The Illusion of Technological Promise and Accelerated Capitalism

The scarcity of subjective time is a new phenomenon in modern Western capitalist societies. Under the domination of capital power, in order to achieve the rapid valorization of capital, modern Western capitalist societies have already become accelerated societies driven by scientific and technological progress. In *The Birth of New Alienation: An Outline of a Critical Theory of Social Acceleration* (hereafter *New Alienation*), the Frankfurt School thinker Hartmut Rosa profoundly analyzes the problem of acceleration in modern capitalist societies and reveals the closed-loop logic of social acceleration: first, the acceleration of scientific and technological progress brings about the acceleration of social change; second, the acceleration of social change triggers the acceleration of the pace of life; finally, the acceleration of the pace of life once again demands the acceleration of scientific and technological progress.

主体时间匮乏是现代西方资本主义社会呈现出的新景象，在资本权力的宰治下，为获得资本的快速增殖，现代西方资本主义社会已然成了依托科技进步驱动的加速社会。法兰克福学派思想家哈特穆特·罗萨在《新异化的诞生——社会加速理论批判大纲》（以下简称《新异化》）中，对现代资本主义社会的加速问题进行了深刻剖析，并揭示了社会加速的闭环逻辑：首先，科技进步加速带来社会变迁加速；其次，社会变迁加速引发生活步调加速；最后，生活步调加速再次要求科技进步加速。

However, as the starting point of the logic of acceleration, in fact, in modern capitalist societies, the purpose of scientific and technological progress is to make the acceleration of production possible, and the purpose of the acceleration of production is to satisfy, through the rapid production of commodities, the infinite desires of the experiencer (the subject) that have been stimulated by capital. Because the process by which the subject satisfies desire is precisely the process of capital valorization. In capitalist society, everyone is on a "slippery slope" and must run desperately just to stay in place. This directly causes a scarcity of time for the experiencer, filling every moment of leisure with an ever-increasing number of events, constantly transforming it into labor time. People eagerly desire to resolve more events, obtain more experiences, and accumulate more experience, in order to extend the effective cycle of gaining recognition and maintain their self-worth. This makes the acceleration of the pace of life once again expect the acceleration of scientific and technological progress, forming the closed-loop logic of acceleration in modern capitalist society. The continuously developing technological means have not freed the subject from endless experiential activities; on the contrary, they have created a sensory fact: the more technology develops, the busier people become. This is precisely the illusion of technological promise presented in accelerated capitalist society. In essence, technology has been alienated from a tool for human liberation into a tool for capital's domination over humanity.

然而，作为加速逻辑的开端，事实上，在现代资本主义社会中，科技进步的目的在于使生产加速成为可能，而生产加速的目的在于通过商品的快速生产，满足体验者（主体）被资本激发出的无限的欲望。因为主体满足欲望的过程，也正是资本增殖的过程。在资本主义社会中，每个人身处“滑动的斜坡”之上，必须拼命奔跑，才可能保持于原位，这直接造成了体验者的时间匮乏，使每个人的闲暇时间被无限递增的事件充满，不断地转化成劳动时间。因为人们渴望着解决更多事件、获得更多体验、积累更多经验，以延长获得承认的有效周期，保持自我价值。这使得生活步调加速再次期望着科技进步加速，并形成了现代资本主义社会加速的闭环逻辑。不断发展的科技手段，并未使主体从无休止的体验活动中解脱出来，反而造成了这样一个感官事实：科技越发展，人们越忙碌。这正是加速资本主义社会中呈现出的科技承诺幻象，质言之，科技由解放人的工具，异化成了资本宰治人的工具。

Capital Logic and Technological Domination

资本逻辑与技术统治

Technology always follows this cycle: adopting new technology to solve old problems, new technology causing new problems, and the solution of new problems again resorting to even newer technology. For capital, whether it is "old problems" or "new problems," they all boil down to the problem of how to achieve the maximum valorization of capital. Since the birth of human society, the seeds of human use of technology have been formed. The difference between humans and animals lies in the use of tools, and the use of tools is technology. As the intermediary for material exchange between humans and nature, the subject of technology is humanity, and the greatest beneficiaries of scientific and technological development should be humanity itself. This is precisely in line with the original promise of scientific and technological development to humanity: to replace human alienated labor and enable humanity to achieve true freedom and liberation.

技术总是进行这样的循环：为解决老问题去采用新技术，新技术又引起新问题，新问题的解决又要诉诸更新的技术。对于资本来说，无论是“老问题”还是“新问题”，归结起来，都是如何实现资本最大化增殖的问题。自人类社会诞生伊始，便形成了人类使用技术的萌芽，人与动物的区别在于对工具的使用，而使用工具即有技术。作为人与自然之间发生物质变换的中介，技术的主体是人，科技发展的最大受益者应该是人类自身，这也正符合科技发展对人类的原初承诺，即替代人类的异化劳动，使人类获得真正的自由解放。

However, in accelerated capitalist society, humanity has instead become dominated by technology. On the one hand, this manifests as the fact that in accelerated capitalist society, humans must continuously learn and adapt to the changes in life brought about by scientific and technological progress. Along with the rapid development in fields such as the internet, intelligence, data, and platforms, the timeliness of the experience accumulated by humanity in previous generations is constantly being shortened. New work models, media models, purchasing forms, and lifestyles force humans to keep pace with the development of science and technology at all times. This both accelerates the pace of life of the subject and causes humanity to become increasingly dependent on technology. Those who cannot adapt to the social atmosphere accelerated by scientific and technological progress will be excluded from society and regarded as aliens. On the other hand, in accelerated capitalist society, humans must also rely on the accelerated development of science and technology to satisfy their false needs manufactured by capital. The accelerating essence of accelerated capitalist society is the acceleration of capital's desire for valorization. Under the domination of capital power and within the atmosphere of consumer society, the desires of the subject must constantly expand so that capital can profit from the exchange behavior of satisfying these desires. Capital causes humanity's "natural needs" to be gradually replaced by desires "historically formed" by accelerated capitalism. In the actual field, whether the satisfaction of desire depends on real or virtual commodities, it all requires the acceleration of scientific and technological progress to be realized.

