# Westworld - premieres Sunday (show spoilers as airs) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 1, 2016, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/westworld-premieres-sunday-show-spoilers-as-airs/767413 "2016-10-01T21:12:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 10
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2016, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/westworld-premieres-sunday-show-spoilers-as-airs/767413/182 "2016-10-13T18:31:00Z")
Well, heck, assuming the “bullets” in Westworld are little more than low-powered beebees (i.e. they can break low-grade glass, but don’t hit hard enough to more than sting a person), the damage we see inflicted on hosts is likely by design, i.e. they come preloaded with blood-squibs in the limbs, torso and head, and if a shot lands anywhere near one of these areas, the guest gets a nice gruesome display, though his shot was essentially harmless. When a host takes a head or torso “shot”, it doesn’t really “die” from the damage, it just switches itself off. The repair work consists mostly of removing the hosts’s fake-blood-stained clothing, replacing the squibs and reclosing the seals, really just an advanced version of putting one of those [“Smash Up Derby”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jE6J3wWE2Pg) cars back together. When the guests start using knives, though, is when more serious repair work is needed. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2016, 9:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/westworld-premieres-sunday-show-spoilers-as-airs/767413/183 "2016-10-14T09:05:20Z")
I thought Episode 2 did a wonderful job of bringing out the horror of the hosts’ perspective. Thandie Newton’s character awakes from a “nightmare” about her family (and potentially her) being slaughtered, and wakes up on a table naked being sliced open by strangely dressed men, then escapes into an alien landscape only to discover more strangely dressed men callously dumping and hosing down the dead bodies of her friends and neighbors. If the hosts are becoming sentient that’s a helluva trauma. ---
**Author:** ![Sir\_T-Cups](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ed655f/32.png) [@Sir\_T-Cups](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sir_T-Cups)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2016, 1:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/westworld-premieres-sunday-show-spoilers-as-airs/767413/184 "2016-10-14T13:00:18Z")
Ms. Cups turned me on to a Westorld podcast (not my own in case everyone thinks that’s a concern) that is pretty interesting. It goes episode-by-episode so the first two are already up there. It’s at [discoverwestworld.com](http://discoverwestworld.com) ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2016, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/westworld-premieres-sunday-show-spoilers-as-airs/767413/185 "2016-10-14T14:32:02Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > Well, heck, assuming the “bullets” in Westworld are little more than low-powered beebees (i.e. they can break low-grade glass, but don’t hit hard enough to more than sting a person), the damage we see inflicted on hosts is likely by design, i.e. they come preloaded with blood-squibs in the limbs, torso and head, and if a shot lands anywhere near one of these areas, the guest gets a nice gruesome display, though his shot was essentially harmless. I’m not sure it’s that simple - that Indian card dealer had more than a few squibs worth of blood in him… ---
**Author:** ![Duke\_of\_Rat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Duke\_of\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duke_of_Rat)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2016, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/westworld-premieres-sunday-show-spoilers-as-airs/767413/186 "2016-10-14T16:13:50Z")
The stomach incision on Maeve looked like real flesh, complete with MRSA infection. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2016, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/westworld-premieres-sunday-show-spoilers-as-airs/767413/187 "2016-10-14T18:47:39Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > I’m not sure it’s that simple - that Indian card dealer had more than a few squibs worth of blood in him… True enough. This show is confusing - we can see the hosts being manufactured and emerging from the “milk” like Vitruvians with skeletal/muscular systems in place - so I can buy the dermis, epidermis and hair are added after to customize the host’s appearance, but if a guest really indulges a vivisection fantasy, they’re going to find nonhuman internal structures fairly quickly… Anyway, fine, the hosts are genetically engineered and brainwashed humans, or at least they may as well be for the purposes of this show. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2016, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/westworld-premieres-sunday-show-spoilers-as-airs/767413/188 "2016-10-14T19:25:33Z")
Naah, they clearly have computer brains, it just seems the rest is closely modeled on human form. ---
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2016, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/westworld-premieres-sunday-show-spoilers-as-airs/767413/189 "2016-10-14T20:50:00Z")
