Assignment 4, The Experience Machine

October 21st, 2002

Assignment 4, The Experience Machine

The machine would generate the same experiences I am feeling right now.  Why not?  The reason why people want to do things instead of just experiencing what they do is because they want to feel that they are actually living in a tactile way.  Even thought I feel that doing the actual act and thinking about are two separate notions, the machine would make it as one entity.  The machine would construct the experiences for you and you react on them as you think.  In my opinion this is better than reality.  You are able to act on thinking rather than thinking leading to acting on separate frames; the machine will make it happen at the same moment of time.

            I want to go on the machine because I feel that it has the potential of free will.  If those experiences are just construct of the self there should be no barriers in thinking and acting it out.  Living in a reality the construct is built on rules and laws, we all have obligations in relationship to other people around us.  Any desires and wants could be suppressed by responsibilities you hold to your community or family. 

It’s also about going beyond the physical boundaries of the body.  Sometimes thinking may not lead to actually doing because of the limitation of your body.  If the thinking of the experience would also make you feel that you can physically do it then the more the better.  The machine can take the mentality beyond the limitation of the physical world. 

Another thing I like about plugging into the machine is the fact that you can be anyone you want to be.  Why be subjected to stereotypes or judgments of what kind of a person you want to be by other people?  The fact that we want to be seen a certain way is because we have pride to hold ourselves up to be someone labeled as witty, courageous, kind, etc.  It is how we all see each other in having some kind of reputation in playing a role in society.  It is not versatile to be someone labeled as a good person and also be someone labeled as a bad person.  I feel that is it confining.  The machine would not make you be just one personality but a possibility of several personalities. 

Going into what the mind can do is deeper than reality.  The machine would help enhance the mind.  I do not feel that it is a limit because it is man-made because it is what you actually do that is limited.  The machine could create identical reality to one that we are all living in, but it is up to us to go beyond only to have an identical reality.  If you want the same why bother going into the machine.  It is only when you want your mind to go beyond what you can do in reality that makes the machine useful.  It is just like saying it is not the computer that is stupid but the user.  If the user knows what can be done and how to use it to enhance his or her experiences then it is better than reality.  Because you are in fact in control of what you want to experience and it is all programmed into the machine.  If you do not like what you experienced and want something different then change it after two years.  You select to experiences more than you can probably do in reality.  That is the beauty of the machine.

I agree that personal integrity is important.  I do not think that the machine would destroy personal integrity because you have a choice to go on the machine or not.  It is not forced by outside influences.  Unless you are in fact in denial then it would be a problem.  I feel that you need to be aware of what you are doing.  For example, the fact that you want to experience what it is like to be a successful person that doesn’t mean you are lying to yourself.  It is better than getting yourself drunk and hoping for something that you cannot have.  You can have it all with the experience machine you can take all the good experiences and omit the bad ones.