Posted December 22, 2020 I was having a discussion with a friend about hedonism and it made me think of the hobby-verse. As many of us place value on pleasure I am curious how many of us would get into the Experience Machine. I'll briefly explain or you can look it up. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Experience_machine Very simply it is a fail-proof machine that would stimulate the most pleasurable life possible for its user. It can be mapped out for the rest of your life or to unplug periodically to make changes or exit permanently. This life would be indistinguishable from life outside the machine, you wouldn't be aware of being in it. Once inside you will experience more pleasure than ever possible outside. To clarify pleasure doesn't just extend to the animalistic type. If you get pleasure from hiking or completing a crossword. Having a family and friends. What ever your specific thing/s are they would be maximized by the machine. Of course these experiences are all artificial, yet you cannot tell the difference. I'm not a hedonist however I would get in the machine, would you? 0 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted December 22, 2020 (edited) What could possibly go wrong? Now get ya’ oss to maws. Edited December 22, 2020 by Vassago 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted December 23, 2020 Reminds me of a sci-fi book that I read yrs ago. Larry Niven's Known Space series had a protagonist named Louis Wu who was a "wirehead", addicted to a device that delivered pleasure directly to his cortex. Like all things that give us pleasure, wireheads abused the device, staying under for days on end stopping only to take badly needed nourishment and water. That I think would be the danger, people entering but refusing to leave the machine. This would probably include me. "Wirehead" is actually entered in Wikipedia. 0 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted December 24, 2020 Can you prove you're not in an "experience machine" right now, and that this interaction was your fantasy? -1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted December 24, 2020 39 minutes ago, FuriousWeasel said: Can you prove you're not in an "experience machine" right now, and that this interaction was your fantasy? https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/do-we-live-in-a-simulation-chances-are-about-50-50/ 0 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted December 24, 2020 18 hours ago, FuriousWeasel said: Can you prove you're not in an "experience machine" right now, and that this interaction was your fantasy? Wish I still had a reddit account so I could post it on r/im14andthisisdeep 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
