<P> In philosophy , the brain in a vat ( alternately known as brain in a jar ) is a scenario used in a variety of thought experiments intended to draw out certain features of human conceptions of knowledge , reality , truth , mind , consciousness and meaning . It is an updated version of René Descartes ' Evil Demon thought experiment originated by Gilbert Harman . Common to many science fiction stories , it outlines a scenario in which a mad scientist , machine , or other entity might remove a person 's brain from the body , suspend it in a vat of life - sustaining liquid , and connect its neurons by wires to a supercomputer which would provide it with electrical impulses identical to those the brain normally receives . According to such stories , the computer would then be simulating reality ( including appropriate responses to the brain 's own output ) and the `` disembodied '' brain would continue to have perfectly normal conscious experiences , such as those of a person with an embodied brain , without these being related to objects or events in the real world . </P>
<P> In philosophy , the brain in a vat ( alternately known as brain in a jar ) is a scenario used in a variety of thought experiments intended to draw out certain features of human conceptions of knowledge , reality , truth , mind , consciousness and meaning . It is an updated version of René Descartes ' Evil Demon thought experiment originated by Gilbert Harman . Common to many science fiction stories , it outlines a scenario in which a mad scientist , machine , or other entity might remove a person 's brain from the body , suspend it in a vat of life - sustaining liquid , and connect its neurons by wires to a supercomputer which would provide it with electrical impulses identical to those the brain normally receives . According to such stories , the computer would then be simulating reality ( including appropriate responses to the brain 's own output ) and the `` disembodied '' brain would continue to have perfectly normal conscious experiences , such as those of a person with an embodied brain , without these being related to objects or events in the real world . </P>
who came up with the brain in a vat theory
who came up with the brain in a vat theory
an updated version of René Descartes ' Evil Demon thought experiment originated by Gilbert Harman
an updated version of René Descartes ' Evil Demon thought experiment originated by Gilbert Harman