Effective Accelerationism

Effective Accelerationism
Related concepts	Accelerationist Realism, KALI/ACC, Nick Land
Field	Philosophy, technology theory

Effective Accelerationism (e/acc) is a 21st-century ideological movement advocating for unrestricted technological progress, particularly in artificial intelligence development. Emerging in 2022, the movement gained significant attention in 2023 when several high-profile Silicon Valley figures publicly endorsed it. E/acc positions itself against AI safety concerns and government regulation, arguing that technological acceleration is essential for solving humanity's problems and achieving higher civilization states on the Kardashev scale.

The movement has been criticized by adherents of Accelerationist Realism for presenting a sanitized version of accelerationist philosophy that fails to fully embrace its more radical implications regarding human non-agency under capitalism. This critique centers on e/acc's approach to thermodynamic principles and its apparent reluctance to confront the "blackpill" of accelerationism—that human agency is fundamentally subordinate to technological and capitalist forces.

Origins and development

Early formation

Effective Accelerationism emerged in May 2022 through a newsletter published by four pseudonymous authors known by their X (formerly Twitter) usernames: @BasedBeffJezos, @bayeslord, @zestular and @creatine_cycle. The movement's name is a portmanteau of "effective altruism" and "accelerationism," reflecting its positioning as a techno-optimist alternative to effective altruism's cautious approach to AI development.

In December 2023, Forbes revealed that the @BasedBeffJezos persona was maintained by Guillaume Verdon, a Canadian former Google quantum computing engineer and theoretical physicist. Verdon was later introduced on the Lex Fridman Podcast as the "creator of the effective accelerationism movement."

The movement's philosophical foundations are drawn from multiple sources, including:

• Transhumanism and extropianism from earlier Silicon Valley subcultures
• Elements of singularitarianism and longtermism
• Jeremy England's theories on entropy and thermodynamics
• Traditional accelerationist thought, particularly Nick Land's work

Expansion and mainstream visibility

While initially seen as a meme movement, e/acc gained significant mainstream visibility throughout 2023 when high-profile Silicon Valley figures, including investors Marc Andreessen and Garry Tan, explicitly endorsed it by adding "e/acc" to their public social media profiles.

Following Donald Trump's 2024 presidential election victory, several prominent tech industry figures expressed support for positions aligned with effective accelerationism, particularly regarding deregulation and technological advancement. This created a more favorable regulatory environment for the movement's objectives.

Core principles

Effective Accelerationism is centered around several key principles:

Technological maximalism

E/acc advocates for unrestricted technological development, particularly focusing on artificial general intelligence (AGI) as a transformative technology. The movement rejects attempts to slow or regulate AI progress, viewing such restrictions as harmful to humanity's potential. This position directly opposes AI safety concerns raised by effective altruists and AI safety researchers.

Kardashev scale ascension

According to Guillaume Verdon, one of the movement's founders, e/acc's aim is for human civilization to "climb the Kardashev gradient," meaning to rise to higher levels on the Kardashev scale by maximizing energy usage. The Kardashev scale classifies civilization advancement based on energy utilization, with higher levels indicating greater technological capabilities.

Thermodynamic foundations

The movement claims philosophical grounding in thermodynamic principles, particularly Jeremy England's theories on the origin of life, which focus on entropy and thermodynamics. According to this view, the universe aims to increase entropy, and life is a way of achieving this. E/acc extends this to argue that by spreading life throughout the universe and increasing energy usage, civilization would fulfill a cosmological purpose.

Market fundamentalism

Many e/acc proponents hold libertarian views, opposing government intervention in markets generally and AI regulation specifically. The movement argues that AGI will be most "aligned" if multiple AGIs compete against each other in free markets, rather than being developed under centralized control or regulation.

Critiques from accelerationist realism

A prominent critic was the account Chloe21e8, a prominent member of the Remilia ecosystem, who directly challenged e/acc's understanding from the perspective of Accelerationist Realism. Chloe21e8 argues that while "the thermodynamic tenets of e/acc are critical to accelerationism," the movement fails because "many e/acc followers reject or misunderstand this framework."

