Determinism: Devs vs. Westworld (Season 3)

Devs - d. Alex Garland, FX (8 episodes)
Westworld Season 3 - HBO (8 episodes)

It would seem that in the past two or three years writer-director Alex Garland and Westworld showrunners Lisa Joy and Jonathan Nolan read the same book about how the philosophical concept of determinism could potentially be validated, or even instituted, by the mighty power of artificial intelligence and big data.

I don't know for certain that there is even a book out there that explores that thesis, but given that two shows running at the same time are exploring the same subject from different approach vectors seems to at least intone that it's now part of the intellectual conversation.  Maybe it's a Ted talk, I dunno.

I can't say I prefer one show's approach on the topic over the other.  Both have their merits, but I'm also still contemplating whether they're saying the same thing or not.

Garland has, for a number of years now, been exploring both philosophical and technological concepts in his very heady directorial sci-fi projects like Ex Machina and Annihilation, but his screenplays even before that, like Never Let Me Go, Sunshine and even 28 Days Later toyed with contemplation of existence (whether it be clones bred for organ replacement, a crew trying to save the humanity or a small group of survivors of a zombie-like plague).  Clearly, what life means and what we're supposed to be doing with it is something that is on his mind.


At the epicenter of Devs story [mild plot spoilers ahead] is that a secret coding project within the Google-like Amaya corporation, where they're working on a project that can see the past and future with precision.  But the meat of the show centers around Lily (Sonoya Mizuno) whose fiancee, Sergei, was admitted to the Devs program and then disappeared, only to show up days later and self-immolate on the Amaya campus.  Her investigation into Sergei's actions, attempting to understand them, lead her on a complicated path that sees her revisiting her past and questioning her future.

The idea behind the Devs project is one of determinism, that we're all on a fixed path, that free will is but an illusion.  Having taken in all of the data systems have collected on practically everyone for decades now, the Devs system can extrapolate and interpret and ultimate display the exact past and the exact future.  Everything will happen as it will always happen, such that it always has happened even if it hasn't happened yet.  Amaya founder, Forrest (Nick Offerman) and Katie (Allison Pill), his right hand on the project, have looked to their future and they know what happens.  As such they perform their roles as they're meant to, thinking they would be unable to deviate even if they tried.  They also know Lily's future, and they're more than at peace with letting the horrifying events in her life proceed without  any sense of troubled conscience.  They're devoted believers in the fixed tram lines our life are on, and feel absolved on any complicity because of it. 

An author before a script writer then director, with Devs, Garland seems to be redefining what can be done in the new golden age of television [aside - the new golden age of TV is certainly coming to an unpredicable end thanks to the Coronavirus shut-down...I wonder how things will look a year from now?] by literally making a tele-novel.  It's a rare show that has one writer and director for the entire production, but Garland's control of the situation make it a decidedly singular vision from start to finish, and it feels structured like chapters of a book.  At times the way the show plays out, it has a similar feeling to reading a book. There's a solitude to the experience of watching (or maybe that was just my experience watching it alone), as Garland let his camera sit and rest in a scene, letting the ambient noises fill the space, gleaning insight or understanding by holding on expressions or exploring the backgrounds, or just giving the audience time to contemplate meaning or feel the weight of events.  He bookends each chapter with a song, the same one in the starting montage and the ending montage, but a different song for each chapter.  The songs are well selected reflecting the tone the show is seeking perfectly.

Devs is very small scale in how its looking-glass project impacts humanity in the world of the story.  It's still technology at its incubation stage.  It hasn't been commoditized or exploited for much purpose other than self-satisfaction.  But one can see where taking all that personal data collected, all that observational video recorded, all that digital audio parsed and using it to see what people will do, and what they have done (or at least believe that's what you're seeing) could wind up being very bad for society, and the very sense of freedom.

