Robin Mackay - Orientation, Acceleration, Futurity

Provenance

Self-transcribed from the recording's audio/video with Whisper ASR, then drawn from the frozen curation of the CCRU oral archive. The identifiers below fingerprint the exact source transcript files.

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Adjudicated APPROVED 2026-07-11 (basis: stage-1 acceptance ruling — lane open-web-talk approved for opus-only hosting; mp3 tier deferred pending a disk volume). Series: standalone. Source: audio original (.mp3).

Timestamped map

These jump targets come from timestamps preserved in the source transcript, so they work as navigational anchors rather than editorially invented section labels. Timings are approximate — they mark where a passage begins, not exact word timing.

• 00:00:00

  I think I'd like to start off by saying that accelerationism is not a doctrinal position and I'm not going to define it. I seem to have an unfortunate tendency to create isms with dismal consequences. So just to say from the very start that in a sense accelerationism is just a set of problems around which many…

• 00:11:17

  So, what we do is to create, is to create, and this is a very important point, is to create, and this is a very important point, is to create, and this is a very important point, projections into the future, to recollect the past, and therefore to exist within a temporal structure. And that is the ultimate…

• 00:23:24

  And so from that point on, arguably, an artificial life world is what defines the human. Because, the human becomes defined by its social character, and its social character is maintained through an interaction with invariants that would otherwise not be available. With a kind of multiple feedback loop…

• 00:36:31

  It's very much exactly what we've talked about. The manifest image is the image which we have spontaneously of what we are, what our capabilities are, and of how we relate to the world. It's the image of myself from inside, if you like. The scientific image, on the other hand, is this kind of uprooting, alienating…

• 00:46:51

  Food that takes longer to spoil is easier to transport, and that's what Solent is. By using Solent as a resource, you can guarantee your body gets the nutrition it needs. As a low-cost way to be healthy and save yourself some time, Solent gives you the freedom to live life the way you want to live. They tell…

• 00:58:11

  Well, I think the, I mean, the accelerationism, the idea of accelerationism, just kind of came about through, I guess, a small group of people who are talking about that very question. And I don't think there's an answer to that question. I think there's a will to think seriously about what quite, what is at stake…

• 01:11:45

  But yeah, I mean, science fiction close to reality. Paul's point again, which is Paul was saying that acceleration isn't necessarily connected with concerns about the destruction of the planet. Mm. In some sense. I mean, is it one of the motors, one of the drivers of the movement in a kind of sense that actually there…

• 01:24:52

  It's that vastly diverging perspectives on what I think are really important problems. I think that's a good place to end. So maybe a round of applause for him.