Research Project: Accelerationist Fictions

Geoffrey Boucher and Helen Young are exploring so-called “accelerationism,” within the context of narrative structures of accelerationist culture in literature and games.

They will be exploring fictional work developed by supporters of far-right movements such as the arch-accelerationist Land’s neoreactionaries, ‘who believe in the replacement of modern nation-states, democracy and government bureaucracies by authoritarian city states…’ (from Guardian article below).

Their project has received funding from Deakin Motion Lab, more details available here.

Accelerationists favour automation. They favour the further merging of the digital and the human. They often favour the deregulation of business, and drastically scaled-back government. They believe that people should stop deluding themselves that economic and technological progress can be controlled. They often believe that social and political upheaval has a value in itself.

…The manic presidency of Donald Trump has been seen as the first mainstream manifestation of an accelerationist politics

The above is from a 2017 Guardian background article on this fringe philosophy of accelerationism, a violent and extremist form of rightwing authoritarian politics. Interesting comparison is made to the Italian Futurist manifesto of 1909…

Accelerationism is not about restraint.