I've seen theories before suggesting that the “real world” we're seeing in season 3 is some sort of simulation or another extension to the park. Based on what we've seen in S03E01 I think we can all agree something is definitely not right with the real world – but I think it's a bit different.
What if the world we're seeing is real – but covered up in some kind of augmented reality overlay? My suspicion after the newest episode is that the real world has been devastated to some degree (at least certain cities) and is more akin to the wasteland we saw at the end the Season 2 finale. But augmented reality has been used to make everything look nice and glossy (“Like they put a coat of paint on it,” as one character says).
I believe we've seen very brief glimpses of the real world cities through Caleb's war flashbacks, but everything else we've seen is an augmented reality covering created somehow to make people feel more comfortable that they live in a near wasteland. Whatever war Caleb was in, or perhaps some other event, has significantly reduced the human population.
To be clear I don't think EVERYTHING in this world is overlayed – just major cities we've seen like LA. I believe the meat farm we see Bernard working at and later the village he washes up at in China are real places and give us a small peek into how the rest of the world is doing.
Do people know they live in an augmented city? I believe so, but I think they've (somewhat) accepted it. If you live in squalor at least putting a shiny augmented reality overlay on the whole thing makes it easier to deal with. The wealthy still enjoy their privilege so it's easier for them to adjust. It also makes things like Westworld much more attractive – if you can go to a place that you know is definitely fake it helps you feel like your sorta-fake world is more real. (Check the philosopher Baudrillard for more on this idea).
There's a lot of things we can point to in this episode alone to support this theory:
**** SPOILERS FOR SEASON 3, EPISODE 1***
– Augmented reality already exists in this world: From the opening scene we're shown that technology exists capable of creating very realistic and lifelike holograms/augmented reality – real enough to trick a guy into accidentally slamming his head into the side of a pool. Granted this was done via glasses, but we've seen already that technology in this world scales. They have realistic-sounded AI voice bots – but they also have sophisticated robots/beings like the Hosts as well. What we're seeing could be the large-scale, version of this augmented tech.
- The amenities: We've seen the lengths that have been taken to make sure people are comfortable/adjusted in this world. The chatbots sound like real people. There's a subscription service that lets you talk to an AI simulation of a dead friend. Caleb's dying mother is in a hospice room with a giant screen overhead that I assume plays soothing images for her 24/7. The rich guy we meet in the episode opening seems to have some sort of app that controls the environment/atmosphere around his home at will. These are all things put in place to help people adjust to the “coat of paint.”
- Dolores' dress: This was an awesome “YAS queen!” moment. But why the transforming dress? Dolores going from a (comparatively) plain black dress to an extravagant one could be a visual metaphor for what's happening with the entire city.
- The man at the Incite party: While Dolores is at the cocktail party a drunken man makes some remarks closer to older fan theories, that this whole world is some sort of fake simulation. I don't think he's right, but I think he's expressing an exaggeration of truth that has been wearing on him (remember, everyone knows it's all augmented). He may be wondering that if they can paint over the world to make it glossy why wouldn't they just create an entirely simulated world all together?- The emptiness: Save for some gatherings at various parties we've seen, the cities we've seen have been rather empty looking. Most of the streets seem nearly deserted if not entirely empty. And at night people seem to be able to commit crime right out in the open without much worry of being caught by law enforcement. This would seem to imply a world of limited human resources (i.e. there's not enough people to be cops).
- The Rico app. Yes, it's built with blockchain technology but how could an app that allows people to run around committing crime GTA style persist unless there weren't enough resources to actually stop it? For an real-wold example: Remember Silk Road a few years ago? It thrived for a few years, used blockchain/bitcoin, but was eventually shut down by law enforcement.
-Rehoboam: I'm not Jewish or a biblical scholar so please correct me if I'm off-base here. My understanding is that in the Bible Rehoboam is the son/successor of Solomon who's leadership lead to the fracturing of the empire Solomon built. We know Caleb is the veteran of some unnamed war. What if that war has in some way decimated humanity and now the Rehoboam system is helping to oversee the fractured remnants of humanity? Also, consider Rehoboam's role in the world – it seems to essentially assign people jobs/functions based on aggregated data on them. The CEO of Incite pitches this as a way to ensure people are overall happier and productive. But what if there was another reason? What if the low population numbers mean there simply aren't enough people who can/want to do essential functions? At an extreme this would necessitate some sort of system or means to force people into roles in order to manage resources. People like Caleb are subject to this, but my bet is the rich and wealthy (i.e. folks who run/work for Incite and Delos) are insulated from this.
Thanks for reading my novel. I'd love to hear what other people think is going on in the city. Granted, this is all based on a single episode and it could all be a bunch of red-herrings and misdirection (we know the show creators browse Reddit theories), but I'm excited to see how it all plays out.
EDIT: Spelling of Dolores - Thanks AutoMod!
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