Given a choice, would most people choose a computer-simulated reality over their real life?
Subject: Happiness - The Experience Machine
Event: Birthday of philosopher Robert Nozick, 1938
On this day in 1938, philosopher Robert Nozick was born in Brooklyn. In his 1974 book Anarchy, State and Utopia, Robert Nozick presents a famous thought experiment called “The Experience Machine”:
Imagine an experience machine that could simulate any reality you choose. The machine would be designed by brain experts. When hooked up to the machine, you would think and feel whatever experience you desired, but in reality would be floating in a tank. The simulation would be so perfect, that you would never know that you are in a tank; instead, you would truly believe that what you are experiencing is reality. Based on this description, would you choose to be plugged into the experience machine?
Most people choose reality over the simulated reality of Nozick’s Experience Machine. However, another version -- by Felipe De Brigard of Duke University -- reframes Nozick’s thought experiment:
Imagine a man dressed in black knocks on your door one early Saturday morning. He informs you that you have been mistakenly plugged into an experience machine. This means every experience you have had up to the present -- both good and bad -- has been a simulation by a computer program. The man in black is apologetic, saying you were never supposed to be hooked up to the machine. He then offers you a choice:
1. You can remain connected to the machine. If you choose this option, the memory of the visit by the man in black will be erased from your brain.
2. You can be disconnected from the machine. However, you should know that the real life you have without the machine is entirely different.
Based on this scenario, which of the two options would you select?
Based on the surveys done by De Brigard, he has found that 59 percent of respondents choose option one, to remain connected to the machine.
What is interesting about the two different versions of the experience machine thought experiment, is how they frame the scenario differently related to change and the status quo. In Nozick’s version, most choose the status quo of reality over change to a simulated reality. In De Brigard’s version most also choose the status quo; however, in this case the status quo is simulated reality.
These results are consistent with Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky’s work on loss aversion, the fact that humans experience more pain by losing something than gaining something. For example, losing a twenty dollar bill for many would be twice as painful as the pleasure experienced in finding a twenty dollar bill (1).
Recall, Retrieve, Recite, Ruminate, Reflect, Reason: How are the two versions of the experience machine thought experiment framed differently, and how does that framing account for the different responses that people have to them?
Challenge - The Wisdom of Change: A famous joke that says that nobody likes change except for a wet baby. Do some research on quotations about change. Select the one you think is the most insightful. Write it down, and explain why it stands out for you.
Sources:
1-Henderson, Rob. “How Powerful is Status Quo Bias.” Psychology Today 29 Sept. 2016.
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