The IEET is pleased to announce the appointment of Nikki Olson as an IEET Affiliate Scholar and veteran transhumanist thinker David Pearce as an IEET Fellow.

Nikki Olson is a transhumanist writer/researcher authoring unique articles on transhumanist culture and advancing technology. Involved in Singularity research for 4 years as a full-time research assistant, she worked on an upcoming book about the Singularity, aided in the development of the University of Alberta course “Technology and the Future of Medicine”, and produced educational material for the Lifeboat Foundation. She attained a bachelor’s degree in 2007 at University of Alberta, Canada, in Philosophy and Sociology. Her interests lie in scarcity reducing technology, biotechnology, DIY, augmentation technologies, artificial intelligence, and transhumanist philosophy.

David Pearce is a British utilitarian philosopher and transhumanist, who promotes the idea that there exists a strong ethical imperative for humans to work towards the abolition of suffering in all sentient life. His internet manifesto The Hedonistic Imperative details how he believes the abolition of suffering can be accomplished through “paradise engineering.” He co-founded the World Transhumanist Association in 1998, and the Abolitionist Society in 2002.