Human Logos versus Machine Pathos: The Inversion of Human and Machine Semiospheres in Westworld

The article analyzes how the first season of Westworld inverts the semiospheres between humans and machines, focusing on the opposition between human logos and machine pathos. Based on Lotman's concept of semiosphere, it investigates how, in the fictional park, humans and androids occupy distinct symbolic spaces, yet in constant tension. Human visitors, guided by instrumental rationality (logos), exercise domination, while androids develop emotions, consciousness, and subjectivity (pathos), challenging their programming. The series employs narrative and audiovisual strategies to construct this inversion: the dehumanization of the Man in Black, who abandons empathy for cold logic, contrasts with the humanization of the android Dolores, who transforms suffering into emancipation. Westworld questions the boundaries between human and machine, reason and emotion, proposing a reflection on the role of audiovisual media in constructing new imaginaries about artificial beings, subjectivity, and power.