Read more
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 in Virtual Worlds Brendan Shea / 10. Epistemic Lives and Knowing in Virtual Worlds James McBain / 11. Digital Tears Fell from Her Virtual Eyes, or The Ethics of Virtual Being Michael LaBossiere / 12. The morality of experience machines for palliative and end of life care, Dan Weijers and Russell DiSilvestro / 13. The Experience Machine and the End of the World (as we know it), Steven Montgomery About the Authors / Bibliography
About the author
Edited by Mark Silcox
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.