Yeah I have been calling them Synthetic people vs. Robots because I think they are something more akin to a Replicant rather than say, Data. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2016, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/westworld-premieres-sunday-show-spoilers-as-airs/767413/190 "2016-10-14T20:58:07Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > True enough. This show is confusing - we can see the hosts being manufactured and emerging from the “milk” like Vitruvians with skeletal/muscular systems in place - so I can buy the dermis, epidermis and hair are added after to customize the host’s appearance, but if a guest really indulges a vivisection fantasy, they’re going to find nonhuman internal structures fairly quickly… The show’s depiction of how the hosts are made seems reminiscent of how some 3D printers work. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2016, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/westworld-premieres-sunday-show-spoilers-as-airs/767413/191 "2016-10-14T21:17:50Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > The show’s depiction of how the hosts are made seems reminiscent of how some 3D printers work. Well, if those printers had a micrometer resolution (some very high-end real-life 3D printers are approaching this) so they could print interlocking structures the size of individual human cells, then at that point I guess you could “print” a pretty near approximation of a human being. Of course, we don’t see this during the show (or in it’s opening theme) because it would be too glacial - what we get is downright macro in comparison, printing entire tendons in one shot and such. Maybe the “milk” bath is to remove all the temporary bindings between the ~30 trillion interlocking cell-like machines that collectively form the host’s skeletomuscular system. That one malfunctioning host did seem pretty milk-obsessed. Anyway, if the mechanics of if don’t actually matter and we can just operate on the assumption that the hosts are genetically-engineered subhumans, so be it. It’ll probably go the route of the hosts behaving and bleeding exactly like humans when the drama calls for it, and robots when the drama calls for _that_, and the audience just plays along for the spectacle of it. It’s a good spectacle, I admit. ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2016, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/westworld-premieres-sunday-show-spoilers-as-airs/767413/192 "2016-10-14T21:27:31Z")
Right now I’m leaning towards the phrase “These violent delights have violent ends” is some sort of virus trigger that makes the robots recall their previous memories, possibly put in there on purpose by Anthony Hopkins for some reason or another. ---
**Author:** ![Tangent](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tangent/32/3098_2.png) [@Tangent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tangent)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2016, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/westworld-premieres-sunday-show-spoilers-as-airs/767413/193 "2016-10-14T21:27:39Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > Anyway, fine, the hosts are genetically engineered and brainwashed humans, or at least they may as well be for the purposes of this show. Let’s hope their spines don’t glow red when they have sex… ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2016, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/westworld-premieres-sunday-show-spoilers-as-airs/767413/194 "2016-10-14T21:40:43Z")
> [@Morbo](#): > > Right now I’m leaning towards the phrase “These violent delights have violent ends” is some sort of virus trigger that makes the robots recall their previous memories, possibly put in there on purpose by Anthony Hopkins for some reason or another. He’s one of _them_. There. You solved _Westworld._ 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2016, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/westworld-premieres-sunday-show-spoilers-as-airs/767413/195 "2016-10-14T21:58:56Z")
My money is on the female executive being a ‘host’ as well. There have been several hints to that effect. ---
**Author:** ![lazybratsche](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ba8739/32.png) [@lazybratsche](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lazybratsche)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2016, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/westworld-premieres-sunday-show-spoilers-as-airs/767413/196 "2016-10-15T13:31:50Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > Well, if those printers had a micrometer resolution (some very high-end real-life 3D printers are approaching this) so they could print interlocking structures the size of individual human cells, then at that point I guess you could “print” a pretty near approximation of a human being. > > Of course, we don’t see this during the show (or in it’s opening theme) because it would be too glacial - what we get is downright macro in comparison, printing entire tendons in one shot and such. Maybe the “milk” bath is to remove all the temporary bindings between the ~30 trillion interlocking cell-like machines that collectively form the host’s skeletomuscular system. That one malfunctioning host did seem pretty milk-obsessed. > > Anyway, if the mechanics of if don’t actually matter and we can just operate on the assumption that the hosts are genetically-engineered subhumans, so be it. It’ll probably go the route of the hosts behaving and bleeding exactly like humans when the drama calls for it, and robots when the drama calls for _that_, and the audience just plays along for the spectacle of it. > > It’s a good spectacle, I admit. I’ll fan-wank this one based on current state-of-the-art tissue and organ engineering: Right now, it’s possible to take a living organism and “decellularize” it, leaving behind a scaffold of extracellular matrix proteins. That extracellular matrix isn’t just a web of inert gelatin. The decellularized matrix contains enough information, in the form of tissue specific proteins including growth factors or collagen variants, to tell a cell where it is and how it’s supposed to behave. If you seed the decellularized organ with stem cells, they’ll migrate to the proper positions and differentiate into the right cell types to produce a functioning