Accelerationism

For the concept from future studies, see accelerating change.

Accelerationism is a range of revolutionary and reactionary ideas in left-wing and right-wing ideologies that call for the drastic intensification of capitalist growth, technological change, infrastructure sabotage and other processes of social change to destabilize existing systems and create radical social transformations, otherwise referred to as "acceleration".[1][2][3][4][5] It has been regarded as an ideological spectrum divided into mutually contradictory left-wing and right-wing variants, both of which support the indefinite intensification of capitalism and its structures as well as the conditions for a technological singularity, a hypothetical point in time at which technological growth becomes uncontrollable and irreversible.[6][7][8][9]

Various ideas, including Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari's idea of deterritorialization, Jean Baudrillard's proposals for "fatal strategies", and aspects of the theoretical systems and processes developed by English philosopher and later Dark Enlightenment commentator Nick Land,[1][10] are crucial influences on accelerationism, which aims to analyze and subsequently promote the social, economic, cultural, and libidinal forces that constitute the process of acceleration.[11] While originally used by the far-left, the term has, in a manner strongly distinguished from original accelerationist theorists, been used by right-wing extremists such as neo-fascists, neo-Nazis, white nationalists and white supremacists to increasingly refer to an "acceleration" of racial conflict through assassinations, murders and terrorist attacks as a means to violently achieve a white ethnostate.[12][13][14][15]

While predominantly a political strategy suited to the industrial economy, acceleration has recently been discussed in debates about humanism and artificial intelligence. Yuk Hui and Louis Morelle consider acceleration and the "Singularity Hypothesis".[16] James Brusseau discusses acceleration as an ethics of innovation where humanistic dilemmas caused by artificial intelligence (AI) innovation are resolved by still more innovation, as opposed to limiting or slowing the technology.[17] A movement known as effective accelerationism (abbreviated to e/acc) advocates for technological progress "at all costs".[18]

  1. ^ a b Beckett, Andy (11 May 2017). "Accelerationism: how a fringe philosophy predicted the future we live in". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 11 May 2017. Retrieved 5 January 2021.
  2. ^ "What is accelerationism?". New Statesman. 5 August 2016. Archived from the original on 6 August 2016. Retrieved 5 January 2021.
  3. ^ Shaviro, Steven (2010). Post Cinematic Affect. Ropley: O Books. p. 136.
  4. ^ Adams, Jason (2013). Occupy Time: Technoculture, Immediacy, and Resistance After Occupy Wall Street. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. p. 96.
  5. ^ Henkin, David (2016). "Accelerationism and Acceleration". Écrire l'histoire. Histoire, Littérature, Esthétique (16). doi:10.4000/elh.1121.
  6. ^ Jiménez de Cisneros, Roc (5 November 2014). "The Accelerationist Vertigo (II): Interview with Robin Mackay". Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona. Archived from the original on 9 November 2014. Retrieved 5 February 2015.
  7. ^ Williams, Alex; Srnicek, Nick (14 May 2013). "#ACCELERATE MANIFESTO for an Accelerationist Politics". Critical Legal Thinking. Archived from the original on 6 February 2015. Retrieved 5 February 2015.
  8. ^ Land, Nick (13 February 2014). "#Accelerate". Urban Future (2.1). Archived from the original on 29 September 2015. Retrieved 5 February 2015.
  9. ^ Noys, Benjamin (2022). "Accelerationism: Adventures in Speed". Palgrave Handbook of Critical Posthumanism. Springer International Publishing. pp. 1–18. doi:10.1007/978-3-030-42681-1_58-1. ISBN 978-3-030-42681-1.
  10. ^ Chistyakov, Denis I.; Игоревич, Чистяков Денис (2022). "Philosophy of Accelerationism: A New Way of Comprehending the Present Social Reality (in Nick Land's Context)". RUDN Journal of Philosophy. 26 (3): 687–696. doi:10.22363/2313-2302-2022-26-3-687-696.
  11. ^ Wolfendale, Peter (2014). "So, Accelerationism, what's all that about?". Dialectical Insurgency. Archived from the original on 14 December 2014. Retrieved 5 February 2015.
  12. ^ "A Year After January 6, Is Accelerationism the New Terrorist Threat?". Council on Foreign Relations. 5 January 2022. Retrieved 15 July 2024.
  13. ^ Upchurch, H. E. (22 December 2021). Cruickshank, Paul; Hummel, Kristina (eds.). "The Iron March Forum and the Evolution of the "Skull Mask" Neo-Fascist Network" (PDF). CTC Sentinel. 14 (10). West Point, New York: Combating Terrorism Center: 27–37. Archived (PDF) from the original on 27 December 2021. Retrieved 19 January 2022.
  14. ^ "White Supremacists Embrace "Accelerationism"". Anti-Defamation League. 16 April 2019. Retrieved 13 October 2020.
  15. ^ Cite error: The named reference Bloom was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  16. ^ Hui, Yuk; Morelle, Louis (2017). "A Politics of Intensity: Some Aspects of Acceleration in Simondon and Deleuze". Deleuze Studies. 11 (4): 498–517. doi:10.3366/dls.2017.0282.
  17. ^ Brusseau, James (2 April 2023). "Acceleration AI Ethics, the Debate between Innovation and Safety, and Stability AI's Diffusion versus OpenAI's Dall-E". arXiv:2212.01834 [cs.CY].
  18. ^ Chowdhury, Hasan (28 July 2023). "Get the lowdown on 'e/acc' — Silicon Valley's favorite obscure theory about progress at all costs, which has been embraced by Marc Andreessen". Business Insider. Retrieved 20 November 2023.