Steven Shaviro

shaviro@shaviro.com
The Singularity is Here
The destiny of intelligent toolusing life [i]s to be a
steppingstone in the evolution of corporate
instruments.
Charles Stross
Charles Stross' Accelerando (!!"# is a postSingularity novel$ the best%no&n e'ample of a
small but gro&ing science fiction subgenre. (ostSingularity S) endeavors to imagine$ and
&or% through the conse*uences of$ &hat technofuturists have called the Singularity. This is the
supposed and strictly spea%ing unimaginable moment &hen the human race crosses a
technological threshold$ and definitively becomes posthuman. +ccording to this scenario$ the
e'ponential gro&th in sheer computing po&er$ together &ith advances in the technologies of
artificial intelligence$ nanomanufacture$ and genetic manipulation$ &ill utterly change the nature
of &ho and &hat &e are. ,uman beings &ill either be replaced by sentient machines$ or (more
li%ely# merge their brains and bodies &ith such machines. -n addition to Accelerando$ post
Singularity novels include .ernor .inge's Marooned in Realtime (!!/# .inge is in fact the
inventor of the term and concept of the 0technological Singularity0 (1223# and Cory
4octoro&'s Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom (!!3#.
5f course$ science fiction narratives have played &ith ideas of supercomputers and superhuman
intelligences for *uite some time. 6ut postSingularity fiction in the strict sense ta%es off from
the computing technologies of the 122!s$ and from the speculations of .inge$ ,ans 7oravec
(122!#$ and especially 8ay 9ur:&eil$ selfdescribed on the ;ac%et of his recent boo% The
Singularity is Near (!!"# as <one of the &orld's leading inventors$ thin%ers$ and futurists$ &ith a
t&entyyear trac% record of accurate predictions.= 9ur:&eil e'plains the Singularity as follo&s>
<-t's a future period during &hich the pace of technological change &ill be so rapid$ its impact so
deep$ that human life &ill be irreversibly transformed... this epoch &ill transform the concepts
that &e rely on to give meaning to our lives$ from our business models to the cycle of human life$
including death itself... ?ithin several decades informationbased technologies &ill encompass
all human %no&ledge and proficiency$ ultimately including the patternrecognition po&ers$
problemsolving s%ills$ and emotional and moral intelligence of the human brain itself... the
changes [these technological developments] bring about &ill appear to rupture the fabric of
human history= (@2#. 9ur:&eil estimates that this transformation &ill occur no later than the
year !/2.
Though 9ur:&eil specifies that the Singularity is <neither utopian nor dystopian= (@#$ the affinity
of his vision &ith utopian thought is clear. +fter the Singularity$ 9ur:&eil assures us$ health$
&ealth$ and immortality not to mention the coolest computer games and simulations ever &ill
be available$ at no cost$ to everyone. Scarcity &ill be a thing of the past. +ll barriers and binary
oppositions &ill fall> <there &ill be no distinction$ postSingularity$ bet&een human and machine
or bet&een physical and virtual reality0 (2#. -n this sense$ the Singularity is about getting rid of
our cumbersome bodiesA as 9ur:&eil puts it$ <our version 1.! biological bodies are... frail and
sub;ect to a myriad of failure modes= (2#. + postSingularity upgrade to version .! &ill get rid
of most of these bugsA and <&ith version 3.! bodies$= 9ur:&eil assures us$ &e &ill be <able to
morph into different forms at &ill0 (3/!#.
6ut it isn't ;ust our o&n bodies that 9ur:&eil &ants to <upgrade$= or supersede. The Singularity
is really about eliminating the resistance of the outside &orld to the instantaneous fulfillment of
all our desires. -t promises to overcome materiality in general. Bo doubt$ )reud &ould call this
an infantile fantasy of omnipotence. 7odern science$ from Copernicus to 4ar&in and beyond$ is
commonly seen as refuting such a fantasy$ by dethroning the human species from its delusion of
<centrality in the cosmos.= 6ut the lesson of the Singularity$ for 9ur:&eil$ is that the age of such
humiliations is over. )or <it turns out that &e are central$ after all$= he says. The <accelerating
pace= of our technology <&ill continue until the entire universe is at our fingertips= (/C@#.
