The Ultimate Experience Machine
Is there something wrong with putting ourselves in a Nozickian "pleasant experience machine?"
Labels: Nozick
posted by Victor Reppert @ 12:18 PM
About Me
- Name: Victor Reppert
- Location: Glendale, Arizona, United States
I am the author of C. S. Lewis's Dangerous Idea: In Defense of the Argument from Reason, published by Inter-Varsity Press. I received a Ph.D in philosophy from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1989.
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3 Comments:
At January 15, 2009 1:41 PM ,
Mike Darus said...
This machinge exists in various forms now. We "plug in" to a video game, a movie, a TV show, a good novel, a vacation, a day dream, a spa treatment, etc. We move along the reality/fantasy continuum. We are annoyed when real life tries to interupt our favorite show or when we have to chose between family obligations and a rented movie. Sometimes we chose between a historical biography and a trashy mystery. I think we know that the closer we are to reality, the healthier we are and the more useful we become to those around us.
At January 15, 2009 8:19 PM ,
Gordon Knight said...
A utilitarian would say: "plug in!" only if everyone else does. If I plug in to such a machine, I would be causing much suffering to my children, for example.
But suppose we all pluged into such a machine. What would be wrong with it? My intuition is that in personal relationships, what matters is not just the appearance of love, but actual love-a real relationship to another person.
On the other hand, if we suppose th machine is matrix-like, with actual relationships with others.. then I don't see the problem.
At January 15, 2009 10:05 PM ,
Victor Reppert said...
Actually, when I looked up information on this I googled "ultimate pleasure machine." When I did I got a number of sites that had nothing to do with Nozick.
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