# David Pearce **Domain:** Ethics / Sentience / Biotechnology **Doc Type:** Person Node **Maturity:** Developing ## Definition **David Pearce** argues for using biotechnology to reduce or abolish suffering in sentient life. In the cited *Sentience Research* interview he describes a future of genetically re-engineered well-being while explicitly rejecting conventional digital mind uploading. These are his philosophical and technological positions, not established medical outcomes. ## Relationships - **Interviewed by:** [*Sentience Research*, “The imperative to abolish suffering”](https://sentience-research.org/the-imperative-to-abolish-suffering-an-interview-with-david-pearce/), on animal suffering, gene editing, and possible future experiences. - **Distinct from:** [[wiki/Instrumentalization of Suffering|Instrumentalization of Suffering]] asks when suffering is used as a means; Pearce argues for its elimination. - **Contests:** Some [[wiki/Whole Brain Emulation|Whole Brain Emulation]] assumptions: in this interview Pearce argues that conventional digital emulation would not support sentient experience. - **Collection and article routes:** [[collections/Consciousness Continuity|Consciousness Continuity]], [[collections/Simple Reminders|Simple Reminders]], and [[articles/Walking the Beautiful Path Through the Greatest Transformation in Human History|Walking the Beautiful Path Through the Greatest Transformation in Human History]] provide contrasting readings of future flourishing. ## Simple Reminders, Quotations, and Thoughts > “Civilisation will be based on gradients of intelligent bliss. So let’s shut the death factories, re-engineer the genome, and use biotech to phase out suffering.” > **— David Pearce**, *Sentience Research interview* [[reminders/Consciousness/Biotechnology Could Phase Out Suffering by David Pearce|Biotechnology Could Phase Out Suffering by David Pearce]] > “Prospective parents are soon going to be choosing the characteristics of their future children. We're on the eve of the Post-Darwinian Transition, not in the sense that selection pressure will be any less severe, but evolution will no longer be "blind" and "random": there will no longer be natural selection but unnatural selection.” > **— David Pearce**, *“The Abolitionist Project,” author text adapted from 2007 lectures* [[reminders/Selection/Human Reproduction Could Become Post-Darwinian by David Pearce|Human Reproduction Could Become Post-Darwinian by David Pearce]]