Would you plug in?
Added 2016-03-27 18:58:09 +0000 UTCHey Guys!
One of my Patrons, Ian, posted this to me on FB, and I thought it was interesting. I am a hedonist by philosophy, and I think a lot of people will choose reality irrationally (just like they love my boobs, but have some internal issue with them once they find out they're fake that goes against logic) but I would like to know what you guys think!
I LOVE TED Talks and other philosophical discussions, so feel free to post them here, or send them to me!
Here's my response to Ian, on FB:
https://gyazo.com/eaf9bcef4701681fdaaa71b44f936bff
For the second time today, love you guys! :D
Tara <3
ps. Thank you, Ian! You always rock!
Comments
This video reminds me of the short story "The Storm" by Kate Chopin. In the narrative, Chopin seems to take a hedonistic approach to life by having her characters experience more happiness from living in what this video calls their own "experience machines" rather than knowing the truth of their relationships, which would most certainly result in the characters' pain. I love Kate Chopin and her short story "The Storm" was considered immensely controversial for the time, but I believe that it speaks to the same issues in the above video. Kate Chopin was, in my opinion, most definitely a person who would choose to "plug in."
Corey Andrew Wright
2016-05-15 04:19:07 +0000 UTCTL;DR ^Zaki's post.
iGamer - Patrick
2016-04-06 15:33:52 +0000 UTCAren't we already plugged in? I'm serious. The machine we are currently plugged in may not be as perfected as the one presented in the video, but if we pause and consider, looking at technology as the great enabler, aren't we already on that path towards a reality free of pain? (By technology's end focus to 'make things easier for Man'.) (Here, I hear in my ears Karl Marx's grim critique of Capitalism; in that by technology (the favoured tool of productivity) own locomotive nature to advance and progress, will ultimately displace workers in that honoured role of usefulness within society. What a can of beans that will open - the long term economical, social and political repercussions. Example, am looking at 3D printing and near future driver-less vehicles with narrowed eyes.) Anyway, tracking back, to the machine we are already plugged in, aren't we already moving towards a reality of pleasure? When we consider the manner we use the technologies we have at hand from day to day, and the frame of mind we are encouraged to have by large multinational corporations - 'Consumerism is Great! Pleasure! Luxury! More More More!' Aren't we already plugged in? Having said that, may I return back to the original question and wander from there? The question 'Would you plug in?" reminds me of the anime Ghost in the Shell, in particular an episode in one of its series (Stand Alone Complex or 2nd Gig, I forgot which) where Major Motoko Kusanagi delved into a found cybernetic brain where anyone who delved do not return. In the virtual word of the cybernetic brain, Motoko found the lost souls/ghosts of people in a grand cinema watching the 'perfect movie' that had no beginning and no end. So moving was the movie that watching it brought an uncharacteristic tear to the Major's artificial eyes. It turns out the cybernetic brain belonged to a decades long deceased film maker who made a shrine to the perfection of his art in his mind. Over the years, as the cybernetic brain began to be discarded, tossed about, it grew a cult following for people who wished to escape their lives and watch the 'perfect' movie forever. Judging by the number of ghosts in the the cinema, the idea was very much appealing. Motoko made the decision, demonstrating a certain strength of will, to return to the reality of her flawed world. So the question is, should you stumble to a reality of the perfect world (of pleasure) would you go back to your flawed reality? (Some may see MMO addiction to be just like that.) Similar examples I can think of, in the recent crpg Shadowrun games (A shoutout here for Harebrained Schemes which is quickly becoming my favourite game studio like squaresoft of old. Indie & crowdfunded!) in a dystopian future (of technology and magic!) one of the social issues that keep creeping up is the destitute and impoverished section of society addiction (plugged in) to virtual fantasy worlds. In the movie Total Recall (the original, ignoring the remake) Arnie (who plays Arnie in all his action movies) life was decent with a stable job and beautiful wife (Sharon Stone) still felt something lacking and sought the services of a virtual/alternative reality for something more. One last example I can think of is an episode of The Outer Limits (one of my fav scifi series of all time! ^_^) where a lone survivour of an apocalyptic future lives in a bunker. He (yes, the last man on earth) activates an interactive hologram of a beautiful woman in a special virtual hologram room. The danger is this depletes substantially the bunker's power supply. The lone man continues on the dalliance with the hologram woman irregardless, full knowingly. The episode ends with the bunker power supply completely depleted, the hologram woman fading from view and the lone man left alone in the dark. The question then begins, Would you plug in to a reality of pleasure when your present situation is painful (as is the case with the Shadownrun RPGS); your present situation is somehow empty, lacking something (as is Arnie in Total Recall); your present situation is bleak, without hope (as is the lone survivour in The Outer Limits)? It goes to follow that pleasure is the natural course. That given a choice of pleasure or pain, (or a relief from pain to a possibility of pleasure) a rational person would choose pleasure. And even those who choose pain somehow associates pain with pleasure (the human mind is curvy that way). Maybe that is why using positive and negative reinforcement is effective, that our preference for pleasure and abhorrence to pain to be instinctive. From here I can understand and appreciate the hedonistic view that pleasure and the pursuit of pleasure to be a human good. Pleasure is a great motivator. From the state of pleasure can we experience the ecstatic heights of the human condition, and from such vantage point have a clearer view of who we are. So why not? In his impassioned speech (the movie the devil's advocate) Al Pacino made the case against following irrational rules. "...He gives man instincts and sets the rules in opposition. Look but don't touch. Touch but don't taste. Taste but don't swallow..." It can be argued that so much confusion derives from this internal conflict. "...He's a sadist. An absentee landlord." *chuckles* Why this negativity against pleasure being the ideal to human existence? Wait. Now that I think of it, this experiment in creating a reality of pleasure have been done before a few thousands years ago. I need to check. *goes find a book (dusty) in a shelf. Am referring to it now* Allow me to relay the story of Buddha. (Side strolling from any religious connotations and applying the story as a case study relative to the subject matter) About 480 BC in ancient India, the King was gifted a son. The seers present at the birth foretold that the new prince was destined to be a World Emperor, a conqueror of lands or a living Buddha, the enlightened one. The King, a warrior himself, would rather a scion of his loins would rise to be the former, reaching fame and glory instead of the obscurity of a monk. As was the understanding of the time, that the path to enlightenment was through the renunciation of worldly pleasures, the King schemed to incubate the new prince entirely in a world of worldly pleasures, so as to seed the future the King would have for his son. The old, the sickly, the poor, were banished for kilometers in all direction from the prince. The young prince was gifted three palaces for his own amusement and when he was of age, had hundreds of harem women for his beck and call night and day. Plays, hunts and parties were arranged for the prince everyday. The prince was bathed with an existence of pleasure from childhood to adolescent to young adulthood. One day during a hunt, the prince stumbled on a sickly poor old man who somehow had slipped pass the screens of guards deployed to guard the prince from such harsh realities. The young prince have never seen suffering until that day. Recognizing the danger, his hunting companions whisked the prince away but the damage was done. The King upon hearing this had the chief of security boiled alive and increased the screens of security for kilometers more. The King ordered immediate plays and orgies for the prince to make the young man forget. But it was too late. The prince was awaken from the dream. Eventually the prince would run away, run away from an existence of luxury and pleasure. For the next 50-60 years, the prince wandered throughout the lands of India (and some say china and to the middle east) as a destitute beggar, trying to understand life. Today we know the prince as Buddha. What I get from the story is would we reject a presented reality if we discover that reality to be false or incomplete, even if that reality is comfortable and safe? I guess then, after considering as much as I can, one cannot sit on the fence and must make a decision. Yea or Nay? Would I plug in to a reality of all pleasure with no pain? Like the comments before me, my answer need to be no. Then I need to bounce about why? Firstly, the question presented plays with absolutes - All Pleasure, No Pain, which is itself a red flag. Absolutes by being absolute leaves no space to consider alternatives. And where is the fun in that? Turn the knob about, grading the question slightly and I bet the answer people give will be more grey, taking more pause. What if the question is a multiple choice, (but the condition of leaving your life behind still stays) Would you plug to a reality of all pain and no pleasure, a reality of more pain and less pleasure, a reality of more pleasure and less pain or a reality of all pleasure and no pain? Turn the knob again, Would you plug in, if the condition of not being able to return back to your life is removed, that you can always return back? 