“Life is suffering”, said Gautama Buddha. But will this always be true? Humans have dreamed of paradise since time immemorial. Details vary. But a feature common to most conceptions of paradise is perpetual happiness. History records many secular and religious attempts to build paradise on Earth. They haven’t worked. Utopian experiments are doomed to failure because of the frailties of human nature and the negative-feedback mechanisms of the hedonic treadmill. Our Darwinian biology evolved under pressure of natural selection. Selfishness – in both the popular and technical sense – is fitness-enhancing. Likewise, a predisposition to suffering and discontent is genetically adaptive.
However, a biohappiness revolution is imminent. CRISPR-Cas9 is a game-changer. Genome-editing promises to transform human nature and life itself. Our reward circuitry can be upgraded. Suffering can be mitigated, minimised and then abolished. The biosphere can be reprogrammed. Genetic engineering and synthetic gene drives turn the level of suffering in Nature into an adjustable parameter. Biotech can make experience below “hedonic zero” physiologically impossible. Future civilisation can be based on a new motivational architecture: life underpinned entirely by information-sensitive gradients of well-being. If The Hedonistic Imperative (1995) is correct, then transhuman civilisation will have a hedonic range the lower bounds of which are orders of magnitude richer than human “peak experiences”. Superhuman intensity of bliss will be matched by a lifelong superhuman sense of meaning, purpose and significance. In short: paradise engineering.
Today, “designer babies” are controversial. Pitfalls abound. Advocacy of a biohappiness revolution isn’t a plea for humans to embrace a life of hedonism in the popular sense of drink, drugs and debauchery (cf. “The Paradox of Hedonism”). Quite the opposite: I hope we become more morally serious in our treatment of human and nonhuman animals alike. Rather, what’s at stake is whether intelligent moral agents should abolish the biology of involuntary suffering or instead conserve the pain-ridden status quo. To quote one of my transhumanist colleagues, Anders Sandberg, “I do have a ridiculously high hedonic set-point.” Should we aim to create a hyperthymic civilisation in which “ridiculously high hedonic set-points” are the norm rather than the privilege of a handful of genetic outliers? Twin studies and molecular genetics alike confirm that pain-tolerance, hedonic set-points and hedonic range have a high genetic loading. In future, what genetic dial-settings will be ethically optimal?
Conserving information-sensitivity is vital. “Hedonic recalibration” doesn’t sound very alluring; but it’s critical for the long-term well-being of both individuals and society as a whole. Tomorrow’s hedonic contrast can be as deep or shallow as desired. If engineered wisely, a neural architecture of gradients of bliss allows critical insight, personal growth, a rich diversity of pleasures, mutual empathetic understanding, the maintenance and enrichment of personal relationships, the preservation and extension of social responsibility and continued intellectual progress. Information-sensitive gradients of well-being allow the conservation of your values and preference architecture – unless one of your values is the conservation of involuntary suffering of others.
We need a Hundred-Year Plan to defeat suffering throughout the living world.