“ Ms. Cranz , would you prefer a tequila or vodka shot ? Do n’t worry . We know the difference . ” With one question aWestworld“robot ” had roasted me to a clinker and brought into relief everything cool and terrifying about HBO’sWestworld“activation ” at CES .
What was the significance of that question ? Two month earlier I had erroneously done shot of vodka thinking it was tequila . ( It was Taipei ! I was lost ! Do n’t judge me ! ) The the great unwashed behind theWestworlddinner I was attending had mine my societal media just to make fun me in front of my friends , colleagues , and a issue of very attractive the great unwashed I was pretty certain were actors pay to act to be robots .
on the face of it it was for fun , but as a high up - shift , nervous whine begin to take most of my wit space , I find myself experiencing HBO ’s new world a little too realistically .
Dolores did not attend.Image: (HBO)
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TheConsumer Electronics Showin Las Vegas can find like one long series of ads . Every restaurant and shop has a sign bedazzled in twinkly illumination , every company has some tech adjacent intellect , seemingly , to be at CES . You get used to ignoring it . Except for when it ’s HBO and a new Westworld activating , this time put on in conjunctive with events company Giant Spoon . These “ energizing ” from HBO are becoming more and more common at liberal shows like CES and SXSW ( they’vebeen the norm at SDCCfor a while ) , and they somewhat much just exist to get you talking about the show .
They ’re also a source of devoid food , and on the off fortune something crucial to the next season was present at the activating I gamely attended along with fellow Matthew Reyes , Andrew Liszewski , Victoria Song , and her partner .
A host at the event.Photo: (HBO)
As someone ca n’t even bring herself to playDungeons & Dragons , a full - on robo - LARP at the end of a 16 - hr solar day sounded very unlikeable !
Andrew Liszewski was also not ready . The high - pitched nervous whimper in the back of my head was mirror by a similar interference coming , unbidden , from Andrew ’s sass . We were in stemma for the consequence and in front of a married span “ in business organisation ” who looked around with the broad - eyed enthusiasm of a couple of extras for a high budget HBO show about people give ear a theme park full of robots . It seemed we were in for a LARP experience none of us were emotionally equipped for .
Andrew likened his feelings to that one magazine of Bob ’s Burger ’s Tina Belcher con to take .
You can HEAR his discomfort.Photo: Alex Cranz (Gizmodo)
The woman in front of us was distinctly a plant , we assumed . She was dressed in a lovely turquoise apparel and looked mistily like someone famous . She smiled and asked if we were excited , and because we immediately time her as a “ false ” ( either a golem or an actor ) we only nod and barely talk to her .
She seemed shake by our abruptness and call on away .
I was , on the one hand , a small confused with how little we ’d adjudicate to interact with her . If she was just a random adult female who overdressed we ’d made it worse , and if she was an histrion we were immediately dehumanizing her , marking her as Other and short change our behavior towards her .
Can you guess which one of these fellas I assumed was a robot? He might not be! Maybe you know him!Photo: Alex Cranz (Gizmodo)
Shitty either mode .
And yet I did not feel obligate to apologise .
Victoria and her partner , who had been bear in bank line with us , were take away and asked about their pets . The names of the pet were cited . The person doing the request seemed to be one of the activation ’s overseer — not an actor .
Victoria and her partner seemed shaken . Andrew ’s whine of irritation increase in bulk .
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finally , they show everyone into the Nomad Restuarant , a smallish dining way dominate by floor to ceiling bookshelves and cozy - looking seating area . Almost unnaturally beautiful masses in skillful apparel displace through the infinite robotically and identified themselves as our hosts . Normal - look people carried tray of food for thought , offering them to node with a polite smiling .
I had no idea who was think of to be an worker and who was just trying to serve up some small fried cheese ball with minimum play before they could go home , smoke a bowl , and see high spot from the Vegas Golden Knights game .
I use up one of the cheese nut things . It exploded in my mouth .
Andrew looked around warily and demand which table we ’d been arrogate to . When he realize he was alone and his plus one was late , he briefly seemed to vanish from reality . Had he not been Canadian , and thus genetically obligate to be cultured in unenviable social context , I am certain he would have fled the dinner party right then .