The Singularity is thus fraught &ith theological significance. -t is something li%e &hat +lain
6adiou calls an Dvent$ a decisive moment of creation and crystalli:ation <&hich compels us to
decide a &ay of being'' (!!1$ /1#. Dven before it happens$ the mere thought of the Singularity
li%e Biet:sche's <abysmal thought= of the Dternal 8eturn$ or St. (aul's thought of the
8esurrection is a conversion e'perience that compels us to dedicate our lives to its Truth. <To
truly understand [the Singularity]$= 9ur:&eil says$ <changes one's vie& of life in general and
one's o&n particular life= (@#. +n orientation to&ards the future even$ or especially$ to&ards an
incomprehensible one must alter your behavior in the present. 9ur:&eil himself$ for instance$
<ta%es more than "! [vitamin] supplements daily$ often in doses much larger than the ES
84+s.= ,e also <closely monitors or tests at least "! measures of his o&n health= on a regular
basis (.anFile !!"#. +ll this is to ensure that he stays alive long enough to ma%e it to the
Singularity$ &hen he &ill be able to upload his mind onto the Bet.
Given the sensibility at &or% here$ - can only agree &ith Tony Girard$ the character in 9en
7acHeod's The Cassini Division (1222# &ho sarcastically dismisses the Singularity as <the
8apture for nerds= (11"#. Bo&$ 6adiou invo%es St. (aul's conversion not for religious ends$ but
only in order to mobili:e it for a ne& construction of Heninist revolutionary sub;ectivity. +nd
such eminent 7ar'ist critics as )redric Iameson (!!"# and Carl )reedman (!!!# have long
argued for the political implications in contrast to religious ones of the utopian impulse in
science fiction. 6ut &here does this leave us &ith regard to the SingularityJ 9u:&eil's
speculations are certainly utopian$ in that they envision a future &orld &ithout scarcity or
deprivation. +nd 9ur:&eil is as overtly antiKeligious as 6adiou or IamesonA the postKSingularity
&orld$ difficult as it may be to comprehend$ is presented as a <here and no&$= rather than as a
transcendent afterlife. Let$ in stri%ing contrast to any other utopian fiction$ 9ur:&eil spends
scarcely a paragraph in his moreKthanKM!!KpagesKlong tome discussing social and political issues.
There's a brief passage about the necessity of developing <smart &eapons= for <cyber&arfare=
(33"#$ and an e*ually brief section about the need to protect <intellectual property= from
unauthori:ed replication (332#. +nd that's about it. +ll the rest is minutely detailed technological
discussion$ &ith a heavy dose of e'trapolation. 9ur:&eil's boo% is classic hard S)$ if &e leave
aside its rather silly claim to be ma%ing <accurate predictions.= 6ut it's so narro& in its
technological concerns$ and in its singleKminded claims for transformation and rupture$ that it
almost seems an inadvertent parody of the genre.
The curious configuration of The Singularity is Near its apolitical and asocial utopianism$ and
scienceK and technologyKbased millenarianism is$ of course$ not accidental. )or the whole point
of 9ur:&eil's speculation its ideological function$ if you &ill is precisely to bring us to utopia
&ithout incurring the inconvenience of having to *uestion our current social and economic
arrangements. This is &hy 9ur:&eil supposes that the on&ard march of technology &ill produce
the society of plenitude$ all by itself so long as government bureaucrats and religious
fundamentalists do not interfere &ith entrepreneurial innovation. 6y a curious sleight of hand$
even after a radical <rupture= in the very <fabric of human history$= &e &itness the persistence of
such features of our society today as private property$ capital accumulation$ branding and
advertising$ stringent copyright enforcement$ and above all <business models= (&ith &hich
9ur:&eil seems curiously to be obsessed#.
