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Re:'e/acc' – Silicon Valley's favorite obscure theory about ... by pringk02 on Monday December 18, 2023 @11:28AM (#38684692)
Fascinating. You have to wonder if they are cognizant of the associations of the term "accelrationism" with the extremes of the political spectrum and signalling a dog-whistle for one or the other, or if they just think it sounds cool?
Re:'e/acc' – Silicon Valley's favorite obscure theory about ... by wwalexander on Monday December 18, 2023 @12:02PM (#38685116)
Yes, they are, all these psychos are reading Nick Land. It’s not an accident.

> Combine technology and markets and you get what Nick Land has termed the techno-capital machine, the engine of perpetual material creation, growth, and abundance.

https://a16z.com/the-techno-optimist-manifesto/

> Land is also known for later developing the anti-egalitarian and anti-democratic ideas behind neo-reaction and the Dark Enlightenment, which he named.

It’s all neo-fascism.

Re:'e/acc' – Silicon Valley's favorite obscure theory about ... by toasterlovin on Monday December 18, 2023 @12:01PM (#38685094)
The creators are aware of the political valence of accelerationism. The name “e/acc”, pronounced “ee-ack”, is a play on EA (as in, Effective Altruism). The whole thing was tongue in cheek shitposting that somehow got real traction.
Re:'e/acc' – Silicon Valley's favorite obscure theory about ... by catapart on Monday December 18, 2023 @11:46AM (#38684890)
As best I can tell, like most things, it's a mix of both. Some people are drawn for the dog whistles, while others are drawn for the surface-level pitch. Each seem confident that the other is the minority.

Personally, it feels like a reaction to the failure of crypto (and not the recent failure; the decade-long fits and starts that keep handing them what look like wins, but that haven't actually amounted to their preferred world yet). All of those crypto bros that feel, deep in their bones, that crypto SHOULD work, if not for all of the 'luddites' holding it back, channel their energy into a more generalizeable set of principles that otherize anyone who would tell them to not chase progress, even if the only restriction is "don't do it AT ALL COSTS. Balance it with humanity."

And if your whole philosophy is "let the fire consume because fire is pure energy and how can producing pure energy be bad, in the long run?", then I imagine "accelerationism" is still a lot more marketable than "execution engine-ism", or "harvestism", or most other terms that could accurately describe the disposition.

Re:'e/acc' – Silicon Valley's favorite obscure theory about ... by nickpp on Monday December 18, 2023 @11:36AM (#38684809)
> associations of the term "accelrationism" with the extremes of the political spectrum

Care to elaborate? I am completely unaware of these associations.

Re:'e/acc' – Silicon Valley's favorite obscure theory about ... by pringk02 on Monday December 18, 2023 @11:37AM (#38684835)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accelerationism

Though it has left-wing and right-wing variants, accelerationism argues that one should double down on capitalisim in order to destroy it.

Re:'e/acc' – Silicon Valley's favorite obscure theory about ... by timmytokyo on Monday December 18, 2023 @11:52AM (#38684984)
The variant supported by most Silicon Valley types appears to be the right-wing one. Andreessen's "techno-optimist manifesto" cites Filippo Marinetti, founder of the Italian futurist and fascist movements, as one of its "patron saints". Also included: Nick Land, spiritual father of the "dark enlightenment" accelerationist philosophy known known as neoreaction.
Re:'e/acc' – Silicon Valley's favorite obscure theory about ... by malermeister on Monday December 18, 2023 @12:02PM (#38685119)
Most Silicon Valley VC types are poorly disguised crypto- (excuse the double entendre) fascists.
Re:'e/acc' – Silicon Valley's favorite obscure theory about ... by zozbot234 on Monday December 18, 2023 @12:30PM (#38685513)
That was Marx's original theory - capitalism had to reach its full and complete development before it could transition into socialism. This is still understood in China as their rationale for supporting a market economy even in a supposedly 'socialist' country.
Re:'e/acc' – Silicon Valley's favorite obscure theory about ... by dist-epoch on Monday December 18, 2023 @11:48AM (#38684926)
For example the Proud Boys far-right US group are also accelerationists:

https://ctc.westpoint.edu/uniting-for-total-collapse-the-jan...

They want to accelerate towards civil racial war in US.

Re:'e/acc' – Silicon Valley's favorite obscure theory about ... by EA-3167 on Monday December 18, 2023 @11:39AM (#38684861)
Accelerationists believe that the only way for a new political/social system to emerge (Communism, Fascism, whateverism) is to accelerate the downfall of status quo. So instead of engaging with the system and trying to change it, they try to enhance the worst aspects of it in the hopes that will drive people to (generally violent) revolution.

It is obviously a niche ideology you rarely run into offline, and when you do it's generally young, mentally ill, or simply very damaged people who can't imagine life ever getting better without the world burning first.

Re:'e/acc' – Silicon Valley's favorite obscure theory about ... by nickpp on Tuesday December 19, 2023 @05:06PM (#38702402)
So it looks to me like the only thing they all have in common is the root word "to accelerate" - otherwise they are completely different ideologies.
Re:'e/acc' – Silicon Valley's favorite obscure theory about ... by tomjen3 on Monday December 18, 2023 @12:03PM (#38685132)
It seems like everything is racist and a dog whistle these days, but I will bite. How is new and better technology racist?
Re:'e/acc' – Silicon Valley's favorite obscure theory about ... by pringk02 on Monday December 18, 2023 @01:00PM (#38685930)
It could be a Marxist dog-whistle, though their literature would suggest that is unlikely, as you'd expect a few nods towards inequality.

It's also not technology that's suspect. It's the choice of the word "accelerationism" which tends to be associated with people who wish to accelerate what they see as the inevitable collapse of the current social-economic-political system. There are people who believe doing so would usher in Communisim. There seem to be much more who believe doing so would usher in an era without "globo-homo" as they seem to like to use as short hand at the moment. You might enjoy this wikipedia section: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accelerationism#Fascist_accele...

Then again, it could all be a massive coincidence that this is term they have chosen to use. I would expect they will certainly attract people who don't believe in coincidence, whether they want that to be the case or not.

Re:'e/acc' – Silicon Valley's favorite obscure theory about ... by syndicatedjelly on Monday December 18, 2023 @12:08PM (#38685198)
Minorities are too stupid to use a computer and do math, or at least that’s what California Democrats seem to be saying these days
Re:'e/acc' – Silicon Valley's favorite obscure theory about ... by the_only_law on Monday December 18, 2023 @12:35PM (#38685565)
who the hell mentioned racism. Or are you so stupidly stuck in brainless culture war crusading you think “dog whistle” is only associated with racism?