
#110 - The Philosopher Who Wants to Make Life Permanently Blissful - David Pearce
David Pearce is a British transhumanist philosopher and co-founder of Humanity+, best known for The Hedonistic Imperative; his 1995 manifesto calling for the use of genetic engineering to eliminate suffering from all sentient life.
In this episode, I sit down with David for one of the most thought-provoking conversations this podcast has had. We cover whether suffering is a design flaw we could actually fix; the ethics of editing your children's genetic predisposition toward depression; the difference between genome reform and eugenics; why MDMA gave David his clearest glimpse of what mental health could genuinely feel like; and what three decades of banging this drum has taught him.
Key topics:
- Natural selection as an engine of suffering and how CRISPR could change that
- Hedonic set points; what they are, why they matter, and how to raise them
- The eugenics problem; why the word is probably "damned forever" even with good intentions
- MDMA, psychedelics, and the blind rationalists parable
- David's own hedonic set point; a surprisingly honest personal answer
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Chapters
00:00 David's journey and the hedonistic imperative
01:37 Why suffering has loomed large in his own life
03:01 30 years of progress; CRISPR, AI and what surprised him
10:27 What he'd tell world leaders; end factory farming first
13:55 What is a hedonic set point and why does it matter?
20:04 Would you want your children engineered to be happier?
28:27 SSRIs, antidepressants and the case for genetic alternatives
31:53 What is stopping us; the eugenics problem explained
35:57 Does suffering produce great art? AI says otherwise
43:09 MDMA as a window into what mental health could be
45:26 Psychedelics, consciousness and the blind rationalists parable
54:43 Atheism, physicalism and the hard problem of consciousness
58:57 David's own hedonic set point; a personal confession
1:03:12 Defining hedonic zero; apathy, numbness and mixed states
1:05:43 Bliss vs motivation; can you have both?
***LINKS***
Websitehedweb.com
The Hedonistic Imperative (manifesto)hedweb.com/hedab.htm
Facebook Group - The Hedonistic Imperativefacebook.com/groups/hedonistic.imperative
X / Twittertwitter.com/webmasterdave
Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Pearce_(philosopher)
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