The ideologyKcriti*ue that - have ;ust been s%etching out is so obvious as to be scarcely &orth
pursuing. D'cept that 9ur:&eil's rather lame and un&itting attempt at science fiction only ma%es
e'plicit a problem that haunts even the most brilliant$ adventurous$ and inventive S). This has to
do &ith the &ea%ness of the utopian imagination$ its failure to truly e'tend beyond presentday$
capitalist hori:ons. +s Iameson laments$ to&ards the end of his recent boo% on utopian and
science fiction (!!"#> <&e have been plagued by the perpetual reversion of difference and
otherness into the same$ and the discovery that our most energetic imaginative leaps into radical
alternatives &ere little more than the pro;ections of our o&n social moment and historical or
sub;ective situation> the postKhuman thereby seeming more distant and impossible than everN=
(11#. Slavo; Fi:e% ma%es a similar observation (though he isn't referring to science fiction
specifically# &hen he says that <today it's much easier to imagine the end of all life on earth than
a much more modest change in capitalism= (Taylor !!"# . ?e have no trouble picturing the
catastrophic brea%do&n of the capitalist order$ and the e'termination of human life on this
planetA but &e are scarcely able to envision a tolerable and pleasant &orld &ithout money$
&ithout advertising$ &ithout brand names$ and &ithout the vast ine*uities that characteri:e a
capitalist economy. 9ur:&eil's boo% is only the crass e'emplification of a much &ider problem>
the &ay that all thought today$ even e'plicitly oppositional thought$ has been coloni:ed and
appropriated in advance by the flo&s and metamorphoses of Capital.
To e'plore this dilemma$ - turn from 9ur:&eil's o&n speculations to Charles Stross' far more
interesting re&or%ing of them in Accelerando. -n this novel$ Stross never *uestions 9ur:&eil's
dubious premisesA instead$ he pushes them to their most delirious conse*uences. The boo% tells
the story of the supersession of human intelligence by artificial intelligence$ as e'perienced by
three or four generations of the 7ac' family. (The e'act number depends on &hether you count
a clone furnished &ith the memories$ as &ell as the phenotype$ of its ancestor as a separate
generation#. Accelerando starts in +msterdam in the year !1! &ith 7anfred 7ac'$ an <agalmic
entrepreneur= (@# &ho regularly patents business models and then gives them a&ay for free$
<ma%ing strangers rich= (3$ /!$ 3C#. 7anfred is so dependent upon his <personal area net&or%=
(M2# and other &ireless online computational prostheses that$ deprived of them$ he becomes a
befuddled amnesiac$ barely able to remember his o&n name$ location$ and intentions (M21!3#.
Accelerando ends on an artificial asteroid circling a bro&n d&arf (notK*uiteKstar# called ,yundai
O/2!/
P
"M
$ sometime in the t&entythird century$ &ith 7anfred's greatKgrandson 7anni 7ac'
(the aforementioned clone# e'isting simultaneously as a physical child$ playing sQm &ar games
&ith his little pals$ and as an <adult ghost$= or mature intelligent construct$ monitoring everything
that happens from a virtual <mindspace= (3@!#.
-n bet&een these starting and ending points$ &e get a plethora of florid nerd fantasies and &ac%y
business plans. -t's as if Stross had ta%en all his old issues of Wired maga:ine and run them
through the linguistic and conceptual e*uivalent of a digital music sampler. +t one point$
7anfred decides to shed his human form$ and do&nloads his mind into a floc% of pigeons
&hich gives a &hole ne& literal meaning to the idea of <distributed intelligence.= +t another$
7anfred's grandson Sirhan schemes to <ac*uire a total loc% on the history futures mar%et$ by
having a archive of human e'periences= on hand and available for do&nload (2!#. -n the postK
Singularity age$ se' &ith strangers is less of a gamble than it used to be$ because you can run a
simulation and see &hat it &ill be li%e ahead of time (3"#. There are also sentient simulated
lobster minds running spaceships in the 5ort 6elt$ <group minds= or <borganisms= (2M2@# &ho
run other consciousnesses as soft&are &ithin their o&n$ and characters &ho (than%s to cloning$
memory do&nloading$ and fasterKthanKrealKtime life simulations# end up being older than their
o&n mothers.
