David Pearce's Hedonistic Imperative and Paradise Engineering as a Moral and Religious Basis of Modern Transhumanism

This article discusses a philosophical version of a new morality of the superhuman (a radical change / transformation of human nature) of society in the Singularity Era developed by David Pearce, one of the founders of the World Transhumanist Association. Hedonistic imperative or negative ethical utilitarianism must reasonably prove the groundlessness of the existence of traditional morality and such notions as pain, unhappiness, suffering, illness, and dispassion. Pearce offers several options and methods (search for a scientific method for measuring pleasure) with which it is possible to achieve a state of complete happiness "paradise engineering", constant pleasure, and the exclusion of any possibility of pain and physical suffering. In 2007 Pearce founded the Abolitionist Society which aims to eradicate suffering through artificial methods. According to Pearce, humanity has so far evolved according to the classical theory of the struggle for survival and reproduction, and therefore suffering was inevitable, and in the 21st century with the help of various technologies (designer drugs, genetic reproduction revolution, and nanotechnologies) people can abolish not only physical but also mental sufferings. The following question arises in this respect: to what extent is such a paradigm possible and will it lead to real happiness? Transhumanism is developing in all directions and provides an alternative vision not only of the future of mankind, the possibilities of high technologies, or the search for methods of achieving immortality, these are also analogs in the field of a philosophical fundamental vision of man, or rather superman, and a new model of morality for such a super-personality. At the religious level, Pearce developed the "Zero Ontology", which is an attempt to incorporate the idea of non-existence into the Western Christian ideological tradition. Transhumanism is based on the ideas of non-existence, evolution, and the pragmatism of hedonism and Singularity. Pearce forms not only a purely theoretical model of hedonistic imperative which will be included in a number of other moral versions, but he also argues about the almost accomplished choice and further transformations and the criteria for the selection of people into the society of "happy and non-suffering" creatures. The article analyzes the possibility of the practical and theoretical application of hedonistic imperative and "paradise engineering" along with the critical remarks about the transhumanist morality.

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