A Bear and Nozick Teach Happiness

          The Waldo Moment is a Black Mirror episode in which a cartoon bear, voiced by a man named Jayme, began as a comedic enterprise ended up running for an election. To be clear the cartoon bear, named Waldo, ran for office not the man behind him. If you are wondering how could this happen, basically the people became disenfranchised with their current politicians and believed they were not really cared about by the government and voting for a cartoon bear could vent their anger.
          The episode struck home with me because of how startling close the people in there and the people out here areand also how it portrays how a person thinks. For example it can be assumed that Jayme more than likely had a lot of money due to the fact of how successful Waldo was with the public. Even though he is not directly famous, Waldo is and thus he can reap the rewards that Waldo produces. Now having money does not necessarily mean happiness it also does not necessarily dwindle it either. But what we see at the end is that Jayme was tired of the success of Waldo during the election and was incredulous at why the people were voting for a cartoon bear. He sacrificed all of his potential success to make a stand for something he believed in. This just goes to show how the human mind works, and that happiness is not always the most important thing to a person. This point is also pointed out in "The Experience Machine," by Robert Nozick. In his thought experiment he states that humans want experiences of connections with others that bring about happiness rather than happiness in it of itself. We as humans would rather have fluctuations of happiness rather than happiness all of the time because it helps to contribute our life's meaning. I would personally rather live a thoughtful life with meaningful shared connections with other people rather than constant feelings of pleasure. We enjoy the internal feeling of pleasure as a response to something that we did. It makes it more meaningful to us.
          This episode put me in perspective and made me think what happiness was and how important it is. Now I personally believe that it is vital to a person and people should pursue it, just not in way in which it separates them from their common man. It is like the example of higher pleasures and lower pleasures. It may take a while and unhappiness to achieve those higher pleasures but when you do it makes all of the difference. Nozick quotes John Stuart Mill in his experiment when he says," it is better to be a human being dissatisfied than a pig satisfied."

Virtual Escape

           It’s crazy how much of the world around us is digital: TV, video games, phones, tablets, even watches! In many ways, these objects make our lives so much easier and allow us to become so much more advanced as compared to our ancestors. However, the human mind is becoming so dependent on the virtual world, it can alter our perception of what is real. The other day, while at the grocery store, I noticed a toddler, sitting in the grocery basket, with his eyes glued to his phone. This makes his mother’s life a lot easier, as she doesn’t have to constantly watch him. However, the toddler is already exposed to the digital world at such a young age. Being exposed to this so young, makes the digital world an almost inseparable part of the child’s life. Due to this dependence, the digital world has the ability to influence human beings, even though digital characters, shows, etc. are not technically “real.”  

            On the surface, this doesn’t seem like that big of a deal. After all, the digital world is a daily part of all our lives. However, as the Black Mirror episode, “The Waldo Moment,” portrays, since the digital world is so present in our everyday lives, it can blur peoples’ distinction between real life and digital media. The character Waldo is so loved by his fans that he gets second place in a real political election. While he didn’t win the entire thing, at the end of the episode, he is able to start a riot among the crowd because of how much power he holds over the people. While it seems extremely obscure to think that real human beings would vote for a fictional character, “The Waldo Moment” explains how this concept isn’t that absurd.

People enjoy video games and TV because they are an escape. If you’re tired of everyday life, it’s easy to hook up your gaming system and go get lost in the Victorian world of Assassin’s Creed for a couple hours. During the politician open question panel, Jamie uses the real life complaints about politicians to give Waldo more credibility and support. He calls out Gwendolyn, explaining how she’s dishonest because she is only using the campaign to boost her career. While Waldo is a digital character, his fictional persona is what causes him to hold so much power over the people. They like him because he isn’t a typical human being. On top of this, he is a TV character that everyone is exposed to because of peoples’ dependence on the media.

This episode presents the scary possibility that, due to dependence on the digital world, people could prefer virtual reality to “real” reality. In Robert Nozick’s “The Experience Machine,” Nozick explains how “plugging into an experience machine limits us to a man-made reality” (Nozick 122). He mentions how human beings would not be content with living out their wildest dreams within their mind while hooked up to an experience machine because they would not be able to physically take part in the experiences or be their own person (121). However, “The Waldo Moment” displays how peoples’ dependence on virtual characters, shows, and games can blur the lines of reality. By putting their support in a virtual character, the people are not displaying their preference to real life but to fiction.

