End All Suffering Forever

Marcin Kowrygo, $50,000, for the Far Out Initiative. Recently a woman in Scotland was found to be incapable of experiencing any physical or psychological suffering ². Scientists sequenced her genome and found a rare mutation affecting the FAAH-OUT pseudogene, which regulates levels of pain-related neurotransmitters. Marcin and his team are working on pharmacologic and genetic interventions that can imitate her condition. If they succeed, they hope to promote them as painkillers, splice them into farm animals to produce cruelty-free meat, or just give them to everyone all the time and end all suffering in the world forever. They are extremely serious about this.

A mock grant announcement describes Marcin Kowrygo’s team trying to reproduce a Scottish woman’s inability to feel physical or psychological pain. The joke escalates from developing painkillers to genetically modifying farm animals and giving the treatment to everyone forever, presenting an absurd plan to eliminate all suffering with completely straight-faced seriousness.

• @right_wing_dev_squads / 12113 2025-05-14