Techno-optimism – the belief that technology will usher in a golden age for humanity – is in vogue once more.
In 2022, a clutch of pseudonymous San Francisco artificial intelligence (AI) scenesters published a Substack post entitled “Effective Accelerationism”, which argued for maximum acceleration of technological advancement. The 10-point manifesto, which proclaimed that “the next evolution of consciousness, creating unthinkable next-generation lifeforms and silicon-based awareness” was imminent, quickly went viral, as did follow-up posts.
Effective accelerationism, or “e/acc”, exploded from being a fringe movement dedicated to pushing back against AI extinction-fearing “doomers” to being name-checked by major Silicon Valley CEOs such as Garry Tan, the CEO of the start-up accelerator Y Combinator; Sam Altman, the head of OpenAI; Marc Andreessen, the billionaire software engineer; and Elon Musk.
