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The American philosopher Robert Nozick imagined an “experience machine” that could give you any life you wanted, with every experience feeling completely real. In his 1974 book Anarchy, State, and Utopia, he asked whether you would plug in for good.

Robert Nozick, Anarchy, State, and Utopia (1974)

Philosophy

The story behind the card

Nozick, a philosopher at Harvard, designed the thought experiment against hedonism, the view that pleasant experience is the only thing that matters in the end. If that were true, plugging in should be an easy choice. Most people say they would refuse, and Nozick took this to show that we also want to actually do things, to be a certain kind of person, and to be in touch with reality rather than a copy of it. Later studies added a twist: when the philosopher Felipe De Brigard asked people to imagine they were already plugged in, many said they would stay, which suggests that part of our refusal is simply a preference for the life we already have.

Türkçe oku
Amerikalı filozof Robert Nozick bir “deneyim makinesi” hayal etti: İstediğin hayatı sana, her anı tümüyle gerçekmiş gibi hissettirerek yaşatan bir makine. 1974'te yayımlanan Anarşi, Devlet ve Ütopya kitabında şunu sordu: Ömrünün sonuna kadar bu makineye bağlanmayı seçer miydin?

Harvard'da ders veren Nozick bu düşünce deneyini hazcılığa, yani sonuçta önemli olan tek şeyin hoş deneyimler olduğu görüşüne karşı kurguladı. Bu görüş doğru olsaydı, makineye bağlanmak kolay bir seçim olurdu. Oysa insanların çoğu reddedeceğini söylüyor. Nozick bundan şu sonucu çıkardı: Bir şeyleri gerçekten yapmak, belli bir insan olmak ve gerçekliğin bir kopyasıyla değil, kendisiyle bağ kurmak da isteriz. Sonraki araştırmalar işin başka bir yanını gösterdi: Filozof Felipe De Brigard insanlardan zaten makineye bağlı olduklarını düşünmelerini istediğinde, birçoğu bağlı kalmayı seçti. Demek ki reddedişimizin bir kısmı, alıştığımız hayatı bırakmak istememekten geliyor.

Sources and further reading

Background reading: Experience machine
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