David Pearce (born April 1959) is a British

transhumanist Transhumanism is a philosophical and intellectual movement that advocates the human enhancement, enhancement of the human condition by developing and making widely available new and future technologies that can greatly enhance longevity, cogni ...

philosopher. He is the co-founder of the World Transhumanist Association, currently rebranded and incorporated as Humanity+. Pearce approaches ethical issues from a negative utilitarian perspective. Based in

Brighton Brighton ( ) is a seaside resort in the city status in the United Kingdom, city of Brighton and Hove, East Sussex, England, south of London. Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze Age Britain, Bronze Age, R ...

, England, Pearce maintains a series of websites devoted to transhumanist topics and what he calls the "hedonistic imperative", a moral obligation to work towards the

abolition of suffering The eradication of suffering or abolition of suffering is a proposed goal within biotechnology and ethics to eliminate involuntary pain and suffering in all sentient beings. The concept involves using advanced techniques in genetic engineering, n ...

in all sentient life. His self-published internet manifesto, ''The Hedonistic Imperative'' (1995), outlines how

pharmacology Pharmacology is the science of drugs and medications, including a substance's origin, composition, pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, therapeutic use, and toxicology. More specifically, it is the study of the interactions that occur betwee ...

genetic engineering Genetic engineering, also called genetic modification or genetic manipulation, is the modification and manipulation of an organism's genes using technology. It is a set of Genetic engineering techniques, technologies used to change the genet ...

nanotechnology Nanotechnology is the manipulation of matter with at least one dimension sized from 1 to 100 nanometers (nm). At this scale, commonly known as the nanoscale, surface area and quantum mechanical effects become important in describing propertie ...

and

neurosurgery Neurosurgery or neurological surgery, known in common parlance as brain surgery, is the specialty (medicine), medical specialty that focuses on the surgical treatment or rehabilitation of disorders which affect any portion of the nervous system ...

could

converge Converge may refer to: * Converge (band), American hardcore punk band * Converge (Baptist denomination), American national evangelical Baptist body * Limit (mathematics) In mathematics, a limit is the value that a function (or sequence) app ...

to eliminate all forms of unpleasant experience from human and non-human life, replacing suffering with "information-sensitive gradients of bliss".Bostrom (2005)
15. Pearce calls this the "abolitionist project".

Early life and education

Pearce grew up in Burpham, Surrey. His parents, grandparents and three of his great-grandparents were all

vegetarian Vegetarianism is the practice of abstaining from the Eating, consumption of meat (red meat, poultry, seafood, insects as food, insects, and the flesh of any other animal). It may also include abstaining from eating all by-products of animal slau ...

and his father was a

Quaker Quakers are people who belong to the Religious Society of Friends, a historically Protestant Christian set of denominations. Members refer to each other as Friends after in the Bible, and originally, others referred to them as Quakers ...

. From a young age, Pearce was concerned with death and aging, and later the problem of suffering. He became a secular scientific rationalist around the age of 10 or 11. Pearce received a scholarship to study Politics, Philosophy and Economics at the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

, but never finished his degree.

Hedonistic transhumanism

In 1995, Pearce set up BLTC Research, a network of websites publishing texts about transhumanism and related topics in

and biopsychiatry. He published ''The Hedonistic Imperative'' that year, arguing that " r post-human successors will rewrite the vertebrate genome, redesign the global ecosystem, and abolish suffering throughout the living world." Pearce's ideas inspired an abolitionist school of transhumanism, or "hedonistic transhumanism", based on his idea of "paradise engineering" and his argument that the abolition of suffering—which he calls the "abolitionist project"—is a moral imperative.Thweatt-Bates, Jeanine (2016). ''Cyborg Selves: A Theological Anthropology of the Posthuman''. London: Routledge, 50–51 (first published 2012). He defends a version of negative utilitarianism. He outlines how drugs and technologies, including

intracranial self-stimulation Brain stimulation reward (BSR) is a pleasurable phenomenon elicited via direct stimulation of specific brain regions, originally discovered by James Olds and Peter Milner. BSR can serve as a robust operant reinforcer. Targeted stimulation activ ...

