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Nozick's Experience Machine

Have you ever contemplated brain lobotomy after an embarrassing moment, a bad break-up, or finding out something you wish you never did? I never really thought about it until a friend brought it up. For those who don't know, a brain lobotomy is a neurosurgical procedure that consists of cutting the connections to and from the prefrontal cortex (courtesy of wikipedia).It's a procedure used to control or reduce the effects of a whole bunch of mental disorders. In a nutshell, it disassociates emotional attachment to painful memories. I'm sure if it were an effective and successful procedure it would be as common as Botox. Sure it looks painful (seriously gory and painful) but let's pretend it's not. My question is, if the practice was safe, affordable and widely available would you consider it? Would you want to disconnect your feelings and emotions from a particular distressing memory?

I like to believe that there is a whole lot of unnecessary bullshit I have put up with in my life. But I actually don't know if I would want to remove it or distance myself from it. It's made me who I am and it is a huge part of me. If I had a lobotomy every time I was disappointed or distraught, I don't know if I could appreciate the times where I was happy. I think for me, the lows are just as important as the highs in my life. It gives my life meaning and depth. I love that I'm a healthy bipolar- I can be over the top happy (like monkey go crazy happy) and have moments where I feel like rotting death.

Have you heard of Nozick's Experience Machine? Nozick illustrates an experience machine that gives you any experience you desire. While you're inside of this machine, you're connected to a whole bunch of electrodes controlled by neuropsychologists that stimulate your brain to make you think, feel and visualize desirable experiences. The way it would work is, you get to choose from a library of researched and popular desirable experiences. If you couldn't find what you were looking for, there are options and resources available for you to customize your experience. You would pick out enough experiences for the next two years. Essentially, every two years you would wake up, take ten minutes to ten hours outside of the tank to pick out the next two years of your life. Of course, while you're in the tank you wouldn't really know that you're in a tank. You would think and feel like it's actually happening. Would you plug in? Nozick asks, "What else can matter to us, other than how our lives feel from the inside?".

I would love to hear your comments, so please feel free to share your answers below!
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