kristin hatland

In the return of the dark ages, I continue my examination into the phenomena of the State’s intrusion into our lives (society) and its increasing control and manipulation thereof. There was a popular film trilogy that dealt with this topic, viz, ‘The Matrix’ which was an artistic expression of Nozick’s thought experiment written in 1974. “Suppose there were an experience machine that would give you any experience you desired. Neurophysiologists could stimulate your brain so that you would think and feel that you were writing a great novel... All the time you would be floating in a tank, with electrodes attached to your brain”. The thought experiment poses the question; ‘given the choice, what option would an individual choose - the fantasy, or, reality? Utilitarianism, proposed by Jeremy Bentham in the 18th Century, concluded that moral decisions that run counter to our intuition should be embraced, rather than the scientific basis for moral and social decision making, which he felt had resulted in chaotic and incoherent intuitions and on which so called natural rights and natural law have been based. Bentham stated - “prejudice apart, the game of push-pin is of equal value with the arts and sciences, of music and poetry”. J.S. Mill, a contemporary of Bentham, argued a hierarchy of values, some lower, some higher, “the life of Socrates dissatisfied is better than the fool satisfied” articulates this cardinal value system. Essentially then, the increasing intrusion of the State into individual’s lives embraces and articulates the utilitarianism of Bentham, in which the hooking up of the brain to the electrodes (State interventions through policy and law), result in an increasing number of life’s decisions that are systematically removed from their (an individual’s) contemplation. This represents (and I would argue, results in) a regression of the moral and intellectual society which acts as a filter to the rate and type of technological, ethical, and social innovation, which proceeds unabated. My artwork comments upon the moral compass that filters life’s experiences and challenges, arguing that Mill’s hierarchy of (value) utilitarianism is preferable to Bentham’s version of (pleasure) utilitarianism.