A thought to throw in to this - research on addiction seems to suggest that what we want, and what we like, are not as correlated as we tend to think (see https://www.apa.org/pubs/highlights/spotlight/issue-69 for example).
It seems to me that capitalism is very good at acting on 'wants' but not very good at acting on 'likes'. Plausibly, an experience machine based on desires could be very unsatisfying but an experience machine that could help link our desires to what actually brings fulfilment could be very powerful indeed.
A thought to throw in to this - research on addiction seems to suggest that what we want, and what we like, are not as correlated as we tend to think (see https://www.apa.org/pubs/highlights/spotlight/issue-69 for example).
It seems to me that capitalism is very good at acting on 'wants' but not very good at acting on 'likes'. Plausibly, an experience machine based on desires could be very unsatisfying but an experience machine that could help link our desires to what actually brings fulfilment could be very powerful indeed.