'Its only for a little while...' Touching the knob very sensitive-like, if the experience machine offers you a chance to spend a day (if not a life) with Tara Babcock (playing video games of course! ^_^) would you plug in? Even if you know it is not real (and the video's later comments on the intrinsic value of real experiences as opposed to simulated experiences) What would our answer be? Yes? No? Maybe? I will still need to say no. (Though will put a pin on the Tara Babcock question). The question presented is a proposed lie. That the experience machine to be a succubus trap, that once have you clamp in a vice like grip, pleasurably, beckons you to release continuously. Though the state of bliss is ecstasy for sure, there is a price. There is always a price. What of the human spirit? Without pain, can it grow? If I defer to Joseph Campbell's Hero of a Thousand Faces, 'The Journey' demands Adversity. When there is no struggle, what is there? Through so much writings and oral wisdom, through different cultures and different times, the common thread to be found is pain and suffering is as much an integral piece as joy and happiness in reaching our potentiality. A necessity of life.The person who offers you a reality of all pleasure and no pain, offers you a false glamour, and is no friend who wishes to have you illuminated but rather you remain in that cave of you own projected shadows. The answer needs to be no. Though I fear, as we proceed to this new age, maintaining the answer will be precarious at best. Hmmmm. "Who are you carrying all those bricks for anyway?" Al Pacino would ask. *sigh* Well, I wish to be playful at the end, and after reading all the comments, would like to throw this out there. For fun. If you prescribe to Freud's theory of personality and the three aspects that make up our personalities, one can argue the Id, the pleasure seeking to be the natural state and the self-criticizing/ self-censoring, others-conscious Superego and the mediating Ego to be external constructed imposition on the natural Id. So having an experience machine that offers a reality freeing yourself from the constraints of the Superego and Ego, allowing yourself to freely pursue the pleasure principle, shouldn't more people be saying yes? Of course surveys and polls need to be conducted to get concrete data, but even with having people saying no itself is a question why? Is it some unconscious rebellion by the Superego and Ego to protect themselves from being irrelevant? Or is all three parts make the whole in some self defining Self. I don't know. Again if you prescribe to Freud's theory in the first place. Wonder if I ask Alucard (Hellsing OVA. And a bloody anime it is) would he rather be free from the covenants and restrictions that binds him. I have a sinking feeling the implaler would say no, then proceed to torture and eat me. ...the price of asking... Here I need to beg much apologies for my ramblings. When I saw Tara post this two days ago, I left my thoughts in a kettle, leaving it to boil. There was so much to consider. I woke up three in the morning today so I would have time, before preparing for work, to collect all the flying threads and piece together a coherent reply. Much apologies that this post is long, only that the question merits thought. Anyway, no doubt when I reread this later when I come back, I will laugh at myself wondering what was I on. I will use this post as an example of why you need caffeine first before doing anything at three in the morning. (Ran out of coffee) Anyway, have a great morning or evening wherever (whenever) you are. Time, you know. (Random music - <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tv8QFcgK2xs" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tv8QFcgK2xs</a> Throughout all this, to the question of plugging in, I keep thinking of Ghost in the Shell. I always hold GitS first movie (1995) as well as its two series -Stand Alone Complex and 2nd Gig as seminal examples of how anime can be used not only as a platform for story telling but also to provoke thought. Am kinda an anime geek. ^_^) (Wonder if anyone will read this post. If you have, I thank you.)
