The Experience Machine
5#atheists #atheism #skeptics #skepticism #experiencemachine #nozick
There exists a machine that you could plug into, and it would bring you nothing but pleasure your entire life so long as you remain plugged into it. Your life will bring you everything you ever hoped and dreamed of. The life might be virtual, but it will feel very real to you. Would you plug in to this 'Experience Machine'?
This is the question and thought experiment put forward by Robert Nozick in his 1974 book Anarchy, State, and Utopia. The thought experiment is one that has had an influence in both philosophy and pop culture, and we can see it in some sense in the film The Matrix.
In this video, we take a look at the thought experiment, what its aim is, the arguments made by Rober Nozick, and a few responses to it.
References
Baber, H. (2008) ‘The Experience Machine Deconstructed’, Philosophy in the Contemporary World, Vol. 15, No. 1, pp. 132-137.
Barber, A. (2011) ‘Hedonism and The Experience Machine’, Philosophical Papers, Vol. 10, No. 2, pp. 257-278.
Belshaw, C. (2012) ‘What’s wrong with the experience machine’, European Journal of Philosophy, vol. 21, no. 2
De Brigard, F. (2010) ‘If you like it, does it matter if it’s real’, Philosophical Psychology, vol.23, no.1,pp. 43–55
Gosling, J. ‘History and varieties of hedonism’, Hedonism, Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 1998.
Nozick, R. (1974) Anarchy, State, and Utopia, Oxford, Blackwell.
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