The Experience Machine

The synthetic happiness the government allows its citizens to feel creates an ignorant and entirely emotionless community. The commodity of ear plugs that can “humm the hour away” creates a virtual world which conceals the terrible conditions of everyday life (Bradbury 14). In Fahrenheit 451, the work day consists of long, strenuous labor that appears fair to the workers. The people are not knowledgeable and are not curious to do anything outside of what they are told to do. This bland world does not allow the citizens to think or attempt something new, putting their lives in a repetitive cycle. Along with this, the government controls memories so that people remain ignorant to pain. When Mildred emptied the “small crystal bottle of sleeping tablets” and overdosed, she did not renounce anything after her suicide attempt(11). Although in theory the abolishment of pain

Thomas Hobbes, an English philosopher (1588-1697), is well known for his great political notions and thoughts, and deservedly so. His main concern is the problem of social and political order. In “introduction”, Hobbes was depicted to believe that the entire phenomena in the universe, including human nature was to be explained in aspects of material bodies. According to him, soul and mind were not separate from the body as other writers believed. Human beings are essential machines. Their aspects and emotions operate pertaining to the physical part of the law, as well as chains of cause, impacts, action and reaction. As machines, human beings pursue their own self- interest avoiding pain at all cost and pursuing pleasure. Society is a similar machine, greater than the human body, as well as artificial (temporary) but operating as stipulated by the laws governing motions, as well as collision.

Gertler clarifies that pain refers to the sensation and not the common cause, which is C-fibers firing in a specific area with tissue damage. (109) She asserts that pain is not essentially connected to tissue damage of a particular location, indicating to me inadequate understanding of the concept. If one pinches one's arm, though the sensation of pain may not be necessarily located in the arm, I contend that the pain felt is relevantly connected to the location pinched. Gertler provides the alleviating effect of painkillers as an example of a non-essential feature of pain. (117) Location is unlike this property, however, and is essential in conceptualizing pain. For instance, even an amputee, who had a leg removed and experiences a phantom leg-pain, is unable to describe the sensation they feel without making reference to a specific body part. Whether or not the pain is actually “located” anywhere is irrelevant, it matters only that the pain is conceptualized as having a location. Our understanding of pain relies fundamentally on where the pain is thought to be “located.” The fact that it is impossible to conceive of pain without reference to the “location” of the sensation proves that location is an essential feature of

1) if the only thing that mattered to us was pleasure, then we would plug ourselves into a machine that could any simulate experiences we desired.

II. Thesis: There are constantly people who find themselves in pain, they are literally on their deathbed and they are unable to do anything.

Nozick also discovers that humans would not hook up to this machine because it is a form of suicide. Humans will never want to entirely reduce themselves to a man made realism. Nozick states, “There is no contact with any deeper reality, though the experience of it can be simulated”. This statement explains that humans need to experience a connection with reality because it has importance to all of our lives. By humans agreeing to be plugged into this machine, they are indeed giving up who they are, which in reality is giving up your life. This idea of choosing illusion over reality truly is a form of

Pain is universal. In life, everyone will feel pain; it is inevitable and cruel. Physical or emotional, insignificant or severe, it is there. The pain continues mounting into an unbearable amount of suffering. Suffering that blots out everything of worth, such as family, love, aspirations, and optimism. Hopelessness seizes any will to endure. With no way to subside or control the pain, often one will go to extremes in order to be free of it. Many take their life, in order to escape the horror. Committing suicide is a traumatizing experience for any and all involved. Life is precious. The chance to live is only given once, and cannot be taken for granted. Preventing even a single life from ending early is imperative and obligatory

made by the pro camp is that man is a ‘biological machine’ and is conscious, ergo, a machine is

I support this idea of achieving absolute pleasure from the removal of all pain due to a series of corresponding reasons. The first factor addressed in support of this claim is the tendency of human nature to focus on the negative. This observation will lead to the second supporting idea that these distresses which culminate towards the feeling of pain often block out the feeling of the pleasure desired. This secondary notion results in a comparison between the subsequent uplifting experiences from the removal of pain as opposed to the effect of a simple everyday pleasure on the mind. I

To most people, pain is a nuisance, but to others pain controls their life. The feeling discomforts us in ways that can sometimes seem almost imaginable. These feelings can lead to many different side effects if not dealt with or diagnosed. These effects can include depression, anxiety, and incredible amount of stress. The truth about pain is that it is vital to our existence. Without the nervous system responding to pain, we would have no idea if we were touching a hot stove, being stuck by a porcupine’s needles, or something else that could leave a lasting effect upon our bodies without us even knowing anything about it.

Even though technology in “The Machine Stops” and technology today have many differences, many characteristics are in common. The futuristic modern technology in “The Machine Stops is very dependable as well as modern day technology, except that in “The Machine Stops” everything is machine generated. Most people today communicate on the cell phone or text messages. Frequently, people may be contacted over video messages as well. In “The Machine Stops” the most common way to communicate is by pictures or video messages with little face to face contact. Technology used in both case scenarios is very reliant for humans. For example, humans rely on the internet to look up a question if we don’t know the answer. In “The Machine Stops”, they often did not have to ask questions because the technology already did it for them. In relation to the story, they refer to when the machine stops as a “technological death”, which we can relate to the same phrase in a way that if humans did not have the access to technological works, most of our world would not be able to function. People would struggle with communication with their families, difficulties to their jobs, and wouldn’t be aware of what was happening in the world.

“You talk as if a god had made the Machine," cried the other. "I believe that you pray to it when you are unhappy. Men made it do not forget that. Great men, but men. The Machine is much, but not everything.”

Herein lies the soul, not a soul of silicon or of steel yet no less tangible. It is human soul that manifests itself through the endeavors of a team of computer designers working at the frontiers of human knowledge and engineering.

The International Association for the Study of Pain defines pain as “an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage, or described in terms of such damage” (1979). Pain is actually the culprit behind warranting a visit to a physician office for many people (Besson, 1999). Notoriously unpleasant, pain could also pose a threat as both a psychological and economic burden (Phillips, 2006). Sometimes pain does happen without any damage of tissue or any likely diseased state. The reasons for such pain are poorly understood and the term used to describe such type of pain is “psychogenic pain”. Also, the loss of productivity and daily activity due to pain is also significant. Pain engulfs a trillion dollars of GDP for lost work time and disability payments (Melnikova, 2010). Untreated pain not only impacts a person suffering from pain but also impacts their whole family. A person’s quality of life is negatively impacted by pain and it diminishes their ability to concentrate, work, exercise, socialize, perform daily routines, and sleep. All of these negative impacts ultimately lead to much more severe behavioral effects such as depression, aggression, mood alterations, isolation, and loss of self-esteem, which pose a great threat to human society.

Pain is a basic mechanism in life that helps the body identify that something is wrong or dangerous. Without pain, the body would be severely damaged without realizing it. Pain can become an inconvenience when it spirals out of control; chronic pain, for example, leaves many miserable and unable to enjoy life to its fullest extent even with traditional medical intervention. Around 80% of people report chronic pain in their lifetime (Holtzman & Beggs, 2013). People afflicted by chronic back pain turn to modern medicine for relief, but even these alternatives are not always 100% effective.