Zaki
2016-03-30 21:32:19 +0000 UTCYeah i think i would be plug in. Cause the real life you know the pleasure only because you know the pain so if you're plug in you don't know pain and therefore you don't know pleasur too. That's my philosophy, i want a perfect life with so many bitches and so many weed ! And my best friend and my parents resurect too... A wrong boring life against a good other boring life yeah plug me right now !
mrfangbang
2016-03-28 06:46:24 +0000 UTCI would not plug in... Because, reality with only pleasure seems boring... If I have only pleasure, then I won't have anything to compare it to, and even though it will be pleasurable I won't be happy... That what I think about it, I need unpleasant experience in order to feel happy when something comparably pleasant happens... I tried hedonist way of living before, and I hate that part of my life right now, even feel ashamed about it...
Timur Sultanov
2016-03-28 00:17:04 +0000 UTCI also think of myself as following a hedonistic ideal, but as stated I would not plug in but mainly because I reject the premise of experiment. Here is my reasoning. The experience machine is like a game, where painful experiences have a negative score and pleasurable ones have a positive score. However, by the definition of the parameters of the experiment, a hedonist is trying to maximize their score and not just keeping a positive number. If the machine were simulating scenario where option A was a painful experience (say -5), option B was slightly pleasurable (+5) and option C was very pleasurable (+15) the machine would eliminate A, but allow B or C. As a hedonist if I were given option B I’d feel pain because I did not get the maximum experience of C. OK, so now let’s say that the machine always calculates and gives the option with the highest pleasure always. This is not sustainable as each individual experience is not self-contained, previous experiences shape how we perceive the following experiences. So, unless the pleasure scores keep rising, the experiment breaks down because if the pleasure score for scenario 2 isn’t as high as scenario 1 it will still feel painful. And if it doesn keep increasing I do not believe such a machine could sustain the believability it also promises. This game theory is my way of spewing out that, my hedonism at least, is an active choice. I choose the things I do because both previous painful and pleasurable acts have taught me what is, or what is likely to be, the most pleasurable course of action for me going forward. I enjoy my time playing video games, but part of that pleasure comes from not being able to play them 24/7, that I choose to play them when I don’t have to work, or clean the house, or fulfil whatever life’s obligations keep me from playing Stardew Valley (my current game of choice). I probably have a lot more to say on this subject but I think I’ve rambled on for far too long as it is.
George Pai
2016-03-27 23:47:48 +0000 UTCI'm just scared of the unknown and change tbh, I'm reasonably happy where I am and plugging in even though it says you will only feel pleasure it's still a risk in my eyes, I'm happy and content with what I have and if I want more pleasure I want to do it myself not have a machine wave a magic wand and do it for me.
Liam
2016-03-27 22:24:32 +0000 UTCYeah, some people fear that if you completely remove all of the bad, you don't at all feel or appreciate the good anymore.
Tara Babcock
2016-03-27 22:20:15 +0000 UTCYeah... I think I would. >:D
Tara Babcock
2016-03-27 22:19:52 +0000 UTCI wouldn't plug in I'd be to afraid.
Liam
2016-03-27 22:10:39 +0000 UTCI would not plug in, pain and difficulties make you stronger and a better human being. Plugging in would be a cowards way out, face life head on and learn from the downs. This video is really Interesting. Thanks to you and Ian
Nathan Mark Chatterton
2016-03-27 19:39:42 +0000 UTCNo i wouldnt. But I wonder if one would want a life of limitless pleasure? If things are always a pleasure it becomes common and it is not a pleasure anymore. Its just a hollow life then. I agree with Pekkachu...Well if thats a pleasure i dunno...😉
rubbertongue888
2016-03-27 19:17:23 +0000 UTCI wouldn't. Sure reality can be and is more cruel and unforgiving. But knowing that, you will appreciate the good times in your live hole lot more, if u have gone for sorrow, loss, pain, sadness etc. (and as u know Tara, that story i told you. That is the perfect example of it.)
Pekka Laaksonen
2016-03-27 19:14:18 +0000 UTC
