WestWorld: The Disruption Valley

Abstract

Unlike the original WestWorld film, realized by Michael Crichton during the seventies, the homonymous television series could be considered to be a symptom of the collective acceptance of both the technological singularity and the theories of transhumanism. However, by reformulating some important concepts which derive from a phenomenological approach, the series generates critical insights regarding the transhumanist hypothesis and, above all, on the role played by this hypothesis in the consolidation of a post-industrial society. This essay examines the ways in which this television series built a fertile terrain for the reformulation of some concepts that, in the tradition of Science Fiction, represent solid instruments used to criticize forms of the production of value, labor, exploitation, and exclusion. This essay also proposes a possible relationship between a transhumanist hypothesis and the production of value in a post-industrial society.

Keywords

• critical media studies | film studies | cognitive-cultural capitalism | transhumanism | westworld