Abstract

In Westworld, humans are masters and androids are enslaved to work according to their programmers’ whims. One of the biggest reasons for the mistreatment of androids in Westworld is the prevailing attitude that even though they skillfully imitate human life, androids are nothing more than programmed automatons. Without self‐consciousness, the androids just cannot be conscious of any harm done to them or of any suffering they incur. The performative view brings the social roots of personhood into focus better than the capacity view. On a closer look, the struggles that the androids of Westworld are going through take two distinct forms. First, they struggle to be included in the sphere of recognized persons. Second, they struggle for a change in the conditions of personhood. In a broader perspective, the problem in Westworld lies within the social setting that focuses on the origin of the agent.