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 our ideas 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.