The Machine - A Thought Experiment That Changes Your Life（原声文稿）

Lawrence worked his whole life for this moment.

self-doubt, hardship, sacrifice, uncertainty, and all the rest.

fruits of his labor as they squeezed out from the very core of his life.

The day was August 12th, 2142.

most popular and respected biannual conference.

At which, the greatest thinkers, writers, leaders, and innovators of all sorts came their life's greatest presentations, laying intellectual community and general public at large.

reality, augmented reality and general streaming platform across the world.

and the audience knew what they had just experienced.

A beautiful and successful encapsulation of a life's work that would likely impact cognition, values, morality, and well-being forever.

adult life pursuing psychology, more specifically, his life, he had this intense compulsion to understand, rather, what he would go on to term, psychological worthiness, qualitative, conscious experience of their life.

variety of insights and theories along the way.

Up until more recently, now in his late 40s, his work had mostly gone unnoticed.

on the right track, that somehow everything was supposed to work this way.

would traditionally be considered rather miserable.

wall, or before things got too bad or unmanageable.

right into that destination of limelight, and giving him everything he ever wanted.

state of life's worthiness, the very premise of his life's work.

people, both general and virtual attendees as well as other speakers.

enough to become involved in his work or get him involved in theirs.

hid on him, which he politely had to decline, pointing revealing a flawlessly attractive woman who, by all physical tried to get out of the majority of the interactions particular, however, was extremely interesting to Lawrence.

actually hoped to get an opportunity to speak with him.

noticeably distinct and almost separate about him.

black with strange straight down hair, an unusual almost Just like he was trying too hard to fit in, but was a few decades too early.

computer technology two days prior to Lawrence's talk.

ambitious, interesting, and curious talk of the entire conference so far.

announcing a soon-to-be publicly available technology, defines and separates an entire period of history from all the prior.

Technology and was the founder of the company being built around it.

people the option to opt out of their lives.

their desired experience of life, users would then step into cryogenic chambers, neural patterns and perceptual states, and ultimately simulating an entirely new, different life for the remainder of the user's biological life.

ones to match with their desired storylines, experiences, and conditions.

populations of artificially intelligent beings who could then be interacted that would be arguably equivalent to interacting with biological human minds.

mental ailments, like body paralysis, comas, unresolvable depression, trauma, or worse.

many, even here, it was still certainly debatable.

However, it was federally approved in most countries, which was enough.

was to allow ordinary, otherwise healthy people to use the technology.

This was met by both worldwide support and worldwide contempt.

sticking point with the technology was that it essentially or exited from, since once inside, the user pose serious mental risks when trying to readjust back.

fully opt out of their own life until the end of their life.

good reasons, actually be the preferable option.

completely fascinating and completely nonsensical.

talk and key theories of well-being and human values.

Lawrence was excited to engage in a discussion with him.

potential collaboration or debate could be planted for the future.

broader philosophical topics, and then finally narrowed back in on the new life technology and its implications.

few more beers were poured and emptied, the intensity increased.

presumed, that consumers would and should desire to leave their life for life was relatively bad, and the new life could be anything they wanted.

live in what is purely pleasurable, easy, desirable, and designed form of things over the mere pleasure of what things can give us.

The uncertainties and ups and downs of life are important, essential even. The negatives as much as the positives.

things to ultimately become meaningful or worthwhile or perhaps even capable of being experienced at all. law," Lawrence said to the man.

that life was best lived with ups and downs, they could just program that in. It need not be pure pleasure, Lawrence.

I don't disagree with you on that point, but that doesn't discredit the technology.

desirable, but I am suggesting plugging into a purely desirable life, the man replied. Yes, but people still want what is real.

relevant to human experience beyond the actual feeling of experiences.

Humans want to earn their way to pleasure, to reward, to meaning.

They want to be and do within truth, even if it's painful or hard.

Perhaps even if it's only painful and hard with no reward.

predetermined at the beginning, it's undesirable, and most won't do it. And they shouldn't. Lawrence went on with. Why not?

the most desirable experience of life, or greatest well-being or whatever else you called it? I forget what term you used in your work.

preferred state that truth will give you, worthiness.

Lawrence quickly interjected to confirm his preferred terminology. Okay, worthiness.

of positive personal value, then it would not merely be a life defined rather, the most optimal experience of life in total, regardless.

Sure, Lawrence interjected with hesitancy.

one's experience of it being so, or perhaps more accurately, the experience of their believing it to be.

being cut back off, and if so, then any and to perfection within our machines, concluded the man.

without even having to look any further into that argument.

I would still say that you're missing the most important part.

reality are not real, none of it's real, and that's fundamental." clenched lips, and then asked Lawrence with a noticeable tinge of sarcasm. So, then, you don't want to do it.

smiling and rolling his eyes with a reciprocated note of sarcasm. him. We could really use you," the man added.

I think a mind like yours could help is both inside and outside.

Your ideas are really what's probably missing.

people have gone in for short windows of time and come back out just fine.

opportunity there if you were ever interested.

ethically wrong with any of it, Lawrence interrupted.

like this life. It hasn't been easy, but it's real.

pass." Okay. The man said with the final, accepting head nod.

Lawrence and said, Then would you like to exit this one? Another shorter pause followed this.

The bar? Lawrence replied with a short, confused laugh underneath his words.

towards Lawrence and took off his augmented reality going to have to try to bear with me here, but you man paused again to let Lawrence process the successfully do either, but could only laugh, believing joking or messing with him.

I know this is hard, But this, right now, is actually an exit checkpoint essentially came up with and scripted this entire conversation as a method of gauging your own interest in continuing or leaving without revealing longer interested in the idea of being in here.

And it seems to me that you just stated that. Another brief pause hung between them.

glasses back on and swiped his hand a couple times in relation to them.

The entire bar, all the other people, objects, everything turned pure white.

truth of what was happening, or rather, sort of not happening.

before in base reality, I can send an alert signal that will trigger a cease to the simulation right now.

Lawrence, and this is the only checkpoint you currently have.

and this memory is erased, and that's almost certainly the end of any way out.

Lawrence, now petrified, began to noticeably and physically panic.

The man grabbed Lawrence by both his shoulders and calmed him down.

Once he was calmed down enough, Lawrence quickly asked, what was before?

files only visible to him through his glasses.

Then he said, Before was similar in the overall fundamental sense.

aspiring psychologist, especially interested in neuropsychology.

But you were, are, beginning to get somewhat old, and you're mid-hundreds now.

becoming a leading thinker or theorist in this field.

You were alone romantically in lower middle class.

Again, that's all according to your own self-approved report.

Lawrence looked down at his lap in indescribable shock. Then he looked back up. Why?

was your dream to do what you did here at this conference.

important, successful, revolutionary neuropsychologist.

Yeah, a real one. Lawrence quickly interjected. The man paused and looked more directly at him. You are a real one.

while Lawrence tried to make sense of this ridiculous seeming comment.

early trial member to help develop this technology.

cognitive changes before, during, and after, and most evidence on how to best set up psychological and neurological conditions.

You're helping build a library of reliable experiences and states to be selected here are real.

They have and will help people you know remember.

And Lawrence, is there really any reason to believe isn't real if one cannot know the difference?

two. So, the man said, would you like to stay or leave?