e/acc

e/acc1 is an acronym for Effective Accelerationism, which is an ideology and movement that draws from Nick Land’s theories of accelerationism to advocate for the belief that artificial intelligence and large language models (LLMs) will lead to a post-scarcity technological utopia. The name is also a play on Effective Altruism. 2 3

In the technological age, the powers of innovation and capitalism should be exploited to their extremes to drive radical social change — even if that means completely upending the current social order.

  1. Effective Accelerationism, often abbreviated as “e/acc”, is a 21st-century philosophical movement that explicitly espouses a pro-technology stance. Its proponents believe that artificial intelligence-driven progress is a great social equalizer which should be pushed forward. Adherents see themselves as a counterweight to the cautious view that AI is highly unpredictable and needs to be regulated, often giving their opponents the derogatory labels of “doomers” or “decels” (short for deceleration). ↩

  2. Effective Altruism is a 21st-century philosophical and social movement that advocates “using evidence and reason to figure out how to benefit others as much as possible, and taking action on that basis”. ↩

  3. Altruism is the principle and practice of concern for the well-being and/or happiness of other humans or animals above oneself. It may be considered a synonym of selflessness, the opposite of selfishness. ↩