Summary Of Nozick's Experience Machine

Nozick’s thought experiment of the Experience Machine challenges hedonism and utilitarianism by suggesting pleasure is not our only priority. He argues this on the premises that if pleasure, or more specifically the experience of pleasure, is the only thing of importance then we will always choose the more pleasure inducing option. Thus he presents the experience machine, which would grant more pleasure than the outside world, and notes that the initial reaction of many to not want to plug in suggests the conclusion as outlined above. It will be shown that the limited ability Nozick has to counter the objection that doing and being are forms of experiencing, in contrast to his claim that we would rather act than experience, as well as the assumptions he makes in his arguments lead to his conclusion not necessarily being supported by his arguments.
A fundamental aspect of Nozick’s argument is that experience is not enough and we desire to actually take action and be who we are of our own volition and under our own power. However, I would argue that both acting and being are in themselves

How Nozick would react to the theory of recollection being identity is unknown, but he would very likely suggest that the recollections provided by the machine cannot be a part of who we are as they are deliberately false memories. The machine keeps one trapped within themselves, entirely isolated, and you cannot connect to others while inside of it. He finds these connections to be important to who we are, forming a view of identity that relies upon the true and outside world to some extent. The desire for a true experience as well as those moments of distress that take place outside of the machine in-between the experiences is indicative of desiring something more than the machine