Robert Nozick uses experience machine thought experiment. The purpose of the machine is to show something matters to us and “how things feel from the inside.” Nozick develops the connection between happiness and the experience machine in The Examined Life. He thinks that happiness is a kind of emotion which is characterized by both positive feelings and positive judgment about how our lives are going, is the highest activity of the soul in conformity with excellence and virtue. Given that happiness is a positive emotion, Nozick has no difficulty imagining why people find it desirable, but he argues that it is not the only emotion which has no connection with others, but it is a fitting response to people’s situation. That is, “What we want, in short, is a life and a self that happiness is a fitting response to – then to give it that response” (p. 117). So we should not just think about happiness itself, but we should care about doing things in our lives which can make us happy. He defines happiness in a way such that it is necessarily of limited value. He suggests happiness is connected to reality in a way that is more direct than what the experience machine offers is important.
How do we acquire happiness? People always are in order to obtain the final happiness to choose honor, pleasure, intelligence and all virtues. It is correct in theory. But many people cannot success in reality. Therefore, people should be self-sufficient. When people get more, the more they want. So people should find many things to make them happy. Sometimes people want to be happy, but they cannot get it without struggle. Happiness does not exist all the time, people should work for it.

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