In Season 3 of Westworld, we've left the trappings of the theme park where the automatons ran wild.  They're now loose in the real world (well, the real world of 2058) and they've starting a war nobody even realizes is happening yet.  Delores (Evan Rachel Wood) an a small cabal of hosts have taken various strategic forms and insinuated themselves in roles across the globe, including taking the body of Charlotte Hale (Tessa Thompson) seeding her in the top spot of Delos, the owners of the AI technology and host body technology.

Delos is the focus of a hostile takeover by Incite and its somehow mysterious and completely off-the-grid owner Serac (Vincent Cassell).  Serac, meanwhile, is aware that someone, or something is interfering with his plans.  Serac is the co-creator of Rehoboam, an AI construct that has absorbed the world's big data and now effectively (and secretly) governs it, ensuring that everyone stays on their predictive paths, and that the outliers, the ones its unable to predict the actions of, are removed from the equation.

Rehoboam is also tracking aberrant behavior from other hosts that made it out, Bernard (Jeffrey Wright) who's basically in hiding, having had the massacre at Westworld pinned on him, and Maeve (Thandie Newton), who has been resurrected under Serac's sway.  It's also tracking Caleb (Aaron Paul), an ex-marine with PTSD finding it hard to break out of Incite's predictive existence for him, and who falls into Delores' sphere of influence.

Westworld is using our advancements in big data, AI and predictive modeling as it's groudwork, noting its potential to eventually accurately predict the future, and then extrapolating a scenario where the AI and its employers ensure a predictable future, both as well-meaning societal benefit and as a means of self-elevation (Serac is clearly not hurting for money or resources).  It's the central thesis of the season, having already explored the ideas of existence and what it means for AIs to have consciousness and exist in the previous seasons.  It carries those with it, as the hosts are still front-and-center, but each displaying just as much humanity, good and bad, as any character in the show.  Serac and Delores are flipsides of the same coin each very much fueled by their convictions, and each very much willing to sacrifice anything for their plans.

Jonathan Nolan explored the emergence of artificial intelligence prior to Westworld in Person of Interest, a clever bait-and-switch on the case-of-the-week formulae that was really about observational nanny state, the abuse of all that monitoring, and artificial intelligence that could use that information for good or ill based on the guidance of their programmers.  Rehoboam in Westworld is very much an extension of PoI's machine, taking that observational AI system, feeding it ALL the world's data and giving it the task of ensuring humanity's future through order.  It's kind of like communism if you manage to eliminate the corruption and thirst for power.
 

Where Devs' determinism is explored on the micro level, how the very idea impacts the people who believe it, or the people who refuse to do anything with the information they have, believing even the possibility of doing something other impossible, Westworld's use of determinism is mostly macro.  We don't really sit with the impact of a predetermined existence too much with any one character, but we see the impact it has on society, and it's not a far-off extrapolation of where we already seem to be heading.  Westworld, however, has more designs on staying within its pulpy Michael Crichton origins. Action is still very much a part of the play, as are cool looking technology and futuristic designs to vehicles and other equipment.

The original Westworld is said to have influenced the Terminator, and this season is taking that influence right back.  The indestructible machine, the stony-faced determination, the impassioned assaults... Evan Rachel Wood's face seems to be made up to be even more esoterically smooth and her angles sharpened to give her an inhuman, perhaps even ultrahuman visage.  It's not uncanny valley, but it is somehow captivating and unsettling.

In both shows, the idea of the outlier does come into play, where in Devs the very concept is willfully abandoned, the very idea that there is free will would throw the system into a chaotic multiverse, but it does play it's part.  In Westworld it's these anomalies hailed as humanity's savior...or at least liberator, much like Delores was her people's liberator in Season 2.  For better or worse.

Devs is methodical, and may not be to everyone's taste.  Westworld Season 3 basically reboots the show with a new path and keeps only a scant few threads from the past.  It may not be what viewers of previous seasons were expecting.  Both are, however, compelling viewing.