Instead , he was just the most uncomfortable I ’ve ever see a human being . And it only got worse when one of the beautiful golem citizenry shout out him by name and escort him to the other side of the dining way .
They gave him a mug of virgin egg nog , as they said they knew he liked Christmas ( because his Instagram during the Christmas time of year … features a lot of Christmas decorations ) and did n’t particularly deal for intoxicant .
It was here we see they ’d emphatically been mine our societal media to have things to say to us and things to offer . When my table ’s boniface eventually arrive over and offered me a shot it was absolved they ’d mined not just our social medium , but those of our champion and kin too . The finish , it seemed , was to unnerve us and cue us of just how much of ourselves we pump out into the internet without a thought . It permit them to abash Andrew and me while delighting Victoria , who was drag into a conversation with another technical school reporter based on their chosenHarry Potterhouses .
Andrew ’s plus - one arrived and was dress as smartly as the guests we ’d all write off as plants .
Some small part of me worried that maybe the guy here “ on business ” with his wife , and the deep consultant who get together me at our tabular array were , in fact , not plants . What if they were real people out to see this “ energizing ” just like the sleep of us ? Me , in my ruffled tweed shirt and jeans , would be ruin their experience . There was no guess if I was an actor .
We were all invest at our tables and served meal ostensibly customized to our penchant . As someone who regularly tweet about beef and oyster I was not surprised to find both on my carte . My colleague Matthew , who rarely tweets what he consume , was served what seemed to be the de facto meal , chicken . Uncomfortable bon Ministry of Transportation test related to our societal media go on through the meal . I ignored the businessman who had a very expensive watch and no bracelet confirming he was an attendant . He had to be a plant , I told myself . No way he was real .
I ignored the consultant on the other side of me too . He had the required bracelet , but while the hostess would happily ask to see pictures of my dog by name or demand Matthew about his 10 - year - old rose hip - hop dance company , she had nothing significant to chat about with the man .
At another table , Andrew proceed to be the physical embodiment of social discomfort . arm track , he seemed to produce more and more compact as if unforced a vacuum to form at the centre of attention of himself and hit him from this airplane of creation . His hostess asked why he ’d deleted thousands of tweet just before Christmas .
Andrew declined to suffice .
finally , the social medium excavation arrive to the vanguard of the activation . A stewardess took to the stage in the corner to spill the beans about the ( very phoney ) company that had “ host ” the activation . She observe how its ability to mine social medium countenance the company to create a orient experience for each of us . Then , just in case somehow all the invasive asides had n’t turned us on to the dystopian nature of social metier mining , the hostess proceeded to outline an entire “ guest ’s ” living up until that consequence , impart the woman shatter .
It was that first cleaning woman , the one we ’d all been brusk with when we came in . And it was the length of her public shattering that had me worried .
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I start to psyche myself out . Started to concern that maybe she was veridical and was having a big night . perchance the two men at my tabular array were existent . Maybe all the dinner guests were . Or peradventure she was just the simulated , and the homo I ’d ignored all night were lost about their shitty dinner fellow traveller .
Perhaps it was junior-grade to the lecture on social medium , but the fashion we treated the strangers around us — how we straight off screen out them into “ other , ” felt just as crucial . We watch Westworld and mark how picture game - like it is , but still say we ’d never care for something that looked so human so inhumanely . But it had been instinctive to brush off the woman in line . It was natural to ignore her split , and peradventure even chuckle — her emotions a panorama for us to be amuse by . I made no effort to get to know most of my dinner party fellow traveler because I just did n’t believe they were real — and thus not suitable of the campaign .
It was just so damn easy to slip into Westworld ’s dystopia .
After the cleaning lady fled , we assemble at the bar . We ’d each been commit a while of report outline how long we ’d subsist and what we should consider doing in the new year . Andrew ’s erroneously aver he was unmarried and had the amiss natal day . My birthdate was right . I was also going to experience longer than anyone else from Gizmodo .
As for my advice , it read : “ Irony and self - denigration are valuable currency online . Be wary of how you prefer to drop them . ”
Westworld mined my social media to give me a curious experience and then told me to never tweet again .
For more , check that you ’re be us on our Instagram @io9dotcom .
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