Summary Of Nozick's Experience Machine

Nozick created his 'experience machine' thought experiment as a counter to psychological hedonism. His idea centers on a machine that, once you are plugged in, can place you in any experience that you desire. While you are floating in a tank, electrodes are stimulating your brain to provide experiences and sensations of an alternate reality. You are not aware that you are in a virtual world, nor do you have any knowledge of an outside world. Every stimulation that exists in the real world, the rush of endorphins upon meeting a new love, the icy wind cutting into your skin as you ski down the Rockies, would be perfectly replicated in the machine. All of the pleasures that you experience in the machine are equal to what you would feel in reality, without the socio-economic, physical, and emotional struggles of reality. The experience machine can provide the user any experience, so that the user has complete pleasure within their grasp. In this experiment, Nozick presents you with a choice: continue your life in your current reality, or plug into this machine and live your desired reality. Nozick’s argument then, is if hedonism were true, then the
Individuals with depression often distort experiences and thoughts and tend to view their life more negatively than normal. We cannot claim that the reality we live is the same as theirs. So, is the depressed person in a well enough mental state to make a choice in this thought experiment? There are numerous treatments and processes to manage psychiatric diseases, most of which emphasize a 'return to normalcy.' Though until the psychiatric diseases are treated, I would argue that the majority of depressed individuals would not be able to make a rational decision with their current mental