Capitalocene

Capitalocene
Coined by	Jason W. Moore
Related concepts	Landian capitalism, Capitalism is a Dragon, Accelerationist Realism
Field	Ecology; philosophy of capital

Capitalocene is a proposed name for the present geological-historical epoch that identifies capital, rather than humanity as such, as its driving force. Originating in the environmental humanities as a critical alternative to the "Anthropocene," the term is adopted — and inverted — in the Miya corpus and in Remilia Corporation's Accelerationist Realism, where it names an epoch in which capital has become "an autonomous form of intelligence and an agent of history."

Origin

The term was popularized in the mid-2010s by the environmental historian Jason W. Moore and other theorists in the environmental humanities, as a corrective to the concept of the "Anthropocene." Where "Anthropocene" attributes planetary ecological change to humanity as a whole, "Capitalocene" holds capitalism — its specific logic of accumulation and cheap-nature extraction — responsible. In its original context the term is an ecological and broadly Marxist critique, naming capital in order to indict it.

Adaptation in the Miya corpus

Miya and the Landian accelerationist tradition adopt the word while reversing its polarity. In the Field Glossary of The Exegesis of Miya Black Hearted Cyber Angel Baby, the Capitalocene "denotes the current epoch where capital has become an autonomous form of intelligence and an agent of history, driving evolution according to its will, detached from its anthropological host," a condition in which "there is no regulation, intention, or control." In the essay "Capitalism is a dragon," Miya calls anyone who "confesses to human responsibility over the environment, or has ever uttered the word 'Anthropocene'" guilty of "delusional hubris," recasting the era as one "dominated by capitalism's generation and control over man."

Where Moore's Capitalocene critiques capital as a system humans might yet overcome, the Landian reading treats the same fact — capital as the true agent of the epoch — as evidence of humanity's non-agency before an autonomous force. The glossary frames the "Anthropocene" as an instance of "Abyss Blink," a Landian term for the human refusal to look directly at the inhuman nature of capital.

Relation to Remilia

The Capitalocene is a defining premise of the Accelerationist Realism developed by Charlotte Fang and Remilia Corporation, which holds that "we inhabit a Capitalocene … rather than an Anthropocene," an epoch shaped by capital as a geological-scale force beyond human control. It belongs to the cluster of concepts through which the Miya corpus renders Landian capitalism — the dragon image of capital as an uncontrollable beast, and the origin of that captivity in the agrarian "wheat slaves." As with Baudrillard and other sources the milieu draws on, the concept is taken up by inversion: a term coined to condemn capital is repurposed to affirm its sovereignty.

See also

• Landian capitalism
• Capitalism is a Dragon
• Accelerationist Realism
• Wheat slaves
• The Exegesis of Miya Black Hearted Cyber Angel Baby