The philosophy of Westworld

The premise of Westworld is that the androids there are so well designed that they appear to be human. But appearances can be deceiving. In this essay we will confront several puzzles about androids. We will consider distinctions between humans and machines first proposed by René Descartes. We will...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Skokowski, P
Other Authors: Vernallis, C
Format: Book section
Language:English
Published: Bloomsbury Academic 2021
Description
Summary:The premise of Westworld is that the androids there are so well designed that they appear to be human. But appearances can be deceiving. In this essay we will confront several puzzles about androids. We will consider distinctions between humans and machines first proposed by René Descartes. We will probe what an android could ‘know’ if given all possible scientific information. We will then ask whether androids might actually be zombies. Next, we will consider Swampman, to probe what android duplicates might experience, if anything. Finally, we will ponder what we could ever know about the mental lives of androids.