Experience Machine Thesis

1. Introduction

Hedonism is centered around happiness and tranquility. The Experience Machine is the idea that you could plug into a machine and only experience happiness. Thesis: Hedonism can’t use The Experience Machine to show true happiness. In the following paragraphs I will prove that the Experience Machine gives false happiness through the use of appreciation and the relationship between pleasure and pain.

2. Body

The Experience Machine will only give a person pleasure or happiness through a virtual setting. Only receiving pleasure and never experiencing pain will lessen the appreciation felt when given the opportunity to experience pleasure. Without experiencing pain, you won’t be able to know what pleasure actually is. The same is true for the reverse. Without experiencing pleasure, you won’t be able to know what pain actually is. Never being able to experience pain or the feelings of regret and sorrow will not allow the experience of pleasure the true value it actually holds. Your appreciation for pleasure will be small compared to what it would have been had to you experienced pain.

When plugged into the Experience Machine, you experience pleasure constantly without pain. Drug addicts have to increase the amount of drugs they take or have to witch to a drug that is stronger because the body doesn’t get the same high anymore. The same thing will happen to someone in the experience machine. Your need for pleasure will keep increasing and the same experiences that would normally bring you pleasure won’t anymore. There will always be a need for more. The body is immune, the dopamine balance in the brain will be altered and unsteady. When the body experiences both pain and pleasure, the small things that make someone happy are sometimes the most