Poll: Would you plug into the experience machine

[DeBruyne93]

TL;DR

• In 1974 philosopher Robert Nozick asked readers to imagine a machine that could give them any experiences they wanted, indistinguishable from real life
• He argued that most people would refuse to plug in for life, suggesting we value more than pleasant feelings
• Later research, including a 2010 study by philosopher Felipe De Brigard, found that answers change when people are told they are already in the machine
• Virtual reality, social media and AI companions make the thought experiment feel more relevant every year
• This poll asks whether you would plug in, and the replies are for your reasons

The thought experiment

In his 1974 book Anarchy, State, and Utopia, Robert Nozick described a remarkable device. Neuroscientists could stimulate your brain so that you would think and feel you were writing a great novel, making a friend or reading an interesting book. All the time you would be floating in a tank with electrodes attached. Nozick asked whether you would plug into this machine for life, with your experiences programmed in advance

The machine guarantees a life that feels wonderful from the inside. You would not know you were plugged in. You could choose a life of adventure, love, achievement or peace. So would you do it

Nozick expected most readers to say no, and many do. He used that reaction to challenge hedonism, the view that pleasure and the absence of pain are all that ultimately matter. If we refuse the machine, he reasoned, we must value something beyond our experiences. That conclusion has been debated ever since

Why many people refuse

Nozick offered several reasons for refusing. We want to do certain things for real, not merely have the experience of doing them. We want to be a certain kind of person, rather than an indeterminate blob floating in a tank. We also want contact with a deeper reality that is not simply made up by programmers

Many people add reasons about relationships. Friends and family inside the machine would not be real, and the people we love outside would lose us. Love seems to require another real person who can love us back. For many, that alone settles the question

Why some people would plug in

Not everyone refuses. Some point out that real life contains suffering, illness and loss that the machine could remove. For someone in chronic pain or deep grief, a programmed life of happiness might seem kind rather than shallow. It is easy to refuse a machine when life is going well

Philosopher Felipe De Brigard tested a twist on the thought experiment in a 2010 paper. He asked people to imagine they had been in the machine all along and were offered the chance to unplug and return to reality. Many chose to stay plugged in. This suggests that some of our reluctance may come from status quo bias, a preference for whatever we already have, rather than a deep love of reality

The experience machine today

When Nozick wrote, the machine was pure fantasy. Today, virtual reality headsets, immersive games, curated social media feeds and AI companions offer small slices of programmed experience. None come close to the machine, and most people use them alongside real life rather than instead of it. Still, the thought experiment gives us a way to ask how much we want our lives to be shaped by technology

Philosopher Nick Bostrom's simulation argument, published in 2003, adds another layer. He argued that at least one of several possibilities must be true, one being that we are very likely living in a computer simulation. If that were so, we might already be in a kind of experience machine. Whether that would change anything about how we should live is a lively question

Questions to discuss

• Would you plug in for life, for a year or not at all
• Does it matter that the people inside the machine would not be real
• Would your answer change if you were seriously ill or grieving
• Do today's technologies move us closer to the machine, and is that a problem

Closing thoughts

The experience machine is one of the most famous thought experiments in philosophy because almost everyone has an instant reaction to it. Whatever you vote, your reasons reveal something about what you value most. Please share them kindly, especially where you disagree. There is no single right answer here


Further reading

• Robert Nozick, Anarchy, State, and Utopia, 1974
• Felipe De Brigard, If you like it, does it matter if it's real?, Philosophical Psychology, 2010
• Nick Bostrom, Are You Living in a Computer Simulation?, Philosophical Quarterly, 2003
• Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Hedonism

[Thor]

Had me thinking of my favourite tv show Stargate SG1 from the

GameKeeper episodestargate.fandom.com