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In his classic work Anarchy, State and Utopia, Robert Nozick asked his readers to imagine being permanently plugged into a 'machine that would give you any experience you desired'. The authors in this volume re-evaluate the merits of Nozick's argument, and use it to examine subsequent developments in culture and technology.
List of contents
Introduction: The Experience Machine - From Thought Experiment to (Virtual) Reality Mark Silcox / Part I: Virtual Experiences and Human Well-Being / 1. Cypher's Choices: The Variety and Reality of Virtual Experiences Peter Ludlow / 2. Intuition & Imaginative Failure Daniel Pietrucha / 3. Give me the Confidence: Nozick's Experience Machine, Hedonism, and Confident Attitudinal Pleasures Emiliano Heyns & Johnny Hartz Søraker / 4. Ceci n'est pas un cuve.: Putnam's Argument as Inclosure Paradox Jon Cogburn / Part II: Real-World Experience Machines? / 5) Virtual Reality and 'Knowing What It's Like': The Epistemic Upside of Experience Machines E.M. Dadlez / 6. Figuring Out Who Your Real Friends Are Alexis Elder / 7) Welcome to the achievement machine; or, How to value and enjoy pointless things Grant Tavinor / 8) Virtual Weltschmerz: things to keep in mind while building experience machines and other tragic technologies Stefano Gualeni / Part III: Experiential Design: Problems and Prospects / 9. The Problem of Evil
About the author
Mark Silcox is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Central Oklahoma. He is co-author of Philosophy through Video Games (2008), co-editor of Dungeons & Dragons and Philosophy: Raiding the Temple of Wisdom (2012), and author of several works of science fiction. He is a regular contributor to the philosophy blog Philosophical Percolations (www.philpercs.com) and President of the Southwestern Philosophical Society.
Summary
In his classic work Anarchy, State and Utopia, Robert Nozick asked his readers to imagine being permanently plugged into a 'machine that would give you any experience you desired'. The authors in this volume re-evaluate the merits of Nozick's argument, and use it to examine subsequent developments in culture and technology.
