Philosophyspeaking topic
Nozick's experience machine: imagine being plugged into a simulation where you would believe you were living a perfectly happy life, getting everything you ever wanted, except none of it would be real. Would you plug in, or choose reality with all its pain?
— Robert Nozick, the experience machine
practice with this topic
Set the timer (5-30 min), take 20 seconds of prep if you like, start talking. Jot your thoughts onto the sticky-note board.
similar topics
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- In an orchestra, the music is not in any single note; it lives in the relationships between them. Maybe 'you' are not in any single part of your brain either, but in the melody the parts play together. So when the melody stops and the instruments fall silent, where are you?
- The author must keep his mouth shut when his work starts to speak.
- A person who never exists suffers nothing and loses nothing. So is bringing someone into the world exposing them to every possible pain without their consent? Is being born really a gift, or a choice made for someone who could never be asked?
- Let him who would move the world first move himself.