Experience Machine?

November 19, 2003 at 5:54 PM

Philsophy this week: The Experience Machine!

Here's the idea:

There's a machine that you have the opportunity to plug yourself into. Once plugged in, you forget that you've been plugged into a machine. Before plugging in, you decided how you want your life to wind up. The machine then serves you experiences, culminating your life as specified. The road won't always be easy, but you have the assurance that it will wind up as you desire.

Will you plug in?

My answer was, of course, no. 1) I like my life, and wouldn't want to exchange a good reality of a good illusion. 2) Even if I didn't like my life, I believe that I can't be satisfied. Whatever desire I wound up experiencing wouldn't fulfill my life; rather, I would have a whole new longing immediately afterward. Life cannot be fulfilled as such, because man's destination is heaven, not earth.