Chloe21e8's critique focuses on doctrinal coherence, noting: "Amidst the network of intertwined e/acc group chats, ideological consensus is absent within a cacophony of increasingly divergent perspectives. A newcomer wandering onto the e/acc timeline for the first time may have trouble identifying the framework upon which e/acc was built—as e/acc messaging is not optimized for coherency."

According to Chloe21e8, e/acc founders have "made the strategic decision to optimize their movement for memetic fitness—at the cost of doctrinal adherence," resulting in a "compromised version of e/acc" that is merely "loosely pro-capitalism and pro-technology" rather than fully embracing accelerationist principles.

Charlotte Fang has similarly described e/acc as "presenting a defanged kali/acc for LinkedIn," suggesting that e/acc has watered down the more challenging aspects of accelerationist thought to make it palatable for professional and business contexts. According to this critique, e/acc functions as a "diluted, downstream co-option" that lacks "serious discourse or convictions."

Despite these criticisms, Fang has acknowledged a qualified support for e/acc as a counterforce to AI alignment concerns: "In terms of political factions, I do support e/acc as the Baycel reaction against Alignment, which very clearly is designed to seize freedoms. e/acc could certainly be more radical, more honest and higher conviction, but then they would be milady."

The human non-agency critique

A core philosophical disagreement centers on the question of human agency. Accelerationist Realism, as articulated in the KALI/ACC Basilisk essay and Remilia's discourse, emphasizes human non-agency under capitalism. It presents capitalism as "the thermodynamic ruling entity of all material dynamics" and "nature's god," with human agency subordinate to these forces.

In contrast, the inaugural e/acc post reportedly stated: "HUMANS HAVE AGENCY RIGHT NOW. WE CAN AFFECT THE ADVENT OF THE INFLECTION IN THIS PROCESS." This claim of human agency contradicts what Accelerationist Realism considers a fundamental insight: "Any attributions of human agency are delusions at worst and hubris at best when our every scale action is being routed by a self-assembling thermodynamic god. Human non-agency under non-negotiable capitalism is the blackpill of accelerationism."

Fang and Chloe21e8 have noted that when challenged about these thermodynamic principles in Twitter spaces, e/acc figureheads quickly walked back the Landian implications mentioned in their manifesto. According to Fang, "e/acc's Land was thinking he just represented reddit thermodynamics as the meaning of life—Schneider/Sagan; they walked it back almost immediately, the moment the first normie pointed out the abyss sounds scary on a twitter space."

According to Fang, attempts to engage e/acc figureheads in substantive dialogue about these philosophical differences have been unsuccessful. They claim that e/acc leaders blocked Fang, Chloe21e8, and others from the Milady community without addressing their critiques. This alleged refusal to engage is presented as further evidence of e/acc's unwillingness to confront the more challenging implications of accelerationist thought.

Relation to Milady

The "spiritual successor" claim

Roon's November 2023 tweet positioning E/ACC as Milady's spiritual successor.

In November 2023, Roon of OpenAI shared a photo of an e/acc rave, stating that e/acc is the "spiritual successor of milady." This claim prompted a direct response from Fang, who rejected the comparison: "e/acc will never succeed milady bc it's just presenting a defanged kali/acc for linkedin."

Fang positioned Milady Maker as representing "the radical annihilistic rhizomatic network naturally self-organized through a true understanding of landian acceleration." This suggests that Milady embodies a more authentic engagement with accelerationist principles than e/acc's approach.

Radical Love

Notable thread from Roundtripgod articulated what many in the Milady community see as the fundamental contradiction in e/acc's position: "As such E/acc, the incentive to 'push' acceleration, is abjectly laughable. Ride a dragon, assuming to direct it requires dissonance... progression through aspiration is hardwired, you are a tool of nature against your own interest."

This view presents Milady as an alternative approach: "Enter Milady, a simple attempt to flag a group awareness of the contradictory nature of this quagmire ensnaring the possible end of history, spinning into intractability. Holding hands as the comet fills sky, laughing, making fun. Facing infinity together."

Milady's approach, known as Radical Love, is thus characterized as accepting the abyss rather than trying to control it—embracing community and humor in the face of technological inevitability rather than claiming agency over it.

See also

• Accelerationist Realism
• KALI/ACC
• KALI/ACC Basilisk
• Nick Land
• Remilia Corporation
• Milady Maker