-n a certain &ay$ Accelerando is closer to the space operas of Golden +ge S) than it is to the
cyberpun% fiction of the 12C!s. 5f course$ Stross' e'acerbated selfconsciousness and tongueKinK
chee% hip attitude are not very Golden +ge. +nd the novel's characters maintain a remar%able
range of manias$ tics$ and obsessions from masochistic abasement to puritanical fear of
se'uality to an almost hysterical lust for novelty that &ould never have been dramati:ed in
preK12M! S). 6ut at the same time$ Stross' reveling in cheesy genre formulas$ his love of &ac%y
gadgets and surprising$ yet ultimately logical$ plot t&ists$ and his boo%'s utter lac% of e'istential
anguish or nihilistic posturing all suggest a &ill to &rite as if cyberpun% had never happened. -t
may be that Stross' insouciance and comic detachment$ and his re;ection of an allKtooKhuman
angst and negativity$ are necessary strategies in order to come to terms &ith his sub;ect. <The
rapture of the nerds= and Stross uses the phrase$ borro&ed from 7acHeod$ several times in the
course of the novel (1@1@3$ @!$ 31C# does not lend itself to the sort of terminalK&asteland
introspection and filmKnoir recyclings that &ere the stoc%KinKtrade of the cyberpun% &riters.
The postKSingularity &orld of is therefore not dystopian in the cyberpun% manner. 8ather$ it's a
straightfor&ard technoKutopia. The <necessary comforts of civili:ation= (3M"# &hich include
neural implants and information access$ as &ell as food$ clothing$ and shelter are available to
everyone. The information net&or% is &ired directly into your brain. Than%s to <programmable
matter= and nanomachines$ any ob;ect you &ant can be instantaneously constructed &ith ;ust a
snap of your fingers. (overty and &ar are eliminated. There are still class differences$ as &ell as
religious$ ideological$ and political disagreements. 6ut these never reach the point of actual
conflict$ since the contending parties find it far easier to ignore one another than to actually fight.
(+ <%illfile= function &or%s in meatspace as &ell as .8$ so that you can simply render irritating
people invisible to youA it's great for coc%tail parties#. The plot of Accelerando is nonetheless
thic% &ith political infighting$ legal disputes$ and underhanded mar%et manipulationsA even after
the Singularity$ some things apparently never change. State and 7ar%et are never e'plicitly
contestedA in the course of the novel$ they ;ust gradually &ither a&ay. 6y the last chapter$ set in
the t&entyKthird century$ all human beings live in a &orld &ithout scarcity (3M/#. <Hife is rich...
endlessly varied and sometimes confusing$= and grounded much as it &as before the pressures
of scarcity led to states and to systematic processes of capital accumulation in communities of
human beings <living in small family groups &ithin larger tribal net&or%s= (3"23M!#.
,o&ever$ Accelerando also contains a counterKnarrative$ running alongside the melioristic (and
vaguely 8ousseaean# one that - have ;ust described. The society of abundance envisioned in the
novel is nonetheless <a povertyKstric%en bac%&ater compared to its neighbors= (31"A cf. 3M/#.
These neighbors are societies composed$ not of human beings$ but of our <mind children= (@$
C2 echoing 7oravec 122!#> sentient$ autonomous artificial intelligences (+-s#$ unencumbered
by the limits of carbonKbased biology. Stross unli%e 9ur:&eil$ but follo&ing the deeper
implications of his logic posits t&o distinct lines of technological evolution. 5n the one hand$
there are the computationally enhanced human beings &ho are the main sub;ects of Stross'
narrative. 5n the other hand$ there are the pure +-s> not cyborgs or hybrids$ but an entirely ne&
sort of entity. The human *uest for technological enhancement or$ more accurately$ for
increased profits$ since this is &hat really drives the process leads to the event that &e call the
Singularity. 6ut once this event has ta%en place$ human beings are no longer at its center. The
Singularity gives birth to inhuman or posthuman +-s$ and they are its true <historical sub;ect.=
The enhancements of human life recounted in the novel are only byproducts of the machinic
evolution of artificial intelligence itself.
