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Accelerationism - Town Hall, July 27th, 4pm EST
🕑 Added 2025-07-03 21:59:20 +0000 UTC
"Whereas the techno-utopians argue for acceleration on the basis that it will automatically overcome social conflict, our position is that technology should be accelerated precisely because it is needed in order to win social conflicts." (Williams and Srincek)
Town Hall Structure
The Town Hall consists of Alex delivering a lecture about the readings & ideas for about 1 hour. Some discussion questions may be posed throughout the lecture, and then, a more robust discussion occurs at the conclusion of the lecture.
Zoom link will be posted the day before the Town Hall
Readings
Readings are not required to observe the discussion but one very short (7 pages) reading will be necessary if you want to meaningfully participate in the discussion. Like, I'm not testing you or anything, but we should all just know what it is we mean by "Accelerationism."
Required Text:
#Accelerate: Manifesto for an Accelerationist Politics by Alex Williams and Nick Srnicek (pg 1-7)
Core Texts:
Terminator v. Avatar by Mark Fisher (pg. 1-12)
Utopia as Replication by. Fredric Jameson (in Valences of the Dialectic, pg. 410-435)
Machinic Desire by Nick Land (pg. 1-13) - (obligatory disclaimer that Land is now a right-wing figure, but his early work like this isn't right-wing and is important to the history of accelerationism)
Suggested Text (especially if you're interested in trans and gender studies :))
The Xenofeminist Manifesto by Laboria Cuboniks
On Accelerationism
Many people think that accelerationists believe that we should just let everything get really bad until things get so bad that suddenly the Revolution™ happens. This isn't remotely the case and if it were, it would be a stupid destructive idea. Accelerationism is a philosophy about reclaiming technological and social development and repurposing it toward radical ends. Of course, the devil is in the details.
It seems that many people on the left wing today harbor anti-tech & pro-humanist sentiments. I sympathize with these concerns, but I ultimately think they're counterintuitive to the type of future I think the left should build.
I have a similar relationship to technology as I do with my male identity. Technology today, especially in Silicon Valley, is being used toward destructive and oppressive purposes. Similarly, male identity, as a historical force, has been a destructive and oppressive force throughout time. But I don't think these oppressive functions are inherent to maleness or to technology. We have to create a future where these forces are reoriented towards something truly new, something truly liberatory.
During this Town Hall, we'll discuss why the left has turned against technology, the dangers of uncritically reifying the past, nostalgia as a symptom of social failure, what role accelerationism plays in left wing philosophy, and what a genuinely radical technological/social future could look like. Expect discussions on AI, gender/sex, juicy discourse, and of course, the readings below.
Comments
E
I totally understand your frustration. It’s my job to make these philosophers legible! The Town Hall is going to be accessible to everyone, and part of it is going to by dissecting that Terminator vs Avatar text. Part of the mission of my channel is to make these complicated ideas simple and intuitive, so that everyone has access to the power they hold.
Bird
I read the manifesto and it was enough (with your video) to hook me into wanting very much to participate in the town hall. When I tried to start reading the supplemental texts, though, I found myself way out of my depth. The terminator vs avatar paper is almost illegible to me, which is frustrating and sad. I printed it and have been going through with a highlighter and taking notes, but I still feel like I am not understanding properly. There are so many philosopher names that I don’t know, so many hyphenated concepts with people’s surnames to represent them… I graduated high school and have never had an opportunity to pursue any kind of higher education. Is this a space I can or should even exist in? I don’t even know where to start trying to pick these things apart, or if I have the energy to. I don’t want it predigested and just given to me, but this feels so much like trying to learn a language by watching a single television series with no other material to assist. I am trying. I want to understand. All of this matters so much to me- trying to be active in shaping our future, trying to understand the best direction to put my energies, trying to build and reclaim a future that leads to the best quality of life for all people. I just worry that the cost of entry is going to be too much for me to be able to ever meaningfully understand enough to contribute. Can anyone please point me to the best place to begin? Maybe there is a ‘political theory for kindergarteners’ that I should be starting with instead of trying to tease apart the text of Fisher.
Kayla Barnes
Looking forward to this
