Hypothetical Scenario: Creation of a \"Sensory Bar\" and the First Meditation of Rene Descartes

¶ … Hypothetical Scenario:

The creation of a "sensory bar" and the First Meditation of Rene Descartes

At the beginning of the "First Meditation" the French philosopher Rene Descartes takes a philosophical posture known as radical skepticism: he resolves to doubt anything that cannot be proven. After all, he rationalizes, he is aware of the fact that sometimes he is dreaming and since this is the case, might not all the world be a dream? "As if I were not a man who sleeps at night and often has all the same experiences while asleep as madmen do when awake -- indeed sometimes even more improbable ones. Often in my dreams I am convinced of just such familiar events -- that I am sitting by the fire in my dressing-gown -- when in fact I am lying undressed in bed" (Descartes 1). The "sensory module" theoretically attempts to circumvent this possibility, alerting the user whenever he or she is misperceiving the world, either because of dreaming or simply not wearing his or her glasses.

However, this solution is a very literal and unsatisfactory answer to the deeper philosophical questions Descartes is raising. Descartes' skepticism is so radical, he would merely counter that it is possible that the sensory bar itself and the data which it gives back is a dream. True, when we are dreaming the machine reads "zero percent accuracy." But how is this reading not a dream? What about the idea that we are in 2500 AD? Might not that be a dream as well? The fact that the sensory bar seems to confirm the accuracy of our perceptions about the dreaming and non-dreaming world might simply mean that it simply, consistently confirms our error, as it is part of a larger hallucination of which we are a part. "I realize that there is never any reliable way of distinguishing being awake from being asleep" (Descartes 2). Although we might occasionally experience a strong sense of demarcation between the waking and dreaming world, this might itself be a delusion.

Even the sensation of having a body is not necessarily a confirmation that our senses are accurate. "Suppose then that I am dreaming -- it isn't true that I, with my eyes open, am moving my head and stretching out my hands. Suppose, indeed that I don't even have hands or anybody at all" (Descartes 2). The sensory bar is just another, glorified version of our hands, eyes, tongue, and other methods of accessing the world. These can be delusions and these also can yield false data. It is just as possible to "test" the accuracy of our hands by touching our fingers to a hot plate and then noting that they are singed. But just like the "zero percent" accuracy reading of the sensory bar, the burn on our fingers could be assumed to be a delusion.

Descartes' skepticism is radical to the point that he suggests all other beings in the world might be products of our altered, unstable consciousness. This includes the scientists that created the "sensory bar" as well as the sensory bar itself. Radical skepticism suggests that the entire exterior world is in doubt. The only possible solution to this uncertainty is the concept of "I think, therefore I am," namely Descartes' contention that there must be some being doing the thinking. The only scientific data Descartes considers to be valuable is what can be determined through logical reasoning and analysis, such as mathematics, versus empirical sciences such as biology (which requires taking in data through the senses) or even engineering (which is the mode of scientific study which produced the "energy bar") "So it seems reasonable to conclude that physics, astronomy, medicine, and all other sciences dealing with things that have complex structures are doubtful; while arithmetic, geometry and other studies of the simplest and most genera" (Descartes 2). Geometry proceeds from a system of logical proofs and requires no validation in the external world unlike medicine which can only really be tested using our imperfect senses.

Descartes, for the purpose of his essay even doubts the existence of God, hypothetically suggesting that his notion of a benign, omnipotent being who is good might be in error and all the world is merely the product of a delusion-generating demon. "I shall think that the sky, the air, the earth, colours, shapes, sounds and all external things are merely dreams that the demon has contrived as traps for my judgment. I shall consider myself as having no hands or eyes, or flesh, or blood or senses, but as having falsely believed that I had all these things" (Descartes 3). If God himself can be doubted, then a mechanical creation such as the sensory bar can also be in doubt. The scientists or the bar could be products of the delusional demon or the scientists themselves that create the bar could be demons.