Experience Machines The Philosophy of Virtual Worlds

Description

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'. He speculated that, in spite of the many obvious attractions of such a prospect, most people would choose against passing the rest of their lives under the influence of this type of invention. Nozick thought (and many have since agreed) that this simple thought experiment had profound implications for how we think about ethics, political justice, and the significance of technology in our everyday lives. Nozick’s argument was made in 1974, about a decade before the personal computer revolution in Europe and North America. Since then, opportunities for the citizens of industrialized societies to experience virtual worlds and simulated environments have multiplied to an extent that no philosopher could have predicted. The authors in this volume re-evaluate the merits of Nozick’s argument, and use it as a jumping–off point for the philosophical examination of subsequent developments in culture and technology, including a variety of experience-altering cybernetic technologies such as computer games, social media networks, HCI devices, and neuro-prostheses. Contents......Page 6 Introduction: The Experience Machine......Page 8 Part I: Virtual Experiences and Human Well-Being......Page 18 1 Cypher’s Choices......Page 20 2 Intuition and Imaginative Failure......Page 40 3 Give Me the Confidence......Page 50 4 Ceci n’est pas une cuve......Page 64 Part II: Real-World Experience Machines?......Page 80 5 Virtual Reality and “Knowing What It’s Like”......Page 82 6 Figuring Out Who Your Real Friends Are......Page 94 7 Welcome to the Achievement Machine: Or, How to Value and Enjoy Pointless Things......Page 106 8 Virtual Weltschmerz......Page 120 Part III: Experiential Design: Problems and Prospects......Page 142 9 The Problem of Evil in Virtual Worlds......Page 144 10 Epistemic Lives and Knowing in Virtual Worlds......Page 162 11 Digital Tears Fell from Her Virtual Eyes: Or, the Ethics of Virtual Beings......Page 176 12 The Morality of Experience Machines for Palliative and End-of-Life Care......Page 190 13 The Experience Machine and the End of the World (As We Know It)......Page 210 Bibliography......Page 226 Index......Page 238 About the Authors......Page 240