Hedonism is a lifestyle rooted in a person's experiences or states of consciousness that may be pleasant or unpleasant. The ethical egoist would claim that a person should maximize their pleasant states of consciousness to lead their best life. Act Utilitarian on the other hand would state that these pleasant states of consciousness should be maximized by one's actions for everyone in order to achieve maximum utility. On the surface, this appears to be a good way to live, however, as Nozick states through his example of the experience machine, living life as a hedonist can be harmful. It is an empty existence that will ultimately be unsatisfying due to the lack of real decisions and relationships that are important to living a fulfilling life. Nozick's experience machine creates experiences based on selections made by humans themselves for their individual. Every two years they are required to make this selection feeling a certain anguish (in reality they live in a floating tank). Then they immerse themselves in a false world for another two years and so on (Timmons, 122-123). He believes that rational humans would choose not to plug into the experience machine because they would want the real experience of life instead of a virtual existence. The reality they are given is superficial and will not satisfy them for long. Mainly because it does not allow them to develop their own persona, or personality, strips away their human qualities and turns each of them into an “indeterminate blob” (Timmons, 123). In reality, this is a man-made world that provides nothing more than a selection of experiences to choose from, it is not a real experience that an individual can have. It's... about paper... making actual decisions, not selecting favorable experiences (which remain unchanged over the course of two years). In reality, relationships provide richness to pleasure, intensifying it more than any false pleasure could have been. There is always the challenge of trying, learning, failing and finally achieving. This achievement also offers greater pleasure because one can distinguish between the lowest level (failure) and overcoming it at its highest level (success). Hedonists should understand that it is important to be in tune with the totality of reality, rather than experiencing only certain aspects of it. Works Cited Timmons, Mark. Conduct and character: readings in moral theory. Boston, MA: Wadsworth, 2012. Print."Allegory of the Cave." UW Faculty Web Server. Network. February 19. 2012. .