Ethics

The Experience Machine, The Matrix, and Dollverse

By Adam Kolber

I recently posted to SSRN this article about Robert Nozick's experience machine.  In the article, I argue that Nozick's thought experiment is less convincing than it may seem at first because people have a status quo bias about experience machines.  Though people may be reluctant to connect to an experience machine, people who are already connected are reluctant to disconnect.  Though I wrote the piece over a decade ago, I've posted it to SSRN now because the topic has taken on renewed relevance after some experimental philosophers, including Felipe DeBrigard, have begun to investigate people's intuitions about Nozick's hypothetical situation.

The concept behind the experience machine was popularized in The Matrix films.  A (substantial) variation on the experience machine concept is coming soon to your television.  Below is a trailer for a new Joss Whedon series called Dollverse that starts in the U.S. in a few days:

(Hat tip for the Dollverse link: Naree Sinthusek!)

Full post as published by Neuroethics and Law on February 06, 2009 (boomark / email).