The upshot from this thread is, I gather, that it’s very easy to pick apart this premise (or at least as much of the premise as we can gather from one episode), but I could easily forgive that if the show is entertaining.
Heck, I watched Sons of Anarchy all the way to the end and it was massively stupid at times.
[Q
But here’s a question. How much is “repair” vs “replace”? Can a guest damage one beyond repair? Do they have extra Dolores’s or Teddy’s? When they say Dolores was the first one, do they just mean her program and the bodies are disposable? But then why do they put the malfunctioning ones in storage?
Well, repair vs replace? Obviously they were able to fix Teddy up after he got himself ventilated by Ed Harris, so to a certain reasonable level they must be able to fix even “fatal” injuries. I honestly can’t fathom how it could be easier to make a new host than fix one, they are shown "printing " them strand by strand. Even current 3D printing takes into account the cost of materials, so in terms of material and time, it would be much more cost efficient to make Teddy a new heart, or Delores new intestines, than make an all new one.
They don't seem to have "spares" as it is mentioned that Delores' father had been in a few different roles. So they seem to build new unique hosts, and after the scenario plays out, they can program a new role for that host before it plays out again. So conceivably Delores could be the prostitute next time, and a school marm the time after that, but if her "brain" went bad, or she got damaged beyond repair, they would just hang her in the basement, and one of the other female hosts would play her role. They may be building new female hosts, but none of them would be Delores.I have a feeling that we like to pick apart the flaws of sci-fi shows to death. Maybe it’s a part of being a sci-fi fan - we are overly pedantic about how it works ;).
You know, I never had this problem until I became a member of this board. Now I find myself picking apart sci-fi shows all the damn time!
Y’all broke sci-fi for me! 
Well, sooner or later, someone will come along and smugly say “You know, science fiction is never about the future, it’s all about describing the present.”
I’m inclined to say “fuck off” to that person, and continue contemplating how the proposed technology would actually work in the future, its social impacts and limitations and unrealized potentials and such. What’s a show like this going to tell us about the present, anyway; that humans are capable of quite astonishing sadism? We can watch the nightly news for that. Or that most human lives boil down to mind-numbing routines? Yeah, big insight there, buddy.
A lot of it also depends on how much of their body is actually “functional”. That is to say, they don’t have real hearts or brains. They “die” because they are programed to fall over and die when shot. I don’t think they are necessarily “broken”.
Saw the first episode tonight and enjoyed it quite a bit.
Although it surprises me that it’s apparently something they want to keep going for multiple years on end. I honestly thought this was a one-shot 6 or 7 episode thing. I rather enjoyed myself, but I can’t forsee myself wanting to watch this for years on end.
As for the NPCs interacting with each other when no “outsider” is talking with them, you’ve never played Elder Scrolls have you? You can spend hours and hours just following the random NPCs around as they go about their daily lives. They talk, argue, fight, make sales and even more when you’re not around. Hell, there’s even a character that has a job and a wife and goes and sleeps at some other chick’s house every Sunday…just cause.
Just watched the second episode, which was released early online. The show gets better and better, some really intriguing developments in this one. The automatons are becoming more and more aware. This won’t end well. 
Yeah, probably more realistic and much cheaper in a decade or two to have all the guests “sleeping” on comfy couches Matrix-style (but without the need for big jacks on the backs of their skulls), while in their minds they’re off drinking, killing, robbing or raping in a Wild West setting.
I could totally recall doing that if it happened.
You’re right. I hadn’t thought of that. I thought it was implied that Delores woke up everyday, said good morning to her dad and made plans to go paint. Perhaps her storyline happens once a week.
Actually the more I think about it, the more it makes sense. Westworld wouldn’t want its guests to pay top dollar for their adventure, shoot an outlaw and then see the same hombre walking around town the next day. I’m guessing that would freak anybody out.
…you’ve probably stumbled across the “twist” to the series. THEY ARE ALL IN A VR ENVIRONMENT!!! EVEN THE CREATORS! Or maybe they are all robots!
When they did the big zoom-out of the train and showed it was essentially a scale model on a large table, I thought there was going to be a virtual-reality angle, truth be told, but then I couldn’t figure out why they were building life-size robots.
I didn’t get that this was a futuristicky monitoring system (similar but more advanced than the one used in the first X-Men movie) until later in the episode.
That table is apparently just a monitor of the entire park.
I watched episode 2 as well (it’s on HBO Go right now) and I agree the show is still good.
As far as VR vs. Synthetics, I wouldn’t be shocked if in the outside world there are already VR Parks that are West World’s competitors and their very selling point is that everything in WW is real.
I wonder if there is a Roman World and Medieva lWord like in the original movie. If I lived in that world Medieval World is probably the Park I would pick.
I know I’m stating what’s obvious and already been discussed, but I immediately recognized Soundgarden’s Black Hole Sun the second the automated piano started to play it.
Loving the story so far… Especially this preemptive look into the 2nd episode on xfinity’s site.
iswydt.
Radiohead’s No Surprises on the player piano, in case anyone missed it.
I know there’s no point trying to poke holes in the premise but (spoilers for episode 2):
[spoiler]We’re to believe that a for-profit company has possessed the technology for turing test passing humanoid robots for 30 years now and the only place they’re used is in a rich people’s theme park? Liam McPoyle wanders into the park like he’s never seen a robot before in his life.
Their entire board of directors should be fired since they’re apparently so rapacious for increased profits and yet, for an entire 30 years, haven’t been able to come up with a single other profitable use for these robots. Really?[/spoiler]
The key word there is profitable. The robots could be so expensive to make and maintain that restricting their use to theme parks for the rich is the only way they can turn a profit. Also the very fact that the public can only see and interact with these marvels of technology in Westworld would be a huge selling-point..
It’s also possible there are laws against having lifelike Synthetic people outside of a controlled environment like a Park. Although I am sure if there is still a military in this time period, it contains artificial people.
One of my favorite things about this show so far is the questions it raises about morality. Would you treat a person like garbage because you know they aren’t “real” no matter how life like they seem? I am pretty sure I couldn’t do it.