Accelerationism is a controversial philosophy that argues we should embrace and accelerate the process of technological and social change, rather than resist it, in order to bring about a post-capitalist society. While some see it as reckless, proponents argue carefully navigated accelerationism can help us overcome social, political and economic challenges more rapidly.
I'm interested in learning more about the "effective accelerationism" approach. This views accelerating certain technologies and trends as a way to improve the human condition, solve global problems more quickly, and ultimately help create a better future for humanity.
Some key areas of interest include:
Using computer science and AI to accelerate scientific and technological breakthroughs
Innovating new economic and governance models beyond capitalism and nation-states
Empowering individuals through technology while mitigating systemic risks
Potential paths towards abundance and overcoming scarcity
What books would you recommend for someone looking to seriously explore the ideas and implementation of effective accelerationism? Both works by key thinkers in this space as well as critiques would be helpful. I'm aiming to take a balanced, nuanced view on the topic.
Please share your book suggestions and a brief description of why you found each one insightful or valuable for understanding this philosophy and movement. Looking forward to adding some enlightening reads to my list!
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I'm not aware of any works that directly argue for the philosophy of accelerationism, and do so in a good way. But nonetheless there are some things that come to mind. Things that don't quite hit the nail on the head, but which you maybe will find interesting.
- While Nick Bostrom is not an accelerationist, he does deal with some considerations that may motivate accelerationism. One text is named Astronomical Waste. He has also written Letter from Utopia.
- Then there is the book Abundance, by Peter Diamandis and Steven Kotler (published in 2012). I remember making this video, which was partly inspired by that book (it makes me cringe a bit, and I don't think all of what it says is defensible, but oh well). Also, here is a TED-talk by Peter Diamandis based on that book.
- Also, this talk by Peter Thiel comes to mind.
- There is also the topic of molecular nanotechnology (a topic that is very relevant to the topic of how technology might solve a lot of our problems). My own favourite introduction to that is this youtube-video: An Introduction to Molecular Nanotechnology with Ralph Merkle. But there are also several talks by Eric Drexler to be found on YouTube. And Eric Drexler also wrote a book named Radical Abundance: How a Revolution in Nanotechnology Will Change Civilization.
- Another book that comes to mind is Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress, by Steven Pinker. A short snippet relating to that book can be seen here. It touches upon topics such as global warming, GMOs, and fears of AI risk (in regards to AI risk, I don't think he really understands the view he is criticizing).
The potential upsides to speeding up technological development are obviously enormous (and I think they are bigger than commonly understood). Nonetheless, I would not consider myself an accelerationist. Some of the considerations behind that are as follows:
- If what we want to maximize is the expected amount of "good stuff" in the universe (well-being, prosperity, etc), then it's not clear that what we gain from speeding up isn't outweighed by the maybe increased probability of losing it all. While it's not obvious to me whether speeding up technological progress increases or decreases existential risk, it seems quite plausible to be that it could increase existential risk.
- With acceleration, we might also increase the amount of "bad stuff" in the universe. One video on that topic is How a Vegan World Might Contain MORE Suffering (by Humane Hancock, but I helped in writing the script). Brian Tomasik also has several texts on this topic. One of these texts is titled Risks of Astronomical Future Suffering.
- If the first generation to start "colonizing the stars" has a huge effect in shaping the long-term future, then maybe future generations would have more favorable odds than us of doing so in a responsible way (due to moral progress and/or institutional innovation happening between now and then).
As to possible future forms of governance, one concept that comes to mind is Coherent Extrapolated Volition. Although I guess it in some ways is a bit antithetical to the e/acc ethos. Also, it would not be quite a governance structure (nor is CEV a proposal to be taken literally, but maybe it nonetheless is something we could take inspiration from somehow).
A "true e/acc" might include texts relating to the ineptitude of government regulation, and how attempts to make us safer often can be counter-productive. But I'm not myself aware of any books/videos/texts on that topic that I feel inclined to share.
@ian don't know how to properly bring this to your attention, so I'm just tagging you on the market itself:
Accelerando by Charles Stross is a great fictional exploration following 3 generations of a family before, during, and after the acceleration through a singularity style event.
Edit: spellelling