The transhumanist philosopher David Pearce is an advocate of what he calls the Hedonistic Imperative: The eudaimonic life is the one that is as pleasurable as possible. So even happiness attained through drugs is good? Yes, in fact: Pearce’s motto is “Better Living Through Chemistry”.
Well, it’s definitely better than the alternative. We don’t necessarily want to build Jupiter-sized blobs of orgasmium, but getting rid of misery would be a big step in the right direction. Pleasure and happiness aren’t always good, but misery and pain are almost always bad. Getting rid of most misery seems like a necessary, but not sufficient, condition for Paradise.
I can only analogize the experience to a theist who’s suddenly told that they can know the mind of God, and it turns out to be only twenty lines of Python.
You know, I wouldn’t be surprised, considering that you can fit most of physics on a T-shirt. (Isn’t God written in Lisp, though?)
The transhumanist philosopher David Pearce is an advocate of what he calls the Hedonistic Imperative: The eudaimonic life is the one that is as pleasurable as possible. So even happiness attained through drugs is good? Yes, in fact: Pearce’s motto is “Better Living Through Chemistry”.
Well, it’s definitely better than the alternative. We don’t necessarily want to build Jupiter-sized blobs of orgasmium, but getting rid of misery would be a big step in the right direction. Pleasure and happiness aren’t always good, but misery and pain are almost always bad. Getting rid of most misery seems like a necessary, but not sufficient, condition for Paradise.
I can only analogize the experience to a theist who’s suddenly told that they can know the mind of God, and it turns out to be only twenty lines of Python.
You know, I wouldn’t be surprised, considering that you can fit most of physics on a T-shirt. (Isn’t God written in Lisp, though?)
Twenty lines of close paren.
Inevitable xkcd reference here