The Abolitionist Project: Can Biotech Abolish Suffering Throughout the Living World? [UKH+] (1/3)

David Pearce is an independent researcher and vegan animal activist based in Brighton UK.

In 1995, he wrote an online manifesto, The Hedonistic Imperative, advocating the use of biotechnology to abolish suffering throughout the living world. David predicts that our descendants will be animated by gradients of cerebral bliss orders of magnitude richer than anything accessible today.

David has also written on the philosophy of mind and perception; utilitarian ethics; psychopharmacology; life extension; cognitive enhancement technologies; mood enrichment; genetic recalibration of the hedonic treadmill; ecosystem redesign; reprogramming predators; and more speculatively on a posthuman future based on paradise engineering.

In 1998, David and Nick Bostrom set up the World Transhumanist Association (now rebranded as Humanity +. Transhumanists promote the responsible use of advanced technology to overcome our biological limitations.

This lecture was recorded on 24th April 2010 at the UKH+ meeting. For information on further meetings please see:
http://extrobritannia.blogspot.com/

Category:

Nonprofits & Activism

Tags:

• UKH+
• H+
• Humanityplus
• transhumanism
• posthumanism

[Chessiness]

I demand infinite euphoria, and nothing less!

[RestInPieces777]

@KawaiiKemonomimi "Why do we need to fuck with the ecosystem!?"

Because it's based around sentient organisms eating each other.

"The Earth was doing a damn good job without us."

No, it was not. 540 million years of sentient organisms trapped in a mindless consumption and reproductive game with no rhyme or reason is not a "damn good job". You twat.

"You can't tweek something as delicate as the ecosystem just to suit our morals!"

Yes, you can.

[KawaiiKemonomimi]

When herbivores die of natural causes like old age, weakness (because now it's not JUST the strong that have the right to breed and you probably want to mess with herbivore males' tendencies to sometimes kill an opponent) and starvation (because they now can breed exponentially without any hold and ate all the plants) now you have a carcass sitting there for weeks, maybe months because, guess what? Because some "genius" somewhere took the flies and bacteria's taste for flesh cause of this twit.

[KawaiiKemonomimi]

Why do we need to fuck with the ecosystem!? The Earth was doing a damn good job without us. Hell, the whole universe isn't forgiving and never will be! Even if you abolish all the carnivores, you'll still have to deal with the population explosion of the herbivores before they wipe out all the plant life. You can't tweek something as delicate as the ecosystem just to suit our morals!

[marcluc1988]

@hac1m If I were to kill a human painlessly, for example, if I were to inject a massive dose of morphine to someone who was sound asleep, would that be okay with you because that's what you seem to be implying.

[NGC6188]

@hac1m

No.

[hac1m]

@KoanPhilosopher If we just kill them painlessly then we can :)

[celt130]

@NGC6188 You will notice that I am not speaking about the meaning of the word but of the ethymology of the word itself. On the meaning enough philosopheres have given there own view on this, but can the ethymology really be put in question?

[celt130]

@NGC6188 You can also notice that in that particaler article as in every article I ever read written by vegans or animal protectors the issue on the murdering of rats and mice every year with traps and poison is totally ignored even if it is to protect vegans from disease and stop those animals eating our food.There is definitivaly a double standard on animal protection and the issue of pain wich is a cornerstone of your dogmas.

[celt130]

Moreover, the abstract form of Living Systems Theory provides a way of dispelling stereotypes and permits nerves and nervous transmission to be viewed in the light of a universal channel and net subsystem

Plenty of scientifical articles on plants GABA and the plants reaction to aspirin wich is the same as on animals.

[celt130]

@NGC6188 Well in fact I can debate with scientifical articles on that particular subject as most vegan arguments are not based on any real science or real data.Talk with any vegan about agriculture and you will understand what I am talking about.I also see that you are into "world hunger" another vegan favourite to put it on meat and not cheap goods as this is the real cause.

[NGC6188]

@celt130

See "Animal Consciousness" in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy for an in-depth look at the issue.

I personally believe that killing a conscious creature is worse than killing non-conscious creatures, and I think most people would agree.

[NGC6188]

@celt130

I'm not going to debate with you whether a vegan lifestyle is more/less ecologically sustainable/animal friendly than an omnivorous diet - there is much literature on the subject and I hope people reading these comments will do their own research before jumping to conclusions.

[NGC6188]

@celt130

I'm not going to debate with you whether a vegan lifestyle is more/less ecologically sustainable/animal friendly than an omnivorous diet - there is much literature on the subject and I hope people reading these comments will do their own research before jumping to conclusions.

[KoanPhilosopher]

@celt130

Plants don't have nerve cells, so they cannot feel.

Animals do. This is why we shouldn't kill animals.

[celt130]

@NGC6188 When did killing become moral?Vegans in particular have created a dogma based on"good"or"bad"killing to justify there own killings.Killing of any creature in any circumstance isn't moral and the pain argument isn't going to change that simple fact.We need to do it to survive but that doesn't make it moral.

[celt130]

@NGC6188 In fact plants have GABA like animals and science has proven plants feel the difference between a harmless drop of water and insect legs as they trigger a chemical response in seconds.Plants can actually feel, science has just not come out of the pain issue.But the real issue here is not pain but killing.

[celt130]

@NGC6188 First of all that article is written by vegans.The harm to wildlife and nature not only comes from the fact animals are actually killed in the harvesting proces but we shouldn't forget what there was before there was a field.Wild habitat was destroyed to make them.Animals raisen on pastures will be 100% more ecological and animal friendly then any field as pastures are natural,fields are not.

[celt130]

@NGC6188 Animals aren't "consciousness"either,The word "conscious" is derived from Latin conscius meaning "1. having joint or common knowledge with another, privy to, cognizant of; 2. conscious to oneself; esp., conscious of guilt.Animals don't feel guilt or ask themselves if ot's right to eat that species.Animals don't ask themselves the why and the how they are on this planet.Only humans do.

[NGC6188]

@celt130

See "Debate over animals killed in crop harvesting" in Wikipedia.

[NGC6188]

@celt130

Since plants aren't conscious and don't feel pain, killing an animal is far worse than "killing" a plant.

[celt130]

Billions of small animals are killed when fields are harvested so humans including vegans can eat.Billions of rats and mice are killed every year to keep humans disease free and so they don't eat all our food.Did you ever hear any of those heros talk about protecting them?Or maybe there are"good"animals and"bad"animals, like"good"killing or"bad"killing.