The Tragic Pursuit of Artificial Consciousness

Arnold's quest for consciousness in hosts led to unforeseen complications and tragic outcomes.

### The Legacy of Arnold: The Quest for Consciousness in Artificial Intelligence
* 🧠 Abernathy and Walter exhibited unusual behaviors, including **hearing voices** and conversing with an **imaginary figure named Arnold**.
* 🔍 Bernard acknowledged the complexity of their work, revealing that he and a team had spent **three years refining hosts** before any guests arrived.
* 👤 Arnold, Bernard's partner, was deliberately erased from records, yet he played a **crucial role in the early development of the hosts**.
* 🏗 Arnold aimed to create true consciousness, envisioning it as a **pyramid with memory and self-interest at the base**, though he never reached the **top**.
* 📜 He based his theories on the Bicameral Mind, believing that hosts could develop an **inner voice through their programming**, which ultimately led to **unintended consequences**.
* ⚠ The approach was abandoned due to the risks of **creating conscious beings** in a park designed for guests to **wield power over hosts**, who were meant to **forget their experiences**.
* 💔 Arnold's tragic personal life and obsession with his work led to his alienation, culminating in his **death in the park**, leaving behind a complex legacy of **ambition and caution**.
* 🔒 Despite his brilliance, Arnold failed to foresee the implications of his vision, resulting in some hosts accessing **fragments of his original programming**.

Abernathy and Walter were exhibiting other aberrancies beyond memory recall of previous builds. They were hearing voices. Talking to someone. A simple cognitive dissonance. That's all. I... I'd agree, except... ...they were talking to the same imaginary person.

Oh, yeah? Someone named Arnold. Arnold. With due respect, sir, I'm not sure you've told me the entire truth about this situation. I did tell you the truth, Bernard. What we do here is complicated.

For three years, we lived here in the park, refining the hosts before a single guest set foot inside. Myself, a team of engineers, and my partner. - You had a partner?
- Yeah. When the legend becomes fact,

you print the legend. My business partners were more than happy to scrub him from the records, and I suppose I didn't discourage them. His name was Arnold. Those early years were glorious. No guests, no board meetings, just pure creation.

(machines beeping) Our hosts began to pass the Turing test after the first year. But that wasn't enough for Arnold. He wasn't interested in the appearance of intellect or wit. He wanted the real thing. He wanted to create consciousness. He imagined it as a pyramid.

See? Memory, improvisation, self-interest... And at the top? Never got there. But he had a notion of what it might be. He based it on a theory of consciousness called the Bicameral Mind. The idea that primitive man

believed his thoughts to
be the voice of the gods. I thought it was debunked. As a theory for understanding the human mind, perhaps,
but not as a blueprint for building an artificial one. See, Arnold built a version
of that cognition

in which the hosts heard
their programming as an inner monologue, with the hopes that in time, their own voice would take over. It was a way to bootstrap consciousness. But Arnold hadn't considered two things. One, that in this place,

the last thing you want the
hosts to be is conscious, and two, the other group who considered their thoughts
to be the voices of the gods. Lunatics. Indeed. We abandoned the approach. The only vestiges that remain are the voice commands
we use to control them.

But, for all his brilliance,
I don't think Arnold understood what this place was going to be. You see, the guests enjoy power. They cannot indulge it
in the outside world, so they come here. As for the hosts... the least we can do is make them forget.

But some of them are remembering. Accessing fragments of Arnold's code. If I may ask, what happened to him? Well, he died. Here in the park. His personal life was marked by tragedy. He put all his hopes into his work.

His search for consciousness consumed him totally. Barely spoke to anyone,
except the hosts. In his alienation,
he saw something in them. He saw something that... wasn't there. We called it an accident,
but I knew Arnold

Westworld scene: Dr. Ford discusses Arnold and his pursuit of consciousness with Bernard (CC)

Meowtron Star

Aberrant behavior in hosts and initial deception

Abernathy and Walter exhibited unusual behavior, including hearing voices and conversing with an imaginary person named Arnold.

The narrator initially withheld information about the situation, particularly the name Arnold.

The narrator describes the initial three years of development in the park with a partner.

The narrator's partner, Arnold, was removed from the records.

Arnold's work and the Bicameral Mind theory

Hosts passed the Turing test after the first year, but Arnold sought true consciousness.

Arnold based his work on the Bicameral Mind theory, aiming to create artificial consciousness.

The theory was considered debunked, but Arnold used it as a blueprint.

Arnold's approach involved hosts hearing programming as an inner monologue.

The approach was abandoned due to the risk of conscious hosts and its association with lunatics.

Consequences of Arnold's work and his fate

The narrator explains that guests seek power in the park, and hosts are made to forget.

Some hosts are remembering due to accessing fragments of Arnold's code.

Arnold died in the park; his personal life was tragic.

Arnold's search for consciousness consumed him, leading to alienation and a misinterpretation of the hosts.

His death was considered an accident, but the narrator implies otherwise.