David Pearce
David Pearce is
a British vegan philosopher who promotes the abolition of
suffering in all sentient life.
Dave’s views are most prominently presented in The
Hedonistic Imperative (1995), a manifesto in which he outlines how
technologies such as genetic engineering, nanotechnology,
pharmaceuticals, and neurosurgery could potentially eliminate all forms
of unpleasant experience. He predicts that our descendants will enjoy
genetically preprogrammed bliss that is orders of magnitude richer than
anything accessible today.
 
In 1998, he cofounded — with Swedish polymath Nick Bostrom
— the
World Transhumanist Association (WTA). He also cofounded the
Abolitionist Society in 2002 with Pablo Stafforini, Sean Henderson,
and Jaime
Savage, and serves as its honorary president. He is currently the
director of BLTC
Research.
Dave serves on the editorial review board
of Medical
Hypotheses. He also runs a web hosting company which aims to
help
compassionate technophobes develop an online presence as painlessly as
possible. But his main interest lies in the potential use of science
to eradicate cruelty and suffering wherever they are found — and
eventually, perhaps, the birth of true “paradise-engineering”.
Listen to him on
The Future And You.
Read his interview with
R.U. Sirius and with
Jonathan Despres.
Read his articles
Utopian Surgery:
Early arguments against anaesthesia
in surgery, dentistry and childbirth,
Wirehead Hedonism
versus paradise engineering,
and
Future Opioids.