Editing David Pearce (philosopher) (section)

==Hedonistic transhumanism==
In 1995, Pearce set up [[BLTC]] Research, a network of websites publishing texts about transhumanism and related topics in [[pharmacology]] and [[biopsychiatry]].<ref>{{cite book|last=DeMars|first=William Emile|title=NGOs and Transnational Networks: Wild Cards in World Politics|url=https://archive.org/details/ngostransnationa00dema|url-access=limited|publisher=Pluto Press|year=2005|at=[https://archive.org/details/ngostransnationa00dema/page/n175 171]|isbn=074531905X}}</ref> He published ''The Hedonistic Imperative'' that year, arguing that "[o]ur post-human successors will rewrite the vertebrate genome, redesign the global ecosystem, and abolish suffering throughout the living world."<ref>Adams, Nathan A. IV (2004). "An Unnatural Assault on Natural Law" in Colson, Charles W. and Nigel M. de S. Cameron (eds.). ''Human Dignity in the Biotech Century: A Christian Vision for Public Policy''. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 167. {{ISBN|0830827838}}</ref>

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.<ref name=Thweatt-Bates2016pp50-51>Thweatt-Bates, Jeanine (2016). ''Cyborg Selves: A Theological Anthropology of the Posthuman''. London: Routledge, 50–51 (first published 2012).</ref><ref>[[James Hughes (sociologist)|Hughes, James J.]] (2007). [http://ieet.org/archive/20070326-Hughes-ASU-H+Religion.pdf "The Compatibility of Religious and Transhumanist Views of Metaphysics, Suffering, Virtue and Transcendence in an Enhanced Future"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200530005520/https://ieet.org/archive/20070326-Hughes-ASU-H+Religion.pdf |date=30 May 2020 }}, Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies, 20.</ref><ref>[http://www.nickbostrom.com/papers/history.pdf Bostrom (2005)], 16.</ref> He defends a version of negative utilitarianism.

He outlines how drugs and technologies, including [[Brain stimulation reward|intracranial self-stimulation]] ("[[Wirehead (science fiction)|wireheading]]"), [[designer drug]]s and genetic engineering could end suffering for all sentient life.<ref name=Thweatt-Bates2016pp50-51/> Mental suffering will be a relic of the past, just as physical suffering during surgery was eliminated by [[anaesthesia]].<ref name="philosophy now">{{cite news|author=Power, Katherine|title=The End of Suffering |work=Philosophy Now |year=2006|url=http://philosophynow.org/issues/56/The_End_of_Suffering}}</ref> The function of pain will be provided by some other signal, without the unpleasant experience.<ref name=Thweatt-Bates2016pp50-51/>

A [[vegan]], Pearce argues that humans have a responsibility not only to avoid [[cruelty to animals]] within human society but also to redesign the global ecosystem so that [[Wild animal suffering|animals do not suffer in the wild]].<ref name=Thweatt-Bates2016pp100-101>Thweatt-Bates (2016), 100–101.</ref> He has argued in favour of a "cross-species global analogue of the [[welfare state]]",<ref>{{Cite interview|last=Pearce|first=David|interviewer=James Kent|title=The Genomic Bodhisattva|url=http://hplusmagazine.com/2009/09/16/genomic-bodhisattva/|work=[[H+ Magazine]]|date=16 September 2009|access-date=4 March 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180304210132/http://hplusmagazine.com/2009/09/16/genomic-bodhisattva/|archive-date=4 March 2018|url-status=live|quote={{pb}}Jewish Nobel Laureate [[Isaac Bashevis Singer]] described life for factory-farmed animals as 'an eternal [[Treblinka extermination camp|Treblinka]]': a world of concentration camps extermination camps and industrialized mass-killing. Strip away our ingrained anthropocentric bias, and what we do to other sentient beings is barbaric. Combating great evil justifies heroic personal sacrifice; going vegan entails mild personal inconvenience. The non-human animals we factory-farm and kill are functionally akin to human babies and toddlers. Babies and toddlers need looking after, not liberating. As the master species we have a duty of care to lesser beings, just as we have a duty of care to vulnerable and handicapped humans. As our mastery of technology matures, I think we need to build a cross-species global analogue of the welfare state.}}</ref> suggesting that humanity might eventually "reprogram predators" to limit [[predation]], reducing the suffering of animals who are predated.<ref name=Verchot2014>{{Cite web|url=https://www.treehugger.com/natural-sciences/meet-the-people-who-want-to-turn-predators-into-vegans.html|title=Meet the people who want to turn predators into herbivores|last=Verchot|first=Manon|website=[[TreeHugger]]|date=30 September 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180304201342/https://www.treehugger.com/natural-sciences/meet-the-people-who-want-to-turn-predators-into-vegans.html|archive-date=4 March 2018|url-status=live|access-date=4 March 2018}}</ref> [[Wildlife contraceptive|Fertility regulation]] could maintain herbivore populations at sustainable levels, "a more civilised and compassionate policy option than famine, predation, and disease".<ref name=Dvorsky2014>{{Cite interview|last=Pearce|first=David|interviewer=[[George Dvorsky]]|title=The Radical Plan to Phase Out Earth's Predatory Species|url=https://io9.gizmodo.com/the-radical-plan-to-eliminate-earths-predatory-species-1613342963|publisher=[[io9]]|date=30 July 2014|access-date=4 March 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180304195650/https://io9.gizmodo.com/the-radical-plan-to-eliminate-earths-predatory-species-1613342963|archive-date=4 March 2018|url-status=live|quote={{pb}}Carnivorous predators keep populations of herbivores in check. Plasmodium-carrying species of the ''Anopheles'' mosquito keep human populations in check. In each case, a valuable ecological role is achieved at the price of immense suffering and the loss of hundreds of millions of lives. What's in question isn't the value of the parasite or predator's ecological role, but whether intelligent moral agents can perform that role better. On some fairly modest assumptions, fertility regulation via family planning or cross-species immunocontraception is a more civilised and compassionate policy option than famine, predation and disease. The biggest obstacle to a future of compassionate ecosystems is the ideology of traditional conservation biology—and unreflective status quo bias.}}</ref> The increasing number of vegans and vegetarians in the transhumanism movement has been attributed in part to Pearce's influence.<ref>{{cite book|last=Fairlie|first=Simon|title=Meat: A Benign Extravagance|publisher=Chelsea Green Publishing|year=2010|at=230–231|isbn=978-1603583251}}</ref>