Despite the futuristic language of his manifesto, its message is clear: Andreessen wants to go back. Back to a time when technology founders were uncritically revered, and when obstacles between him and staggering profits were nearly nonexistent. When people weren’t so mean to billionaires, but instead admired them for “undertaking the Hero’s Journey, rebelling against the status quo, mapping uncharted territory, conquering dragons, and bringing home the spoils for our community.”4 The same is true of the broader effective accelerationism philosophy, which speaks with sneering derision of those who would slow development (and thus profits) or advocate for caution. In a world that is waking up to the externalities of unbridled growth in terms of climate change, and of technology’s “build now and work the kinks out later” philosophy in terms of things like online radicalization, negative impacts of social media, and the degree of surveillance creeping into everyday life, effective accelerationists too are yearning for the past.
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