Abstract
Accelerationism is a recent theoretical trend that explores how we might repurpose existing forms of technology to develop a new postcapitalist future. The focus of accelerationism on the need to invent a new future has resulted in extensive debate about the relationship of humans to technology and the limits of the human. The origin of accelerationism is traced back to the philosophy of Nietzsche, especially his emphasis on the future, on the productive role of fiction in imagining a new world, and his stress on our world as one of chaotic forces. Then, the essay explores contemporary accelerationism as a political and cultural phenomenon, a movement, suggesting the need to embrace and engage with technology and planning. While seemingly distanced from philosophy, contemporary accelerationism still explores Nietzschean themes, not least the imagination or construction of the future. Finally, we consider the future of accelerationism. Accelerationism has staked a claim to the future as a theoretical term or movement, but it has also seen a diffusion and dispersal, and in some cases abandonment of the term. In particular, the future of accelerationism has been fought out through aesthetics, which is appropriate to this claim to a vision of the future. What this mutation, dispersion, and struggle indicate are the potential limits of accelerationism as well as the critical questions it still raises.
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Noys, B. (2022). Accelerationism: Adventures in Speed. In: Herbrechter, S., Callus, I., Rossini, M., Grech, M., de Bruin-Molé, M., John Müller, C. (eds) Palgrave Handbook of Critical Posthumanism. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-42681-1_58-1
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