Would You Plug In?
What kind of life is worth living? Robert Nozick poses the question of whether it is worth to live life the way it was planned for you or by having the power to pick and choose the experiences you go through by plugging into the experience machine. Before deciding to go into the machine, a person must think about what kind of life is worth living. A life worth living is a life with as little suffering and hardship as possible, where a person can be completely free to chase their dreams. So many people look for a way to escape the pain that life brings and the experience machine offers a way out. There are two main reasons to plug into the experience machine; a person can escape the hardships of life and society’s unrealistic expectations about how to live life. Humans go through many hardships over their lifetime. They experience love, loss, heartbreak, pain, work, happiness, sadness, and many more things. People have to struggle through school to work their whole lives until they die. These aspects of human life are used to mark where in the stages of life a person is. To many, these stages define life and what it stands for, but they are not necessary. A person doesn’t have to go through loss to have a complete life. They don’t have to struggle to make ends meet because that’s what “life is supposed to be like.” they can sidetrack these moments if desired. A person can have a life filled with happiness and no worry of having to get somewhere in life by plugging into the experience machine. The experience machine has the capability of getting rid of the hard things we go through. Instead of going through heartbreak, a person can bypass that by programming the machine to only let them experience love. Instead of working a grueling job that only pays minimum wage, a person can plug into the experience machine to a life where they don’t have to work to survive. They can live a life full of happiness, instead of one filled with sadness and hardships. Society places unrealistic expectations of human life. People are expected to live their life a certain way and when they fall short of that, they are judged. One problem is that many never get close to the expectations,
Throughout generations in literature, “to live deliberately” has been the goal and purpose of life. As Alexander Supertramp (aka Chris McCandless) said, “The very basic core of a man’s living spirit is his passion for adventure. The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun” (57).
Should people put the value of life into monetary value or should life be kept solely as an emotional quantity? People and societies throughout the ages have been trying to answer the problem of putting the value of life into terms of dollar bills. The ancient Egyptians buried their dead with all of their worldly belongings. They believed a person’s monetary worth on Earth was over, and they should take all of that earthly worth with them to the afterlife. Modern day Americans are different from the Egyptians. Today people believe that the families of the dead should be compensated for “their” loss.
Taking pleasure in every minute of life is crucial. Despite their age, citizens can have young spontaneous spirits if they choose to do so. Life is so precious and so valuable. Many people are so worried and concerned with their present. They forget to spend life like a child who is “two years old,” which is important. Living life like a toddler does not mean a person should be immature. It only means that they should flow through the waves of where fate is meant to take them. A two year old child wants to be nurtured and loved. Human beings want to be cared for and felt affection towards. Individuals who live youthfully and make the most of their journeys tend to be the most content. They flee from their qualms. Existence in the world does have pain and sorrow, but it is important to use the organ that all of mankind was given to love, live, laugh, enjoy, and most of all relax. Doyle mentions that “Every creature on earth has approximately two billion heartbeats to spend in a lifetime.” These two billion heartbeats fragile, and each beat should be cherished. Most importantly, each beat should be spent doing something important in life, but with
As humans, we are granted experiences that both enrich and alienate us; bits of our lives are taken from us but others are added to make us whole. Though, sometimes, we are taken from the bits of our lives, and have to
With this, we no longer can answer the important questions that ask “what” of our lives. We begin to care only about chasing after what we find pleasure or survival in.
Carlos Wallace’s book, “Life is not Complicated, You Are” is an extraordinary digital narrative. It is a very meaningful piece of work. He has written this book during an emotional point of life due to the loss of his mother and father after they passed away. From this, he came to the state of realization about life. He acknowledged different ways an individual can choose to take in order to keep moving forward with the intention of creating a better life. Nevertheless, Wallace emphasized on progress. He believes motivation builds during the progress phase as a person is achieving his or her goals. One way he kept moving forward is by a supportive family. He often referred back to his mother, father, and his grandfather. The main role models
It is an amazing gift to be alive, but many people don't see it that way. Most people actually live their lives without really living. They put their lives in other people's hands. They are afraid to really live, and without really living, they don't experience. Without experience, they don't learn and grow. When we really live, we have so much love to give to others. With all that love, we experience what it means to fully live. To be a loving individual is an incredible experience, and the time to start the journey to having a beautiful, fulfilling life would be right now.
What is the meaning of life? Well known Greek philosphers such as Socrates and Plato believed that our purpose in this life was to gain knowledge in preparation for the next life. Other Philosophers such as Epicurus believed that pleasure is the main goal in life. After giving these ideas lots of thought, I have come to my own conclusion that the true meaning of life is far more complex than either of these; far too complex for any human to fully comprehend. In fact these two different philosophies are only part of the grand picture. If it were that easy for men to figure out our lives wouldn't be so messed up now. The meaning of life revolves around many different things. I
Consequently, each person at some point in life asks some question about life. Some ask if they actually want to live the kind of life they are experiencing, while some will ask other questions like “who am I” or “The importance of their
Life is a complicated twist of suffering, laughing, and learning all merging to tell a great story - or great many stories. Based on this view, "it is not the end goal or outcome of life that gives life meaning but rather the quality of the story, the quality with which one lives out and develops his or her role."
The abstract idea of life cannot be explained by such simple ideas as being animated, breathing, or speaking. Ordinary machines in this century can perform all of these basic functions. The quandary with defining death is not as abstract and elusive as that of life. The problem of defining life and death has plagued philosophers and the religious bodies for thousands of years for one reason; each philosophy or religion has tried to define the meaning of life and death from only their certain perspective. The seemingly appropriate approach to this problem would be to understand the ideas presented in various philosophies and religions and through this knowledge create a new definition for each idea of life
I can remember as a child always asking myself the “why” questions of life. What is the purpose of life? Why are we here? What is the purpose of life? Why do certain things happen? And is there really a God? I had always kept these questions to myself and eventually pushed them out of my mind altogether. I was raised in a Christian household and you just were not allowed to ask questions of that nature and doubt the faith. The world is the way it is because God made it that way and that is all there is to it. I was really excited to take this class because it would finally give me the opportunity to exercise my personal thoughts and beliefs. I have come to agree with Socrates that “the unexamined life is not
The life given by god has a very special meaning a value in which people sometimes forget to thank or either regret. Many students/adults believe that they are going to be popular if they have money and a good job buy forget that people are influenced by those who have learned something. Also a lot fail to remember, to earn value you must earn it.In today’s economy the government creates a value on the person by looking at the position they are held for. If you look at it from the society’s point of view they believe people should be given value according to what they do and what position they are. From an individual's perspective they judge themselves on what they accomplish and achieve.The value of the individual would
Just a couple week or before, I was hovering around the streets of Kathmandu and was gyrating around a top of my house with a heavy brain box. Every of those 24 hours of my days used to be spent on finding the meaning of life, death and the reason I am here on this planet. After those rigorous searches inside the book ‘Nirwad, ‘The Alchemist’, and inside my own heart, I finally got the answer.
Life as we know it could vanish within seconds. The next day is not promised to anyone that walks on this earth. As we live our everyday lives peacefully, we tend not to think what our mission or purpose in life is. Instead, we think what we must do for that to be a “successful” person. Despite this way of thinking, just think for a second. What makes life meaningful? What is life anyway? These questions dive right into the heart of the philosophical, psychological, and the biological aspects of life and what the true meaning of life is. This is a very arguable topic due to every person’s different perspective on life and what it means to them. In summary, I personally think that life is simply what you make of it and each person’s accomplishments has its own merit