9ur:&eil li%es to compare the <high computational efficiency= of &hich thin%ing machines are
capable (3M# &ith the <severe limitations= of the human brain (C#. Such a distinction is ta%en for
granted throughout Accelerando. -n purely technological terms$ the +-s evolve$ or develop$ much
faster and further than is possible for merely enhanced human beings. .ery *uic%ly$ the +-s
e'ceed our po&ers of comprehension by several orders of magnitude. They are <fundamentally
better consciousness engines than us merely human types= (3@M#. This is a *ualitative$ as &ell as
a *uantitative$ distinction. -t isn't ;ust that &e don't %no& &hat these +-s &antA beyond this$ it is
literally impossible for us to imagine &hat they might &ant. )or they possess a higherKorder
consciousness than &e do$ e'isting on a metaKlevel in comparison to us> <a posthuman can build
an internal model of a humanKlevel intelligence that is$ &ell$ as cognitively strong as the original.
Lou or - may thin% &e %no& &hat ma%es other people tic%$ but &e're *uite often &rong$ &hereas
real posthumans can actually simulate us$ inner states and all$ and get it right= (3@M3@@#. So
much for the problem of <other minds.=
+lthough Stross never spells this out e'plicitly$ these posthuman intelligences are li%e nothing so
much as &hat &e %no& today as transnational corporations. 5f course$ corporations have long
been considered <persons= in the eyes of the la&$ even though they are not (yet# conscious
entities (and even though they are e'empt unli%e biological persons from being incarcerated$
tortured$ or put to death#. Accelerando pushes this situation to its logical conclusion. Darly in the
novel$ several of the characters reali:e that <&e need a ne& legal concept of &hat it is to be a
person. 5ne that can cope &ith sentient corporations= and other artifacts of the Singularity (2C#.
6ut it's not ;ust that corporations become sentient. The converse is also the case> after the
Singularity$ all sentient +-s function as autonomous economic entities$ <slyly selfa&are
financial instruments= (1MC#. They e'ist only to accumulate capital$ in the form of endless
computation. The +-s have freed themselves from merely human parameters$ shed their human
origins$ and emerged as alien$ predatory lifeforms. They strive to e'tract the ma'imum value (in
the form of computational po&er# from all matter. Their focus is on efficiency$ and on endless
selfe'pansion. They have no goals e'ternal to the processes of accumulation and e'pansion
themselves. Bo measure of abundance can satiate their rapacious competitive drive. 7erely
enhanced human beings may have attained a state of abundanceA but the posthuman +-s still live
in a <scarcity economy$= because neither band&idth nor matter is truly infinite (2#.
Accelerando provides a Stapledonian vision$ albeit in brief$ of <the stellar life cycle$= the overall
tra;ectory of +- civili:ations (3!3#. The posthuman +-s *uic%ly dismantle the solar system$
pulveri:ing the planets and asteroids in order to convert their <dumb matter= into
<computronium= (1/$ /C$ "1$ 3/1$ and passim#. -n so doing$ they force the remaining (merely
enhanced# human beings further and further a&ay from the sun> to Iupiter$ then to Saturn$ then to
the 5ort 6elt$ then finally out of the solar system altogether &hich is &hy the remnants of
humanity end up circling ,yundai
O/2!/
P
"M
. Eltimately there isn't room in the solar system for
both them and us. The +-s <restructure the entire mass of their star system into a freeKflying shell
of nanocomputers$ then more of them$ 4yson spheres$ shells &ithin shells$ li%e a 8ussian doll> a
7atriosh%a brain0 (3!3#. 6ut sooner or later they push their mania for accumulation to the point
of implosion and e'tinction. The entire gala'y turns out to be littered &ith the ruins of dead or
dying superintelligent civili:ations> it's <a ho&ling &ilderness of degenerate data$ fractally
compressed$ postconscious processes running slo&er and slo&er as they trade storage space for
processing po&er= (C2#.
