Half a century ago, a philosopher imagined a world where we could fulfil our desires through digital simulations. He argued we'd prefer reality, but was he right? In a pivotal scene in the movie The ...

In his famous 1974 book Anarchy, State and Utopia, Robert Nozick presents his famous experience machine thought experiment. In this thought experiment, we are asked to imagine a scenario in which ...

Should Matthew Sweet plug into a device that guarantees the sensation of a happy life? David Willets, Jo Wolf and David Geaney join him in the Philosopher's Arms. Show more Welcome to the ...

The refusal to plug into the experience machine also has implications for discussions on meaning in life. Subjectivist theories of meaning in life hold that our sensation of meaningfulness or other ...