Think Matrix. . .

If you could wear a helmet that put you into a blissful simulation, while affluent overlords used your body for labor, pumped in nutrients, managed your reproductive needs, and killed you when everything started falling apart, would you do it?

Isn't that close to what they do now, except we have to feed ourselves and there's no magic hat?

Yeah, pretty much.

If there were a magic hat that made your life Heaven, while your body worked subconsciously, would you wear it?

Probably no, because I value freedom and truth a lot.

But on the other hand I'm aaterialist and from my point of view choice is just an illusion because the universe seems to be deterministic. That makes the so called freedom kind of meaningless because you don't choose anything.

AI with 3D Facebook glasses it going into that direction!

Depends what my left behind husk is labouring for. If this is the grand plan for humanity - we all go into a simulated utopia and leave our bodies behind to maintain it - sure. If it's for something evil, nah.

No. I want bliss that i have to claw and bleed and wrest from the earth with my teeth. I want the misery too

We did - don’t you remember?

How well is my real body taken care of? If I can expect normal or even higher duration of life (due to nutrition being managed and not at the whim of my sweet tooth) then yeah, I'd probably do it. Otherwise it's really iffy.

This question reminds me of the time someone in my engineering design class group asked the question "if you were hired to work at Lockheed Martin for a VERY good wage, would you take it?" and I was the only one out of the five of us that said no.

Hey you, you're finally awake.

I would like to say no, but let's be real. I can't even be 100% sure that I am NOT already in a simulation. And if it's a really good simulation... I mean I got hooked with effing Minecraft, what are the chances I would ever want to get out of the blissful one?

Note to the overlords: just put a meaningless counter on top and give me a way to "level up" sometimes and we're good ok? Do what you want with my body. It's not even great anyway, it spends a lot of time on a couch.

Am I aware I’m in the simulation once I’m there?

Everyone has a price. If your price is the love of your life and an eternity to live with her, where everything you want is procured – would you work at Lockheed Martin if they could provide that?

I would. I'd just make sure to sabotage them as much as I could without them taking this away from me.

In case you weren’t aware, this is basically the premise for a philosophical thought experiment called an Experience Machine. It was first posed by Robert Nozick in an attempt to challenge hedonism.

Here’s the wiki in case you’re interested.

If you could wear a helmet that put you into a blissful simulation, while affluent overlords used your body for labor, pumped in nutrients, managed your reproductive needs, and killed you when everything started falling apart, would you do it?

the entire western world is doing it right now. lol. the only difference is that our helmet is invisible because it's made out of propaganda.

No. I already have that in reality tho I guess. In a “what about” world where this is true, I would not work for Lockheed Martin. This comment makes me a little sad cuz I can tell it’s a little personal and you said “her” … pretty specific dude! Don’t work at LM for some pussy man we’re all better than that!

the price here is both the shattering of your moral compass and the lives of whoever is on the receiving end of the weapons you help create. it is never worth it

Why would you ask th.....?
Ohhhhh... I get it. It's a rhetorical question.
Okay, so where's the button to turn this thing off?
You're not fooling me AI agent KI4JGT!

managed your reproductive needs

Go ooon...please elaborate.

Well, they'd select the longest workers, with the minimal nutrient requirements, and breed them, lol.

Oh, nevermind. Pass.

I thought you meant they would take care of my reproductive needs whilst I was in this blissful simulation.

You meant they would manage my reproduction, as in own and use it for the machine overlords' benefit.

Nah, I'm good.

Depends. Could my family come too and we play multiplayer?

If you asked me 20 years ago I'd have signed up so fast and would actually have gotten a little resentful when finding out its just hypothetical. Now, I'm needed. There's nothing you could offer me that would be worth more than being here for the kids.

If you want to be.

This is it.

i'm pretty sure that most people wouldn't. that is simply due to the reason that some kind of exotic overlord cannot be trusted with my actual wellbeing.

we all know how capitalism goes. it starts well, until they decide that you're no longer of use, at which point they dispose of you. and that's exactly what would happen in this case. so no.

what if you are the overlord yourself? i.e. you manage your own life, kind of like in a video game. but also you're in a (different) simulation at the same time. yeah, confusing, i know.

You're just using different words to describe wage-labour.

Let me dust off some British journals where governors debate how many women are needed to be sent to colonies to maintain order.

That's basically:

Hang the DJ - Episode of Black Mirror (S4 E4)

No, I have a family