5.05.2005

Nozick's experience machine

Robert Nozick, famous American philosopher and former Pellegrino professor of philosophy at Harvard University, is famous for many reasons, one of which is his “experience machine” thought experiment. It will probably strike a familiar cord. Imagine a very mature virtual reality machine. Mature in the sense that it is able to fulfill all of your basic needs as well as provide entertaining virtual experiences. One very interesting feature of this experience machine is that it causes you to completely forget that you are hooked up to a machine at all. In effect, you feel quite like you do right now (presumably)—completely normal. While hooked up to this experience machine, you feel as if you are actually living your life as you always have; walking around campus, having lunch with friends, and engaging in riveting philosophical debate with your colleagues. However, in reality you are immobile, hooked up to the experience machine. Putting aside the possibility that we are all already hooked up to such machines at this very moment (ignore the red pill), let us consider the positive and negative affects this may have on human beings.

We must know a little more about Nozick’s postulation first. Given that this machine is able to create a more pleasant atmosphere for human beings, it is able to increase overall happiness of people that plug into it. The obvious question then becomes should we plug in? Should we opt to escape from what we consider to be reality, and enter into a new, happier, virtual reality?

A utilitarian such as Mill or Bentham would be the first to say, “plug in!” Adhering to classical utilitarian principles, whatever action promotes the most amount of happiness is the action that we should follow. In this case it certainly seems that plugging in will yield the most happiness.

Should we object to this utilitarian decision? Why or why not?

If you have read A Brave New World then the question at hand is quite a familiar one. And the fact of the matter is, technology will probably—sooner rather than later—provide us with a chance to actually make this fascinating decision. What would you choose? What will you choose? Continued existence in what we refer to as “reality” or an altered state of virtual bliss?

34 comments:

Anonymous said...

plug me in man, plug me in

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Gentho said...

Laura,

It is nice to see a Christian person enticed by the link "Why I Am Not a Christian" rather than turned off by it. If you have not read the article already, I would highly suggest it. Russell clearly and concisely explains the moral and theological problems with being a Christian. This article is a must read for all Christians and Atheists alike.

Anonymous said...

in that case, plug me in if unreality is more fun than reality

xanadian said...

Perhaps completely off-topic...

Every see the movie Brazil? If you have, you may remember the ending where the "hero" gets strapped to the chair, then is rescued and goes on a rampage. He finds his true love and they head off to some house away from the urbanized world he left behind.

Except it was all a deluion, created by the shock of his best friend getting ready to do his dirty work on him in that same chair.

Once upon a time, I kept a very detailed dream journal. This had a good aspect and a bad aspect. The good aspect is that it gave me insight to what was going on inside my mind. The bad side of it was I could no longer really be sure what it was I had dreamed or if I had experienced it in a wakeful state. It was a bit disturbing.

Anyway, thought I'd mention these two things, as this thread reminded me of them.

Ron said...

"Overall, reality is only what each of us make of it."

Is this true? My bank account balance isn't what I make of it in my mind but what is actually there. When it comes to deeper matters of religious belief this correspondence between the ideas in my mind and the way the world really is matters much more. Those who define happiness as only something to do with sensation will no doubt love this machine. However, those who believe that happiness is more than pleasure will find such a life intolerable.

Anonymous said...

Memory sure is becoming cheaper and cheaper and cheaper. I wonder when we will finally hit the ratio of 1c to 1 Gig.

I eagerly wait for the day when I will finally be able to afford a 20 TB harddrive, lol. But for now I will be satisfied with having a 16 gigabyte Micro SD Card in my R4i.

(Submitted on NetPostv2 for R4i Nintendo DS.)

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