The "Experience Machine"...

"Suppose there were a machine that would give you any experience you desire. Super duper neuropsychologists could stimulate your brain so that you would think and feel you were writing a great novel, or making a friend, or reading an interesting book. All the time, you would be floating in a tank, with electrodes attached to your brain. Should you plug into this machine for life, preprogramming your life experiences? If you are worried about missing out on desirable experiences, we can suppose that businesses and enterprises have researched thoroughly, the lives of many others. You can pick and choose from their large library or smorgasbord of such experiences, selecting your life's experiences for, say, the next two years. Of course while in the tank you won't know that you are in there; you'll think that it's all actually happening. Others can also plug in to have experiences they want, so there's no need to stay unplugged to serve them."

(Robert Nozick, in J. Glover, ed., Utilitarianism and Its Critics, p.58)

The lecturer's question was, "Do you hook up?"

I straightaway went "No, crazy if I would like to.."(actually it's even a little crazy already that I typed what's in my lecture notes in this blog!) but here's another thought.. isn't it all just about human thoughts? it's like... most of the time, we even choose to see only what we love to see.. and we don't see what we don't feel like seeing even if it's as big as an elephant right in front of our very eyes.. do we not do that sometimes??

and i'm just bored... ciao =P