A Brain In A Vat Summary

In Pollock story “A Brain in a Vat” he believes that his secretory Margot is behind a clinic that took his brain out and is places in a vat. Margot told him that his brain was removed three months ago and his life has been ran by a simulator on a computer program. After he knew about his brain removal he stumbled back to his office in a daze. Wondering if it was really true or not because the computer program would be controlling his brain and it would make everything seem normal. Pollock thinks that there is no way to tell. There would be different ways to figure out if he is stuck in a virtual world he could break into the clinic again and investigate to prove that he is not in a vat.

The light was as bright as the sun and I could feel my retinas burning. In the back i could hear a slight beeping sound almost like it was graphing my heart beat. I heard voices, “Scalpel.” “I’m going to make the first incision now....” And then nothing, the voices stopped and i was back in my own head. I was startled by a falling sensation, as i was thrown into an even colder room. The light in here was dimmer, but it was still blinding. I crawled over to giant metal door and punched it and screamed for them to let me out. I needed to finish my work, my whole reputation depended on it. In a few

In the fictional story A Brain in a Vat, John Pollock argues the idea that people are not actually living beings, that brains are in a vat connected to a computer making a person feel as though they are alive doing things they normally would do in daily life. A person would never recognize they are not living, because the computer is making the person feel as though they are. The idea of a brain in a vat seems implausible, but being a brain in a vat cannot be ruled out, because there is no way of knowing if it is false. The questionable argument of humans just being brains in a vat can be seen as Modus Tollens:

I had been cringing about day for so long. I was completely terrified to go into that room. As the door opened I was exposed to a cold draft and I could feel the dense air. The day I was told this needed to be done was horrifying, and now it’s actually happening. They rolled me over to a new bed and I looked around seeing doctors everywhere. There was a table that they rolled next to me and on it was things that I can’t even explain. They put a green mask on me with tubes going through both sides of it. They told me I’d get drowsy and all of the sudden I closed my eyes and it was happening. I was getting knee surgery.

Imagine death. What happens in your final moments? Are you going to think about your loved ones or just simply reminisce on one of the happiest moments of your existence? What would be your very final thought to think? The short story, “Bullet in the Brain”, is a very intriguing, well-articulated fictional writing piece that captures what happens in the split second of death through the main character Anders. Written by Tobias Wolff, the story follows a man who finds the cliché in anything and his final thoughts of his life as a bullet is moving through his brain. Saying I enjoyed this story would be the understatement of the century. The short story is purely brilliant and one of the most thought-provoking stories I have read in a while.

In John Pollack’s A Brain in a Vat, Pollack poses a question about the integrity of the belief that the reality every human being experiences is in fact, real. After the narrator goes through a very disturbing situation and presented a potentially harsh truth about the validity of his opinion of what he considers reality does Pollack present the same argument to the reader. A Brain in a Vat presents a skeptical argument on whether or not the reality every human being experiences is in fact, real, not just a laid out plan that every human being goes through the motions of to complete. The only supportive evidence offered by Pollack in A Brain in a Vat is “…how could I [ the narrator] tell” whether or not an outside force generates reality because

I read the article, “Secrets of the Brain”, found in the February 2014 issue of National Geographic written by Carl Zimmer. I chose this subject because I have been fascinated with the brain and how it works. The research of the brain has been ongoing for many centuries now. The history in this article is interesting. It explained how scientists used to understand the brain and its inner workings. For example, “in the ancient world physicians believed that the brain was made of phlegm. Aristotle looked on it as a refrigerator, cooling of the fiery heart. From his time through the Renaissance, anatomists declared with great authority that our perceptions, emotions, reasoning, and actions were all the result of “animal spirits”—mysterious, unknowable vapors that swirled through cavities in our head and traveled through our bodies.” (Zimmer, p. 38)

When he finished his breakfast he decided it was time to get rid of the body. As he was heading to the general’s room he got lost like as if he was lost in a maze. Soon he found his way there.

be challenging to figure out what the truth is but along with the new age technology you can find out

”If men define situations as real, they are real in their consequences.” This small sentence known as the Thomas Theorem carries a lot of meaning in the context of our subjects. The idea of the Thomas Theorem states that if we perceive something to be reality, it will determine how the way we act and think in the situation (Alleydog). The Stanford Prison Experiment is seen in history as one of the most significant psychological experiments of it’s time, and the Abu Ghraib Scandal which happened 30 years later became famous for many of the same reasons. Because of the way this experiment was conducted and the way the real life prison was run, with little control and no intervention in how

The brain is an intricately designed organ that helps in the aid of daily life. It is able to control all other organs and bodily functions and even manages all actions, memories, or feelings that can be experienced. It is essential in the functioning of daily life. However, there are times in which it can be deceitful, sometimes even showing things that are not even there. This causes one to doubt the very nature of things and can even explain why it is that things such as ‘second thoughts’ or ‘fear’ crosses the mind. Henry James, the author of The Turn of the Screw, uses these “defects of the mind” to destroy the barrier between reality and fiction. The Turn of the Screw exists in a reality that is retold more than once and in many instances, it depicts the twisted perception of a protagonist with an "overactive imagination" and even goes as far as to show how the reader perceives the certain perceptions of others. How one is able to view a certain 'reality, ' solely depends on a person 's reaction to certain situations as well as the mental stability during the action or moment. Galileo Galilei even stated that “tastes, odors, colors, and so on resides only in one’s head.” James tries to make us doubt whether reality is all it seems to be by interfering with the mental health of a person, giving way to many theories or conjectures through the use of perception.

One scary night, Jennifer was going through an event where her body was taken by force in the book, “Picking Cotton”. Would you be able to pick out a face from a line up? The biggest issue is putting together the puzzle pieces of the crime that took place when you’re the one who is experiencing the traumatic event. We all have been scared before but, if you really think about it do you really see the small details or the big picture? The law enforcement works hard to make sure common mistakes don’t take place during these investigations and assure we don’t send away the wrong person away for the crime. After, attending a seminar at Somerset Community College on February 7, 2017, we can now understand a little more about memory and how’s it’s processed during a traumatic event while also, learning about Jennifer’s story.

He woke up in a dark room. He was numb and dizzy. The figure of a man kept on flickering through his head. He couldn’t move. He had no memory. His whole body was full of pain and agony.

     The day after he had his job, he went to Freddy's place. While he was there' Bee-lips came in and told him that customs had just went out to take his boat. Harry got that kill look in his eyes and he got very mad at Bee-lips.

mple brain theory states that “Person A (at time t) is numerically identical to person B (at time t + n) if and only if A and B have the same brain,” (Dolson, HO#7, p.2). In the SBT the person is identical to the brain. If person X were to switch brains with person Y, then person X would still be person X in person Y’s body and Person Y would still be Person Y in X’s body. The simple brain theory fails to makes sense of duplication as shown in “Parfit's Triplets” thought experiment.