Imagine a machine that offers you every pleasure you can imagine. If you choose enter the Experience Machine, you’ll live what seems like your perfect life. You won't even know it isn't real, as your memories of entering the machine will be conveniently erased. If you take the deal, there’s no going back. You will live a long and happy life inside the Experience Machine, but you’ll leave the real world behind forever.

The Experience Machine is a thought experiment designed by Robert Nozick, first presented in his 1974 book Anarchy, State, and Utopia. Nozick intends it as a challenge to hedonism, the view that what is good in life simply is what is pleasurable.

According to Nozick, the reluctance many of us feel to enter the Experience Machine reveals that hedonism cannot be the whole story. We don’t just want to live pleasurable lives, but also authentic ones, full of actual relationships and genuine accomplishments.

Before being presented with the activity, the learner should be asked to reflect on what their perfect life would look like. Where would they live? What talents would they have? What would they spend their time doing, and with whom?

Then, the learner should be provided with the activity set, consisting of an Experience Machine with an open lid and a model person (representing themselves). They should be asked to make a decision: Will they enter the Experience Machine and embrace its promise of a ‘perfect life’ or will they choose to remain in the actual world?

If a learner chooses to enter the Experience Machine, they should put the model person within it and close its lid.

Components:

• Base featuring interactive Experience Machine

• Statuette of a person

• 3D printer and filament

• Click here to access STL files for 3D printing

Iliana Martinez (Primary), Morgan Chivers, Eli Shupe