David Pearce

Co-Founder, World Transhumanist Association

David Pearce is a British vegan philosopher who promotes the abolition of suffering in all sentient life.His 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 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. He 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. His main interest lies in the potential use of science to eradicate cruelty and suffering wherever they are found. His essays include "Utopian Surgery: Early arguments against anaesthesia in surgery, dentistry and childbirth, "Wirehead Hedonism versus paradise engineering," and "Future Opioids."