Sunday, May 03, 2009

The abolition of suffering

A World Without Suffering? (David Pearce)

Smart neurostimulation, long-acting mood-enhancers, genetically re-engineering our hedonic "set-point" (etc) aren't therapeutic strategies associated with Buddhist tradition. Yet if we are morally serious about securing the well-being of all sentient life, then we have to exploit advanced technology to the fullest possible extent. Nothing else will work (short of some exotic metaphysics that is hard to reconcile with the scientific world-picture). Non-biological strategies to enrich psychological well-being have been tried on a personal level over thousands of years - and proved inadequate at best.

1 comment:

Justin said...

Now that's a sensible application of high technology to the biological living condition. Let's hope we can pull it off safely. It would be nice if we could abolish arcane drug laws as the first step down this path, but that's a whole other story...