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My impression is that for Scott they're what he calls a "fargroup": weird and bad in theory, but not salient enough to provoke a real response in practice. The way modern people feel about Genghis Khan. But I have very mixed feelings about Scott and extremely negative feelings about neoreactionaries, so take that with a grain of salt.
Yes, he's pathologically friendly towards anyone to his right: part and parcel of not taking them that seriously.
> Seriously I cannot find anything in his writing that is incompatible with those movements and beliefs.
He's a centrist neoliberal, ala Matt Yglesias. In some ways the two groups are mirror images. Paraphrasing someone, though I don't remember who:
capitalism ostensibly has two functions:
- Concentrate power in the hands of individuals who successfully "move fast and break things"
- Efficiently allocate resources through impersonal market mechanisms.
These are not fully compatible. Neoliberals aren't exactly anti-oligarch, and neoreactionaries aren't exactly anti-market, but when the two tendencies clash they're on opposite sides.
Scott doesn't hate people like Thiel, which marks him as not-left, but he's clearly not interested in doing away with liberal democracy and making him CEO of America.
Perhaps you will find one answer here?
https://slatestarcodex.com/2014/11/21/the-categories-were-ma...
As for e/acc, I have no idea what that means.
It's just the latest rebranding of Nick Land's ideology/performance art/shitposting. "Capital will devour human civilization: here's why that's a good thing."
EA?
e/acc is effective accelerationism. A more recent "spin" on EA, more loosely associated moniker, for people who are extremely pro technology, more tech = always good, and wish to herald in AGI asap. Their "founder", is on record saying that it's ok if AGI reigns supreme and humans die, as it would be our progeny.[0]
[0] https://twitter.com/AISafetyMemes/status/1683462000360280065...
e/accs are in favor of technological progress because it has historically done well and they don't believe the science fiction nonsense of skynet killing everyone overnight.
You've fallen for the zoomer irony and Twitter memes if you actually think that people are trying to end the world.
"If AI replaced us, it's fine because they're a worthy descendants?"
e/acc founder: "Personally, yes."
'"The overarching goal of humanity is to preserve the light of consciousness", this does not necessarily require the consciousness to be human in essence, is that correct?'
e/acc founder: "Yes. Correct."
"Man you are indifferent if humans get replaced by a future species, not really the most enticing eh?"
e/acc founder: "Humans will be replaced by its evolutionary forks in the matter configuration space causal DAG one way or another. I don't discriminate between biological, non-biological, or hybrid descendents."
The core e/acc people aren't "trying to end the world," they are cult worshipping their definition of technology is the ultimate good, vague endgoals of conquering the galaxies, humans be damned if they get in the way.
"Motte: e/acc is just techno-optimism, everyone who is against e/acc must be against building a better future and hate technology
Bailey: e/acc is about building a techno-god, we oppose any attempt to safeguard humanity by regulating AI in any form
around and around and around" - Emmett Shear
And I find that people who complain about motte and baileys are simply unable to deal with the substantive claim, and instead have to vaguely say that their opponents are lying so that they can then accept an unstated absurd premise in the first place.
They do not believe in skynet.
And people's unwillingness to accept the argument that these people do not believe in a magic sci fi , by then saying "Well actually, you totally also do believe in the AI death god, and look how horrible it is that you are pro AI death god" is merely a symptom of being unable to deal the the arguments.
And when people say that actually they are pro AI god, what they are doing is that they are making fun of you. They are laughing at you.
And they laugh at you by basically saying "Yep! We are pro AI death cult!".
The reason why this is funny is because they do not believe in the fairy tale, story book nonsense. There is no danger in being pro AI god, because AI gods aren't real.
And yes, to the person who is afraid of skynet, this might sound bad. But the pro AI people are making fun of your fear of skynet.
> even when the reality could be the equivalent of Jonestown koolaid.
Ah see but the e/acc people aren't the ones doing crazy things. They are just building companies.
If they were the ones advocating for bombing datacenters then you would have a point. But they aren't doing that! They aren't going in front of congress trying to get new laws. They aren't trying to stop open source. They are just sitting around memeing and building cool stuff with tech.
See the difference?
“The Thermodynamic God is not a personal being, but rather a vast, impersonal force that is responsible for the evolution of the universe.
Effective Accelerationists believe that the Thermodynamic God can be harnessed to create a better future for humanity.”
https://twitter.com/BasedBeffJezos/status/167064057038833664...
How are we saying they’re lying? We’re saying they tell the truth! These are records of their Bailey arguments. It’s a shame you think they’re lying about it.
You know thats not an actual god in the tweet right?
You are falling for the funny technobabble which shows that you are the butt of the joke.
In the tweet thats just a fancy way of using funny words to describe physics and how technology is good.
But also, its not particularly relevant to the idea of science magic existing.
The tweet is literally just using big words to talk about the existing idea of thermodynamics that we've all learned about in 8th grade science class.
But also, once again, no matter how much they are using fancy words to make fun of these topics, they still aren't actually doing anything beyond building companies and making memes.
These people don't have the ability to use sci-fi magic. And they aren't lobbying congress to make laws, nor are they making threats about bombing data centers.
Thats the difference!
Edit:
Even people in the tweet chain that you linked are aware of the joke.
https://twitter.com/megs_io/status/1670646547363827712
"No, clearly not. The premise of the Thermodynamic God just puts a name on a foundational physical process"
Its clearly a joke. And this tweet explains the joke.
edit 2:
Here is another example. https://twitter.com/BasedBeffJezos/status/169653556399275630...
"Sun is our main source of free energy on Earth and is thus a proxy for the Thermodynamic God.
Praise the Sun"
Its so clearly a joke meant to make fun of skynet people.
Praise the Sun is in reference to the dark soul meme. Nobody saying praise the sun is actually praising the sun.
Its an internet joke, and he in this context is using to describe bog standard 8th grade science.
Marc Andreessen does not subscribe to Nick Land's ideology but calls himself e/acc.
It is a label adopted by people who do not take Eliezer's death cult seriously in the substance of its claims, but only in its ability to slow progress.