Nozick asks us to imagine a machine that could give us whatever desirable or pleasurable experiences we could want. Psychologists have figured out a way to stimulate a person's brain to induce pleasurable experiences that the subject could not distinguish from those he would have apart from the machine. He then asks, if given the choice, would we prefer the machine to real life?
Nozick also believes that if pleasure were the only intrinsic value, people would have an overriding reason to be hooked up to an "experience machine," which would produce favorable sensations.
Reasons not to plug in
Nozick provides us with three reasons not to plug into the machine.
- We want to do certain things, and not just have the experience of doing them.
- "It is only because we first want to do the actions that we want the experiences of doing them." (Nozick, 43)
- We want to be a certain sort of person.
- "Someone floating in a tank is an indeterminate blob." (Nozick, 43)
- Plugging into an experience machine limits us to a man-made reality (it limits us to what we can make).
- "There is no actual contact with any deeper reality, though the experience of it can be simulated." (Nozick, 43)
Psychologist and philosopher Joshua Greene says that our intuitions about the experience machine may be affected by
status quo bias, and suggests reformulating the thought experiment in a form which counters this.
[2] According to his version:
you wake up in a plain white room. You are seated in a reclining chair with a steel contraption on your head. A woman in a white coat is standing over you. 'The year is 2659,' she explains, 'The life with which you are familiar is an experience machine program selected by you some forty years ago. We at IEM interrupt our client's programs at ten-year intervals to ensure client satisfaction. Our records indicate that at your three previous interruptions you deemed your program satisfactory and chose to continue. As before, if you choose to continue with your program you will return to your life as you know it with no recollection of this interruption. Your friends, loved ones, and projects will all be there. Of course, you may choose to terminate your program at this point if you are unsatisfied for any reason. Do you intend to continue with your program?
If we feel differently about this version of the story compared to the form that Nozick offers, according to Greene this is due to
status quo bias.
[2]