organ. In medicine, this could potentially allow transplants without any risk of rejection: decellularize a donor organ, seed with the patient’s stem cells, and implant it in the patient. (More on decellularization/seeding of human hearts: [http://www.nature.com/news/tissue-engineering-how-to-build-a-heart-1.13327](http://www.nature.com/news/tissue-engineering-how-to-build-a-heart-1.13327)) Decellularized organs end up white and translucent, not too terribly different from the half-printed hosts we see in Westworld. The 3d printing step would be laying down mineral and protein extracellular matrix, while the milk bath seeds it with living cells (… genetically engineered to EXPLODE when hit by fake bullets?) That gives them “real” flesh and bones, which is oh so critical for the more discerning murder/fuck tourists. It also explains how the hosts could get a MRSA infection. I’ll let someone else fanwank an explanation of how the hosts can have programmable brains that nonetheless look like normal squishy human brains. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2016, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/westworld-premieres-sunday-show-spoilers-as-airs/767413/197 "2016-10-15T20:20:20Z")
> [@Sam\_Stone](#): > > My money is on the female executive being a ‘host’ as well. There have been several hints to that effect. Dunno about her, in particular, but yes, I bet we’re going to learn that there are some concealed “hosts” among the staff or even the guests. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2016, 5:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/westworld-premieres-sunday-show-spoilers-as-airs/767413/198 "2016-10-17T05:46:45Z")
Anyone else notice that when Ford (Hopkins) was talking to Bernard (Wright), he said “I know how you think” or something to that effect? This would be the Bernard who’s always dressed in a vest/jacket combo like he’s just stepped in from Sweetwater even when he’s in the lab… ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2016, 6:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/westworld-premieres-sunday-show-spoilers-as-airs/767413/199 "2016-10-17T06:58:09Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > Anyone else notice that when Ford (Hopkins) was talking to Bernard (Wright), he said “I know how you think” or something to that effect? > > This would be the Bernard who’s always dressed in a vest/jacket combo like he’s just stepped in from Sweetwater even when he’s in the lab… Plus we get some details of Bernard’s backstory, in an episode that has a subplot about host backstories… ---
**Author:** ![Shalmanese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shalmanese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shalmanese)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2016, 8:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/westworld-premieres-sunday-show-spoilers-as-airs/767413/200 "2016-10-17T08:38:16Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > Plus we get some details of Bernard’s backstory, in an episode that has a subplot about host backstories… I bet Bernard’s dead kid is an implanted memory and the whole thing with the wife having a hard time reaching him is a tactic for keeping him in the park. The female executive knows and is using him as a fucktoy and it will all be so maudlin and overwrought when he finds out the truth. ---
**Author:** ![Fuzzy\_wuzzy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a8b319/32.png) [@Fuzzy\_wuzzy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fuzzy_wuzzy)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2016, 10:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/westworld-premieres-sunday-show-spoilers-as-airs/767413/201 "2016-10-17T10:16:30Z")
> [@troub](#): > > I can suspend disbelief (especially for now) that yes, even after 30 years these robots are still pretty unique. But who knows, maybe the versions 30 years ago looked more “Rockafire Explosion” than “Supermodel Cylon” and they’ve been incrementally advancing all this time…the later versions still protected intellectual property and untested for general-world uses. I think it’s clear, too, that Ford and the other lead researcher (?) have either some personal motive or research interest that is driving their development of these things, and possibly the park just provides the excuse and the funding to pursue those goals, whatever they are. > > They may not really care to make a zillion dollars furnishing brothels and whatnot, or more likely, they are well aware they are playing with dangerous toys. Confining them to the park where they can monitor everything, control the environment, control the available weapons, constantly do psych evals on these hosts, and immediately recall and store away malfunctioning units may be the only “safe” way to use them. > [@ISiddiqui](#): > > There may also be legal reasons why these robots aren’t in the general population (for all we know, maybe they do exist in some form out there but are priced so high that only a select few can own them outright) - as perhaps the general population doesn’t trust them walking about (there are a lot of robots taking over the world fears), but confined to a “park” with people having to volunteer to go into that park being considered ok. I agree. I can easily imagine a scenario where the future UN or, a future Hillary Clinton bans the use of these robots _outside_ specific parks or locations. Add some Disney style intellectual property rights & patents and these beings may still be very limited in their numbers. I don’t think it’s too much a suspension of disbelief. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/westworld-premieres-sunday-show-spoilers-as-airs/767413.md?page=9) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/westworld-premieres-sunday-show-spoilers-as-airs/767413.md?page=11)