Robert Nozick, Anarchy, State Utopia | The Experience Machine | Philosophy Core Concepts

[@politicalthoughtexperiment4895]

I love Nozick's experience machine! One of the first thought experiments I was introduced to as an undergrad. Sam Harris needs to watch this video ;)

[@GregoryBSadler]

One of the first for this group of my students as well

[@CosmoShidan]

The mention of "superduper neuroscientists" always cracked me up! Plus it demonstrated Nozick's sense of humor. A finely written line.

[@GregoryBSadler]

Indeed

[@aprioriontoast704]

I've just been reading Nozick's Anarchy, State Utopia recently so this has been esp helpful! (= Nozick is extremely intellgent I found his political theory at times to be troubling but always challenging , well written and brimming with good argumentation. The experience machine is a classic! As Always thanx for the good content (=

[@GregoryBSadler]

Glad you enjoyed it

[@npSylarpp]

As i see it, the geniality of Nozick is in taking what were certain lcertain frameworks and assumptions of philosophers of diffrent areas and turning them on its head , wether is in A,S&U or his other works

[@GregoryBSadler]

Not sure what you mean by "geniality", which means a kind of friendliness

[@PsyCodeqz]

greg you are awesome! such optimism and open ended threadings in thought, ur great, don't mind these close minded people that thrive on pessimistic and Narcissistic thought

[@GregoryBSadler]

No idea who you're referring to. Glad you enjoy the videos

[@PsyCodeqz]

@@GregoryBSadler out of my pay grade to display references, but basically...it could be anyone

[@randyzwieg8467]

I sort of envy him. He was a student of Sydney Morgenbesser. "Socratic Puzzles" is quite interesting also.

[@commonsenseethics4507]

Nozik is brilliant whether we agree with him or not!

[@GregoryBSadler]

He's pretty good, to be sure

[@JoePalau]

Not for me. Still, expanding my headspace to hold Nozick’s views and mine at the same time helps grow my critical thinking skills and capacity. Better to be challenged by Nozick than super satisfied with my conferes. 😎

[@jcrass2361]

Really neat, never heard of him before.

[@GregoryBSadler]

In political theory, he gets viewed as one of the more important American philosophers

[@23LucasFer]

As usual, a top notch content on philosophy. May I give you a sugestion for a next topic? Why not some classes about modal logic? Thank you. Please, keep up the amazing work.

[@GregoryBSadler]

You’re welcome to commission me to produce content you want. Otherwise I’ll stick to my schedule

[@dionysianapollomarx]

Nozick is way cooler than I thought

[@GregoryBSadler]

You thought he was just a square, eh?

[@stino9635]

Happy 4th Dr Sadler

[@GregoryBSadler]

Happy belated 4th!

[@luciosemirsahagun8376]

I enjoy your videos there really helpful

[@GregoryBSadler]

Glad to read it

[@RebNegru]

Danke!!!

[@GregoryBSadler]

You're welcome!

[@thtruthism9375]

Hello Dr. Sadler, just coming back from a debilitating injury and I'll be contacting you later to pick up on where we left off..... anyways, it's an interesting topic however, I'd like to think that we are the EXPERIENCE CROPS for the gods to pluck and taste and relive through. Just like the plants have no option but to grow given the light and resources, we have no choice but to experience given the obstacles and desires to go on. That each experience and moment that we go through is the spice and herbs that flavor our lives and the more interesting they are, the more enticing they are to the gods or whoever that we owe these experiences to. The most anti-theistic (or atheistic) thing to do is to have the most mundane life possible... hence Buddhist munks that lowkey they want everyone to understand that the treasures/pleasures you seek is just a carrot dangling in front of you that leads to your death which is the cherry on top for the gods who gets to..(no pun intended) cherry pick the experiences to relive as. So in a sense, we are not putting on gogglessomething to experience the "Experience Machine" but we are the batteries for the Experience Machines... another reference to the Matrix.

[@GregoryBSadler]

Sorry to read about the injury! So - that would make the situation similar to the movie the 13th Floor

[@mimszanadunstedt441]

It'd be hollow experiences, devoid of anything. It doesn't contribute to real skills, no experience is earned. Your experiences would be illusions. So early versions of the machine wouldn't be accurate. And thinking you are reading a good book =/= reading at all. You would stagnate in other environments and gain emotional dependency. Also for example *thinking* you are reading a good book, even if its a bad text or no text at all, doesn't suddenly give you an accurate self-impression. Like you cannot write a good novel for *real* people, just because you had the experience of 80 years of writing. It could be absolutely trash writing but it *fools* you enough so thats *good enough*. You would turn into a vegetable sucking up dopamine unable to recognize reality. It has to have a modicum of interaction, otherwise its essentially egotistical porn. Also thx for comparing it to drugs, because thats what it'd degenerate into. Full dive VR is much better because theres interaction and its authentic impressions. To alter your own impressions of events is the epitome of corruption delusion and stagnation. The result machine would make humans irrelevant. I don't think its about *living* specifically I think its about furthering our position because of biological habit, but others having fight or flight response would choose flight, and escapism. Or perhaps narcissists wouldn't care and would use the machine anyways, furthering their narcissism which harms their interactions with others outside the machines while simultaneously assuming their superiority, and reducing their functionality in the real world.

[@mimszanadunstedt441]

Hierarchy of needs ultimately decides it as well as individuality. Which means philosophy needs something else to tie into reality aside from just itself. For all philosophers know their questions and answers are unique to their culture and ultimately useless, I think philosophy needs to be grounded with evidence based studies.

[@GregoryBSadler]

@@mimszanadunstedt441 A lot of sweeping assertions there. Good luck with those

[@mimszanadunstedt441]

@@GregoryBSadler I know. But the video also did mention drugs. My line of reasoning hasn't been proven invalid, if the video also thought it was relevant. The reason why my assertions hold true is because of the internal alterations to change how one perceives an event. I got that impression early into the vid its not the same as vr. If you think flipping a single page in a wordless book giving high amounts of rewarding sensation is going to be productive for society then by all means. I am arguing against the concept's merit more so than the conclusions. Unless you propose the machine in the thought experiment is infallible, which would be true only after thousands of updates at the least. In which case you can learn outside skills and have proper feedback. Also it could reach uncanny valley if your internal motivations and drives are irrelevant towards the experience of the machine, forcing you to repeat tasks seemingly endlessly that contradict your motivations but that you thought were a good idea at the time. It trains people to not have the normal ability of activity planning in a regular manner. There could be psychological disturbances from such a thing alone. Philosophy needs to reel itself in with science.

[@digital_gravity]

I am confused by your assertions; the premise of the thought experiment is that the simulations are indistinguishable from reality. So, if you're reading a great novel, it is a great novel. It could be downloaded from the Kindle bookstore and feed into the experience machine. If you are gaining skills, the appropriate inputs are being feed into your brain and you have gained the skills. What makes this thought experiment so provocative is even with all that, would you still plug in? Why or why not? At the end of the day, we already live in an experience machine of sorts. The human brain is doing its best to make sense of a reality too complex to fully apprehend.

[@PsyCodeqz]

he's just explaining a book and opening perceptions, where's your youtube video?