Vague accelerationist hypothesis #1: there’s a continual expansion in the range of social phenomena which change at a faster rate than academics can undertake and publish research on them.
Vague accelerationist hypothesis #2: without a corresponding increase in the speed of research and publishing – or some meta-epistemological strategy to obviate problems of obsolescence – the practical salience of academic research will continually decay in an ever increasing range of areas.
Vague accelerationist hypothesis #3: the incentives for scholarship within higher education are so misaligned with social and economic needs they attempts to accelerate scholarship will inevitably prove destructive rather than addressing the underlying problem
Vague accelerationist hypothesis #4: we’re all fucked in too many ways to count so we should probably focus on trying to do what limited good we can and derive what enjoyment we can from our work, rather than worrying too much about #1-#3
Mark Carrigan 