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This is different from the degrowth movement in many ways, but it shares a common sense of skepticism and weariness about the promise of AI. Early last year, some of those who called for a “pause” on the development of artificial intelligence systems until engineers and regulators could be sure they knew how safe they were, called competent altruism. It also included people.
It is no exaggeration to say that Altman did not agree with this view. In the past, he has spoken out in favor of a more techno-optimist approach, which is often ignored by effective accelerationism. “Techno-optimism is the only solution to our current problems,” Altman said in 2022. “Unfortunately, expressing any form of optimism about the future has become a radical act.”
E/acc is a fairly recent manifestation of accelerationism, and this ideology is believed to have been dreamed up by the British philosopher Nick Land. Nick Land co-founded the interdisciplinary (some might call this “anti”) Cybernetic Culture Research Unit at the University of Warwick. – Discipline”) Group, 1990s.
According to philosopher Graham Harman, the work attracted a diverse range of thinkers, who “fused a variety of sources, including futurism, technoscience, philosophy, mysticism, numerology, complexity theory, and science fiction, among others.” “We experimented with concept generation.”
As this strange mélange suggests, the early days of accelerationism seem to have been somewhat eccentric.
During a session during the 1996 CCRU conference, Rand was seen lying on the ground “screaming into the microphone” as some of the most intense jungle tracks in electronic dance music played in the background. It is said. Many participants left before the end.
However, some of the movement’s central tenets have recently been rediscovered, revived, and renewed. Therein lies the firm belief that technological progress, coupled with unrestrained capitalism, is the best (if not the only) solution to the world’s myriad problems.
Effective accelerationists also believe that they are somewhat inevitable. Therefore, rather than waste time and energy on regulations that hinder human progress, it is better for governments to stay out of the way.
A case for accelerationism
One of the leading evangelists of this idea is Marc Andreessen, co-founder of Andreessen Horowitz, a $35 billion venture capital firm based in Silicon Valley. His X profile once read: E/ac. AI professional and open for business. ”
In October, he published his Techno-Optimist Manifesto, which began with: we are being deceived. ”
This continues further. “Technology is stealing our jobs, cutting our wages, increasing equality, threatening our health, destroying our environment, degrading our societies, corrupting our children, undermining our humanity, and threatening our future. We are being told, we are on the verge of ruining everything.”
The truth behind it, according to Andreessen and his fellow techno-optimists, is that “we are constantly dealing with material problems, whether created by nature or created by technology, that cannot be solved with more technology.” Seen from this perspective, innovation becomes essential, and all forms of opposition to it become the preserve of wrongheaded Luddites.
“We believe that [humans] Rather than being ruled by technology, we are, are, and will continue to be masters of technology… We are conquerors, not victims. ”
In this worldview, the main problem with free markets is that they are not yet free enough. “We believe that the market economy is a discovery machine, a form of intelligence, an exploratory, evolutionary, and adaptive system.”
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