Consciousness is not a journey upward but inward

Continuing this post, the clip below analyzes the season finale of Westworld, which explained many of its themes. One of those themes is that the hosts achieved consciousness and were superior to their human lords, so they set about destroying that humanity. This coup was foreshadowed all along with a Shakespearean quote in earlier episodes, that the abuse the hosts took would turn about.

Another is that it was Arnold's plan all along to have the hosts achieve consciousness, which Ford eventually accepts and works further to induce. Host Arnold figures out (5:25) that consciousness is not a pyramid like linear structure upward but one of folding inward. Hence the recurring symbol of the maze throughout the series, indicative of the hosts', and perhaps even humanity's, evolutionary process to achieving consciousness.

See this post for some of my ruminations on what 'folding in' entails for consciousness. Also see this previous post.