Nozick Experience Machine Analysis

Nozick’s theory of humans not wanting to enter the Experience Machine shows us

that humans value things more than just good experiences. One of the reasons that

hooking up to the Experience Machine comes across as an unethical approach to

living is that a part of our free will is lost. The idea of freedom and free will are

concepts that things we don’t normally think of, but have a lot of meaning for us. I am

careful to realize that Nozick’s machine allows humans living in the machine certain

control over their fate in which ends up in pleasurable experience. There is a degree of

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freedom within the Experience Machine, which is actually pretty flexible considering

you can do what you want to succeed. So what is stopping us from plugging in since

we are unaware of being in the Experience Machine and our freedom may be no

different? We are not really considered free beings when aren’t even aware of our

own reality outside the machine. Freedom of the body and the mind at the same time

from the confines of the Experience Machine is what someone is looking for when

thinking of free will.

Once we allow ourselves to be absorbed by the machine we have

lost a part of our freedom that exists within the physical dimensions of our world. We

are never then truly free no matter how much freedom we can have within the

Experience Machine

The idea of Nozick’s Experience Machine is a popular idea within the media and film

industry, in particular the Matrix (1999) that touches on these ideas. The synopsis of

the film s very similar to Nozick’s idea of the Experience Machine and exercises

evidence of supporting the notion of not wanting to plug in. The Matrix surrounds

itself around the idea that human kind has been taken over by a machine race that

feeds of human energy. The character of Neo discovers that he is living in the Matrix

(the Experience Machine) and wants to unplug himself to be apart of the real world.

When Neo awakens into reality, the earth has become a ravaged wasteland overrun by

the machines that harvest the human bodies to survive. This is Neo’s reality when he

is not plugged into his Experience Machine and he chooses his fate to be aware and a

part of reality. But why does he do this? Why does he think it is more valuable to

be

in a horrifying world rather than his normal peaceful life within the Matrix? The

humans that are aware of the reality are part of arising rebellion; this also includes the

character of Cypher, whom was unplugged from the Matrix.

Cyphers character wants

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to re-enter the Matrix because he wants to feel all the pleasures he can and not be

aware of the disarray that has consumed earth.

What reasons do we then for having to stay plugged into the Experience Machine, or

in the case of Cypher, re-plugging? Within the contexts of the film, the life that is

reality outside the Matrix is not the most pleasant life style. The members of the

rebellion are aware of their reality in the sense that it is almost unbearable for Cyphers

character to deal with. Cypher is an example of a Hedonist, He wants to be back in the

Matrix because he knows for a certainty that he will be a lot more happier in there

rather than being in the real world. He is also willing to be an uncompromising person

to get his needs. If the world we lived in currently was in the same state that is seen

within the film, Cyphers choice to want to live a blissful virtual life seems like a

rational idea. He see’s human nature as a doomed race and that we have no

connection left to the natural world so why would one bother living in it. Even

though

Neo has been bought into the same circumstance as Cypher, he is seeing reality

through a different spectrum all together. The moment Neo enters reality, his new

world is given meaning for he is the chosen one. This of course changes his

perceptions on seeing if being plugged in is either right or wrong. Being a part of the

rebellion give Neo’s character purpose as not only being the chosen one, but also

having an effect on saving human kind. Within the contexts of philosophy, Neo is a

representation of how Nozick would choose to stay out of the Experience Machine.