Tag: Accelerationism

OftA: So, Accelerationism, what’s all that about?

Now that I’m trying to rekindle the blog, I’ve realised that I should probably consolidate some bits of writing that I’ve done elsewhere. I started a tumblr several years ago for lighter writing about more general topics. That didn’t really work out, for various reasons, so I’m going to port the best bits back over here. Following previous convention, these posts are classified as ‘One from the Archives’ or OftA. I’m going to start with one of the most seemingly influential, and yet largely underground things I’ve ever written: ‘So, Accelerationism, what’s all that about?’

This was a piece written in response to Malcom Harris’ review of the #ACCELERATE reader in The New Inquiry. Since I’ve now written something about ‘neorationalism‘, I’ve been thinking about returning to ‘accelerationism’ and talking a little about the emergence of the term, my relation to it, and my thoughts about it. I’ll save the details for a later post, but now that there’s a renewed interest in the definition, genealogy and taxonomy of accelerationism, it seems like a good time to dredge this piece up. I wasn’t the first to name the difference between left and right strands (I heard it from Benedict Singleton in Berlin in 2014), but I think I might have been the first to write about it. I’m still the top reference on the wikipedia page, at least.

Continue reading OftA: So, Accelerationism, what’s all that about?

Conferences and Events

It’s been a busy few weeks. Last week I went to the 21st Century Heidegger conference in Dublin (organised by Paul Ennis of AHB), which was very good, despite confirming certain Heideggerian stereotypes. My paper did not go down particularly well, but I suppose this was to be expected. A few people have asked me for copies of the paper, so it’s probably easier to just post it up here (PDF, PPT Slides). I must warn people that it’s very dense, given that I had to cram it into 20 minutes, and it might be useful to read it in parallel with my recent post on Ereignis (here). Another qualifier I should add is that my position on what metaphysics is in relation to Heidegger’s work has changed since my earlier posts, and so if you find any apparent contradictions there, choose in favour of the newer stuff.

On top of the Heidegger conference, I’ve just gotten back from the Accelerationism event in London (details here). This was also very enjoyable, although there was a diversity of opinion about exactly what accelerationism is and what it entails. Benjamin Noys has already put up his paper (here), and I’m sure we’ll get other papers and the audio soon enough. I find myself pretty squarely in the anti-accelerationist camp, though not because of anti-market commitments (Marxist or otherwise), but the debate is certainly an interesting one.

Finally, the deadline for submissions for the Science and Metaphysics event is tomorrow. Don’t worry if you don’t have anything written up yet, as we’re reasonably flexible, but please do submit something! A thousand words will do! I should get back to work on my own piece…