(" wireheading"),

designer drug A designer drug is a structural or functional analog of a controlled substance that has been designed to mimic the pharmacological effects of the original drug, while avoiding classification as illegal and/or detection in standard drug tests. ...

s and genetic engineering could end suffering for all sentient life. Mental suffering will be a relic of the past, just as physical suffering during surgery was eliminated by

anaesthesia Anesthesia (American English) or anaesthesia (British English) is a state of controlled, temporary loss of sensation or awareness that is induced for medical or veterinary purposes. It may include some or all of analgesia (relief from or prev ...

. The function of pain will be provided by some other signal, without the unpleasant experience. A

vegan Veganism is the practice of abstaining from the use of animal products and the consumption of animal source foods, and an associated philosophy that rejects the commodity status of animals. A person who practices veganism is known as a ve ...

, Pearce argues that humans have a responsibility not only to avoid

cruelty to animals Cruelty to animals, also called animal abuse, animal neglect or animal cruelty, is the infliction of suffering or Injury, harm by humans upon animals, either by omission (neglect) or by commission. More narrowly, it can be the causing of harm ...

within human society but also to redesign the global ecosystem so that animals do not suffer in the wild.Thweatt-Bates (2016), 100–101. He has argued in favour of a "cross-species global analogue of the

welfare state A welfare state is a form of government in which the State (polity), state (or a well-established network of social institutions) protects and promotes the economic and social well-being of its citizens, based upon the principles of equal oppor ...

", suggesting that humanity might eventually "reprogram predators" to limit

predation Predation is a biological interaction in which one organism, the predator, kills and eats another organism, its prey. It is one of a family of common List of feeding behaviours, feeding behaviours that includes parasitism and micropredation ...

, reducing the suffering of animals who are predated. Fertility regulation could maintain herbivore populations at sustainable levels, "a more civilised and compassionate policy option than famine, predation, and disease". The increasing number of vegans and vegetarians in the transhumanism movement has been attributed in part to Pearce's influence.

Humanity+ and other roles

In 1998, Pearce co-founded the World Transhumanist Association, known from 2008 as Humanity+, with

Nick Bostrom Nick Bostrom ( ; ; born 10 March 1973) is a Philosophy, philosopher known for his work on existential risk, the anthropic principle, human enhancement ethics, whole brain emulation, Existential risk from artificial general intelligence, superin ...

. Pearce is a member of the board of advisors. Currently, Pearce is a fellow of the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies, and sits on the futurist advisory board of the Lifeboat Foundation. He is also the director of bioethics of Invincible Wellbeing and is on the advisory boards of the Center on Long-Term Risk, the Organisation for the Prevention of Intense Suffering and since 2021 the Qualia Research Institute. Until 2013, Pearce was on the editorial advisory board of the controversial and non-

peer-review Peer review is the evaluation of work by one or more people with similar competencies as the producers of the work ( peers). It functions as a form of self-regulation by qualified members of a profession within the relevant field. Peer review ...

ed journal '' Medical Hypotheses''. He has been interviewed by '' Vanity Fair'' (Germany) and on

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. The station replaced the BBC Home Service on 30 September 1967 and broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes from the BBC's headquarters at Broadcasti ...

's '' The Moral Maze'', among others. Pearce currently serves as an advisory board member for Herbivorize Predators, an organization whose mission is to discover how to transform carnivorous animals into herbivorous ones in order to minimize suffering across all species.

Books

*
The Biointelligence Explosion: How Recursively Self-Improving Organic Robots will Modify their Own Source Code and Bootstrap Our Way to Full-Spectrum Superintelligence
in *

'. Vinding, M. (Ed.). 2017.

ASIN Asin Thottumkal (born 26 October 1985), known mononyomusly as Asin, is an Indian former actress who appeared predominantly in Tamil cinema, Tamil, Hindi and Telugu language, Telugu films. Asin is a recipient of List of awards and nominations ...

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References

External links

*
The Hedonistic ImperativeBLTC Research
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Pearce, David 1959 births Living people 20th-century British essayists 20th-century British male writers 20th-century British philosophers 21st-century British essayists 21st-century British male writers 21st-century British philosophers Alumni of Brasenose College, Oxford British animal rights scholars British animal welfare scholars British ethicists British male essayists British male non-fiction writers British transhumanists British veganism activists Consciousness researchers and theorists Consequentialists Cryonicists British futurologists Hedonism Life extensionists Anti-natalists British nonviolence advocates People associated with effective altruism People from Brighton People from Surrey (before 1965) Philosophers of pessimism Philosophers of technology Scholars of veganism Utilitarians Writers about activism and social change Writers from Surrey