?hat is the role of (enhanced# human beings or of any other sentient$ biological species that
produces a technological Singularity in all thisJ ?e are initially important to the +-s as sources
of ra& material$ informational patterns to be simulated and assimilated. The precise way they use
the information they e'tract from us <is not %no&n. ((ossibilities include the study of history
through horticulture$ entertainment through liveaction roleplaying$ revenge$ and economic
forgery= (313#. 6ut &hatever may be the case$ once our computational surplus value has been
fully e'tracted$ &e are simply shunted aside by the +-s. -n some instances$ they still value us as
<sapient currency units$= stoc%piling us for <future options trades in human species futures=
(1!#. 6ut even this sort of utility is fairly limited. Sooner or later$ &e are slated for <ethnic
cleansing... Lou ta%e people &ho you define as being of little &orth$ and first you herd them into
a cro&ded ghetto &ith limited resources$ then you decide those resources aren't &orth spending
on them$ and bullets are cheaper than bread= (C2#.
The posthuman +-s have upgraded the oldKfashioned <free mar%et= to <the soKcalled +ccelerated
Salesman -nfrastructure of Dconomics .!= (@C#$ a system that is <more efficient than any
humanKdesigned resource allocation schema= (3!3#. Dconomics .! <replaces the singleK
indirection layer of conventional money$ and the multipleKindirection mappings of options
trades$ &ith some %ind of insanely baro*ue ob;ectKrelational frame&or% based on the
parametri:ed desires and sub;ective e'periential values of the players= (31#. -n Dconomics .!$
money has been abstracted to this metalevel in order to serve as a universal e*uivalent for all
computation> <*uanti:ed originality that &hich allo&s one sentient entity to outmaneuver
another= (2"#. 7erely human intelligence is incapable of participating in Dconomics .!
<&ithout dehumani:ing cognitive surgery= (31"#.
Stross is e'trapolating here$ - thin%$ from the presentKday trade in derivatives$ <financial
instruments that derive their monetary value from other assets$ such as stoc%s$ bonds$
commodities$ or currencies... derivatives represent a metalevel &ith respect to their underlying
assets$ a metalevel created by the fi'ed temporal interval in &hich they are e'ercisable= (Hee and
Hi(uma !!$ !/#. 4erivatives are inseparable from the latest computing and communications
technologies. They presuppose the ability to transmit large financial sums instantaneously across
the globe. +nd they defy any sort of intuitive representation$ as they can only be e'pressed in
terms of comple' differential e*uations (Hi(uma and Hee !!/$ M"#. 4erivatives are supposedly
<hedges= against the ris%s of turbulent currency mar%ets (&hich is &hy the unregulated
corporations that trade them are called <hedge funds=#. 6ut in fact$ derivatives increase
turbulence and ris%$ and they are largely used for purposes of speculation. -n all these &ays$
derivatives are money and credit raised to a higher po&er.
7ar'$ in sharp contrast both to the classical political economists upon &hom he dre&$ and the
neoclassical and neoliberal economists &hose vie&s are hegemonic today$ al&ays emphasi:ed
that money is not a neutral and transparent medium. 7oney's po&er of abstraction$ its value
!orm as a universal e*uivalent$ places its stamp on everything that is e'pressed in its terms$
e'changed for it$ or converted into it. 6ut if money (together &ith credit# is already an
abstraction$ derivatives are <doubly abstract... abstract not only in the conventional sense of
being removed from immediate ordinary reality... but in the historically specific sense of
ob;ectifying different$ globally distant$ and incommensurable social relations as a single priced
thing= (Hi(uma and Hee !!/$ 3!#. 4erivatives represent a higher level of &hat 7ar' called the
fetishism of commodities$ as they reify and commodify not only the social relations of
production as manifested in manufactured ob;ects$ but a far &ider and more diffuse set of social
relations$ &hich are all *uantified under the rubric of <ris%= (@@C3#.
+s a result of this double abstraction$ derivatives seem to flo& freely in a space of their o&n$ a
virtual &orld of purely *uantitative calculations. They seem to e'emplify <financial circulation
as a play of deconte'tuali:ed and naturally occurring mar%et surface forms= (Hi(uma and Hee
!!/$ 2#. The autonomy of derivatives and financial mar%ets li%e the autonomy of
technological development in 9ur:&eil's narrative is$ of course$ ultimately an illusion. 6ut it is$
you might say$ an o"#ective illusion$ &hich is to say a fantasy. -t is a fantasy that$ $ua fantasy$
actually operates in the &orld$ &ith conse*uences that are perfectly real$ and often *uite horrific.
