie=UTF8&me=&ref_=mt_hardcover" target="_blank"><i>Contesting Genres in Contemporary Asian American Fiction</i></a> <br></span></div><div><span style="font-family:garamond,serif"><a href="https://www.rutgersuniversitypress.org/techno-orientalism/9780813570631" target="_blank"><i>Techno-Orientalism: Imagining Asia in Speculative Fiction, History, and Media</i></a><br></span></div><div><br></div><span style="font-family:garamond,serif"></span></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><div class="gmail_quote"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
<br>
<br>
----------empyre- soft-skinned space----------------------<br>
<br>
Today's Topics:<br>
<br>
1. Re: Podcasts and Culture Labs: Westworld (Sarah Mirk)<br>
<br>
<br>
------------------------------<wbr>------------------------------<wbr>----------<br>
<br>
Message: 1<br>
Date: Thu, 18 May 2017 12:49:39 +0200<br>
From: Sarah Mirk <<a href="mailto:mirk.sarah@gmail.com">mirk.sarah@gmail.com</a>><br>
To: soft_skinned_space <<a href="mailto:empyre@lists.artdesign.unsw.edu.au">empyre@lists.artdesign.unsw.<wbr>edu.au</a>><br>
Subject: Re: [-empyre-] Podcasts and Culture Labs: Westworld<br>
Message-ID:<br>
<CAF_d6LeN44-YP2=u43_<wbr>FXCFqvQxOaov9eSpfObiqo6Yn9=<a href="mailto:nKcQ@mail.gmail.com">nKc<wbr>Q@mail.gmail.com</a>><br>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"<br>
<br>
Hi all!<br>
<br>
Why Westworld? Well, the reason I focus on pop culture on the podcast is<br>
because pop culture is made of the stories we tell about ourselves and our<br>
societies. Sometimes people are a dismissive of TV, but good shows and<br>
terrible shows alike tell us about our cultural values. I think Westworld<br>
in particular is interesting because it explores an extreme version of many<br>
of the technological feelings we grapple with daily. How different are<br>
humans from machines? What does consciousness entail? It also explores<br>
larger sociological questions around labor and society. If there were no<br>
laws, how would humans act? When we think of others as less real than<br>
us?when they're dehumanized?how do we treat them?<br>
<br>
I think Westworld also tells an interesting story about who makes our<br>
technology and how their personal interests guide what gets created.<br>
Westworld is a theme park made and run by men with money?and winds up being<br>
a place built for recreational rape and murder. The show asks us to examine<br>
who is in charge of both this microcosm of society and the larger world<br>
beyond the walls.<br>
<br>
Those are my initial thoughts!<br>
best,<br>
Sarah<br>
<br>
On Thu, May 18, 2017 at 12:49 AM, Margaret J Rhee <<a href="mailto:mrhee@uoregon.edu">mrhee@uoregon.edu</a>> wrote:<br>
<br>
> ----------empyre- soft-skinned space----------------------<br>
> Hi All,<br>
><br>
> To start us off, I'd love to discuss the larger points Betsy and Lawrence<br>
> brought up in terms of Westworld and authorship, more significantly Charles<br>
> Yu's contribution to the show, as a writer and story editor, and how that<br>
> may shape our conversation. It reminded me of how Sarah and I discussed<br>
> actor Leonardo Nam's role in the television show, while he is not a robot,<br>
> the show has much more racial diversity than other (fembot/replicant)<br>
> television or films, particularly with Black leading characters, and Asian<br>
> leading characters. Im also wondering how much Yu's presence is within the<br>
> storyline, and it is interesting that Betsy and Lawrence co-curated the<br>
> CLT+ALT: A Culture Lab on Imagined Futures, that also included Charles Yu's<br>
> work: <a href="http://smithsonianapa.org/alt/" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">http://smithsonianapa.org/alt/</a><br>
><br>
> Sarah, as an artist, journalist, and a curator of feminist space, also<br>
> facilitates discussions and creative visions through media activism, and<br>
> her own comics on Oregon history: <a href="https://shop.knowyourcity.org/" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">https://shop.knowyourcity.org/</a><br>
> products/oregon-history-<wbr>comics-box-set<br>
><br>
> Her podcast with Bitch Magazine, Propaganda, is one exciting example, like<br>
> the Culture Lab.<br>
><br>
> I guess I'm wondering if we can begin with Why Westworld? and how might it<br>
> connect to the culture labs you've curated for the Smithsonian, and for<br>
> Sarah, the podcast conversations for Bitch magazine?<br>
><br>
> Is there any connection between our interests in the show, and what I see,<br>
> and admire so much about your respective work, on how you also commit to<br>
> cthe curation of dialogue?<br>
><br>
> Margaret<br>
><br>
><br>
> --<br>
> Margaret Rhee, Ph.D.<br>
><br>
> Visiting Assistant Professor<br>
> Women's and Gender Studies<br>
> University of Oregon<br>
><br>
> --<br>
> Margaret Rhee, Ph.D.<br>
><br>
> Visiting Assistant Professor<br>
> Women's and Gender Studies<br>
> University of Oregon<br>
> ______________________________<wbr>_________________<br>
> empyre forum<br>
> <a href="mailto:empyre@lists.artdesign.unsw.edu.au">empyre@lists.artdesign.unsw.<wbr>edu.au</a><br>
> <a href="http://empyre.library.cornell.edu" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">http://empyre.library.cornell.<wbr>edu</a><br>
><br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
--<br>
writer ? editor ? good ideas<br>
<a href="http://mirkwork.com" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">mirkwork.com</a> ? <a href="http://sexfromscratch.com" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">sexfromscratch.com</a> ? @sarahmirk<br>
<<a href="https://twitter.com/#!/sarahmirk" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">https://twitter.com/#!/<wbr>sarahmirk</a>><br>
<a href="tel:503-853-0098" value="+15038530098">503-853-0098</a><br>
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