            While the digital age helps makes our lives tremendously easier, it is becoming all we know. The voters in “The Waldo Moment” did not find it weird to vote for a fictional character because of how regularly fictional characters are in our lives. In Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave,” the prisoners only know life in the cave. As time progresses, more and more younger children only know digital media. While helpful, this could also easily display the virtual world as reality.    

The Plugged In Reality

The question of reality and experience is one that is often pondered upon by many. In a Black Mirror episode called San Junipero, this idea of reality is presented in a unique light. Once one is unable to have their own experiences through illness, death, or old age, they have the option to enter into the world of San Junipero. It is a city in a year of their choosing where everyone who has entered into this reality can have life experiences as if they were healthy, young, and/or living during that time period. Two women, Yorkie and Kelly, have met and fallen in love in this new reality. However, in the real world, Yorkie is about to be pulled off life support and has chosen to enter into this reality permanently. Kelly, on the other hand, is old and getting more sick, but does not wish to cross over permanently after death.

Like in The Experience Machine by Robert Nozick, there is much debate on whether or not one should enter into this new world. The argument between Kelly and Yorkie begins with Yorkie probing as to why Kelly would not want to live eternally in this perfect world with her. Much to Yorkie’s surprise, Kelly was married and lost a daughter before this technology was available. When Kelly’s husband passed he chose not to live eternally in this new reality because his daughter never had the chance to. Kelly had the same mentality; she has lived a full life. She was married, had a child, and lost both her daughter and husband. Yorkie did not have an opportunity to live her life. She was paralyzed in a car accident at a young age after coming out to her parents as a lesbian.

The Experience Machine addresses the different situations Yorkie and Kelly are in by addressing the question of experience. Is a false reality and experience worth living for? In Yorkie’s mind, it is because Yorkie’s experiences in San Junipero are the only life experiences she has had outside of adolescents. In Kelly’s mind, it isn’t because she has had a full life outside this false reality of San Junipero.

Kelly seems to have had some traumatic life experiences that she does not want to continue remembering into her enternal life. Yorkie did not have the opportunity to have as many life experiences and wishes to continue her life in San Junipero. Kelly does decide to life eternally in San Junipero, but I do not know if I would have made the same decision in her situation. 

Music, Experience, Life: Discussing Score in "San Junipero" and the Immersion of "The Experience Machine"

Robert Nozick writes of the details and denial, the reasoning behind our hesitation, in using a machine that can emulate life itself. “San Junipero” seems to mirror his doubts in neon lights and decades of imitation, recognizable despite the viewer’s age. The Black Mirror episode begins with experiences that feel familiar, even to an audience that may not have ever felt the desperation or annoyance that Wes and Kelly feel respectively, the chase after someone who doesn’t love you back. Then there is Yorkie, walking alone and expressing a sense of uncertainty even in the way she walks, that feeling just before entering a party that has played across movie screens since film came about--familiar without certain experience. Those reflected experiences reverberate back into the audience, simulating the experience machine Nozick describes without any explanation or background knowledge of Robert Nozick needed. The parallel, once acknowledged, between the idea of the machine and the episode, is striking. Yet San Junipero goes one step deeper, taking the “suicide” described by Nozick as literal.

The score specifically highlights the difference between the machine and life. When inside the machine, the score plays slow and increasing in volume, in long drawn notes, just as in a movie. But in moments of quiet, of muted music, there is a sense of the distance from reality. In the quiet moments, Kelly and Yorkie talk of their lives, talk of sadness and pain. There is loneliness in silence, or minimal sound, and therefore reality as Yorkie is literally reminded of their reality as Kelly disappears at midnight while she is left behind when the music abruptly cuts off. The scenes in reality are all in silence or filled with dialogue, just as in our lives there is no score. Kelly chooses music, chooses neon, and so chooses Yorkie. Yet, as real as the town feels, Kelly earlier pointed out the irony in the machine. It cannot substitute life, but she decided it didn’t matter. Nozick argues that we will not choose the machine because it cannot substitute life--yet San Junipero suggests that perhaps despite that, it would still be chosen especially if it was as if life itself never ended. Even the music follows the similar idea, the couple driving away to the bright singing. It is interesting the San Junipero makes so much use of scoring to explain the unexplainable emotions of life versus the experience machine that Nozick even writes cannot be explained. This score immerses an audience, then breaks immersion, almost exactly as the experience machine might that Nozick describes. Why is the scoring of a film so important? How does a score express unexplainable ideas that even philosophers find difficult to express?