-ndeed$ <the social and political po&er of financial derivatives are grounded in great measure on
their appearing not to be social or political at all$ but to simply e'press the mechanisms and
profit goals of the mar%et= (2#. The double abstraction of speculative financial instruments li%e
derivatives is &hat gives them the po&er to devastate &hole economies almost overnight (as has
happened a number of times in the last decade#. 7agnified and e'trapolated$ such is the po&er of
the posthuman +-s &ielding Dconomics .! in Stross' narrative.
The &orld of Accelerando never escapes the hori:ion of Capital and its flo&s$ because it remains
circumscribed by the incomprehensible logic of Dconomics .!. The novel's human characters
can neither comprehend nor participate in this logic$ but they are still sub;ect to its effects. Their
e'perience of relative abundance &hich ma%es capitalist relations unnecessary remains under
siege by forces that see% to appropriate every surplus$ thereby transforming abundance bac% into
scarcity. This is &hy the best these human beings can do is hide in the <bac%&ater= of a bro&n
d&arf$ and hope that the convulsions that e'tinguish Dconomics .! civili:ations someho& pass
them by. The absurdity$ and yet inescapability$ of this situation is highlighted &hen the human
protagonists of Accelerando finally encounter sentient life from another star system. Bot only
does the alien entity ta%e on the material form of a gigantic slug$ but it turns out to be an <alien
business model= (3!1# or more precisely a <parasitic organism... the Dconomics .! e*uivalent
of a pyramid scheme crossed &ith a /12 scam= (2"#. Bever has the classic S) scenario of )irst
Contact been so ludicrously deflated.
Accelerando is a cynical$ yet perversely cheerful$ fiction for a time &hen the utopian imagination
seems to have been depleted. The problem is not that &e cannot imagine otherness$ so much as it
is that &hatever otherness &e imagine is immediately mobili:ed as a <business model$= once
more serving to promote the accumulation of capital. Capitalism today is itself directly and
immediately utopian> and that is perhaps the most terrifying thing about it. The technological
Singularity of .inge and 9ur:&eil is symptomatic in this resepct. )or as Accelerando helps to
sho& the Singularity is actually a fantasy of finance capital$ in both senses of the genitive. -t's
the closest &e can come to a master narrative in this neoliberal$ postK)ordist age of fle'ible
accumulation and massive virtual monetary flo&s.
+lthough the Singularity undoubtedly occurs sometime in the course of the narrative of
Accelerando$ &e never actually 'see' it happening$ and &e cannot pin do&n precisely &hen it
ta%es place. 8ay 9ur:&eil$ of course$ predicts that the Singularity &ill occur sometime around
the year !/2. 5ne character in Accelerando suggests a much earlier date> <it happened on Iune
M$ 12M2$ at eleven hundred hours$ eastern seaboard time... That &as &hen the first net&or%
control protocol pac%ets &ere sent from the data port of one -7( to another the first ever
-nternet connection= (1@#. - can suggest a fe& alternative dates$ follo&ing the premise that
9ur:&eil's and Stross' technological fantasy is necessarily also a fantasy of Capital. (erhaps the
Singularity happened on +ugust 1"$ 12@1$ &hen (resident Bi'on suspended the gold standard$
thus opening the &ay for the fantasmatic flo&s of currency speculation and trade in derivatives.
5r perhaps the more accurate date is 5ctober M$ 12@2$ &hen (aul .olc%er$ Chairman of the E.S.
)ederal 8eserve 6oard$ definitively abandoned 9eynsianism and adopted monetarism as official
policy> <a policy designed to *uell inflation no matter &hat the conse*uences might be for
employment= (,arvey !!"$ 3#. -n any case$ the flo&s of Capital have no& become
autonomous and strictly spea%ing unimaginable. They have liberated themselves from any
merely human dimensions$ and from &hatever feeble limits )ordism and 9eynesianism might
previously have placed upon the singleminded pursuit of capital accumulation. -n that sense$ the
Singularity is already here.
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