Happiness Unplugged

Ever perform what philosophers call a “thought-experiment” and imagine that you could be somewhere else, someone else? What if it these things were possible? Would you do it? Would it make you happy? (Click here for more thought experiments.)

In his essay titled “The Experience Machine,” philosopher, Robert Nozick (that's Nozick in the photo at right) argues that doing so would constitute “a kind of suicide.” But not everyone agrees, in The Matrix, the character Cypher (Joe Pantoliano) asserts it would be “bliss.” If movies make you happy (are movies experience machines?) and you are interested in using the vehicle of contemporary cinema to ponder whether we are “brains in vats” (as philosopher Hilary Putnam--a man, by the way--put it in his essay “Brains in Vats;" click on this link to read a discussion of it), then you might want to watch, among others:

 The Matrix (1999)

Vanilla Sky (2001) 

Cold Souls (2009)  

Surrogates (2009) 

Tron: Legacy (2010) 

or the older….Altered States (1980) 

and Lawnmower Man (1992)

Any others that need to be added to this list?

This post has been crafted for you by Dr. Jennifer McMahon