Daily Philosophy
Jul 28, 2017 · 1 min read

Hi again! I don’t think that fragility and time limitation alone can explain why we feel bad about non-objective happiness. This is essentially what Nozick wanted to do with his “experience machine” thought experiment: Imagine, he says, that you have the choice of being put into an immersive, full-body virtual-reality box, in which you completely forget your present body and existence and you live entirely inside a simulated reality. Assuming that this simulated reality is both robust and enduring, and that you could stay in there until the end of your natural life, enjoying a (simulated) life of riches, good friends, great loves, meaningful pursuits, and so on; while your (real) body is immersed in a liquid, kept alive by the machines that create the simulation for you. Would we want to live inside this machine, and if we did, would we feel that we have achieved “real” happiness? — This thought experiment would provide an environment that satisfies your conditions of being non-fragile and enduring (by assumption); but still, Nozick says (and I tend to agree) there would be something “fake” or “unsatisfactory” about spending one’s life inside the machine, rather than making real experiences in the real world.

Thanks again for your interest and comments. Just thinking about these things is fun; it’s not necessary that we actually agree on every point :)

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