然而，在加速资本主义社会中，人类反而受到了技术的统治。其一方面表现为，在加速资本主义社会中，人类必须不断学习并适应由科技进步带来的生活改变。伴随着网络、智能、数据、平台等领域的飞速发展，人类在以往世代中所累积的经验的时效性被不断缩短。新的工作模式、传媒模式、购买形式、生活方式等，使人类必须时刻紧跟科技发展的步伐。这既加速主体的生活节奏，也造成了人类愈发需要完全依赖技术。而无法适应由科技进步所加速的社会氛围的人将被排斥于社会之外，并被视为异类。另一方面，在加速资本主义社会中，人类同样必须依赖于科技加速发展，以满足他们被资本制造出来的虚假欲求。加速资本主义社会的加速本质是资本增殖欲望的加速，在资本权力的宰治下，在消费社会的氛围下，主体的欲望必须不断膨胀，才能在其满足欲望的交换行为中使资本获利。资本使人的“自然的需要”逐渐被加速资本主义“历史形成”的欲望所取代。在现实场域中，欲望满足所依赖的无论是真实的还是虚拟的商品，皆需要科技进步的加速以实现。

In accelerated capitalist society, capital power dissolves the subject position of humanity. In this sense, the master of technology is capital, not humanity. Although scientific and technological progress depends on human discovery, invention, and creation, in fact it depends even more on the support of capital. The reason for capital's support is that scientific and technological progress provides capital with a broader space for valorization. In this sense, scientific and technological development has not fulfilled its original promise; instead, it has been alienated from a tool for humanity to transform nature into a tool for capital to dominate humanity. In accelerated capitalist society, on the one hand, the subject is busy with the process of satisfying false needs manufactured by capital; on the other hand, the satisfaction of these false needs depends on scientific and technological progress. Science and technology develop driven by capital, and technological development in turn promotes capital valorization. Under the collusion of capital and technology, humanity becomes the sacrifice of capital's accelerated valorization.

在加速资本主义社会中，资本权力消解了人的主体地位，在此意义上，科技的主人是资本，而非人类。虽然科技的进步依赖于人类的发现、发明、创造，但事实上更加依赖于资本的支持，而资本支持的理由在于科技进步使资本获得了更加广阔的增殖空间。在此意义上，科技发展并未兑现其原初的承诺，而是从人类改造自然的工具，异化成了资本统治人的工具。在加速资本主义社会中，一方面，主体奔忙于满足被资本制造出来的虚假欲求的过程之中；另一方面，这种虚假欲求的满足需要依赖科技进步。科技依靠资本推动实现发展，科技发展又促动了资本增殖，在资本与技术的媾和之下，人类成为资本加速增殖的牺牲品。

The Mission of Science and Technology in Accelerated Capitalist Society

加速资本主义社会的科技使命

In the process by which capital completes a more rapid extraction of surplus value through scientific and technological progress, it also attempts to use technological development to break through the fundamental limit that natural resources impose on capital valorization. In essence, in accelerated capitalist society, technological development on the one hand creates the possibility for the acceleration of production to satisfy capital's desire for valorization; on the other hand, it expects to transcend the limits to growth through scientific and technological progress to satisfy capital's desire for infinite valorization.

在资本通过科技进步完成更快速剩余价值获取的过程中，其同样试图通过科技的发展突破自然资源对资本增殖的根本性限度。质言之，在加速资本主义社会中，科技发展一方面为生产加速创造可能，以满足资本的增殖欲望；另一方面，期望通过科技的进步超越增长的极限，以满足资本无限增殖的欲望。

In response to this, technological development presents a dual expansion strategy of internal intensification and external appropriation. First, on the internal front, the main purpose of technological development is to reconcile the contradiction between the rate of resource consumption and the rate of resource regeneration. Through technological progress, existing resources gain a broader space for utilization, and under the operational mechanism of capital logic, this is transformed into space for capital valorization. Second, on the external front, as capital has opened the door to the world market, the ecological exploitation of late-developing countries by developed capitalist countries has become an effective channel for them to obtain resources. The factories set up by developed capitalist countries around the world are typical cases of this. Even more extreme, some attempt to achieve external resource plunder through means such as waging war.

对此，科技发展呈现出了内部紧缩与外部占取的双重扩张策略。首先，在对内方面，科技发展的主要目的在于调和资源消耗率与资源再生率之间的矛盾。通过科技的进步使现有资源获得更广阔的利用空间，并在资本逻辑的运行机制下，转化成为资本增殖的空间。其次，在对外方面，伴随资本打开了世界市场的大门，发达资本主义国家对后发国家的生态剥削已经成为其获取资源的有效渠道，发达资本主义国家在世界范围内开设的代工厂皆为这方面的典型案例，更有甚者，试图通过发动战争等方式实现对外的资源霸取。

Beyond this, in accelerated capitalist society, the more significant meaning of technological development lies in the development and utilization of new types of resources and emerging technologies. However, no matter what means are adopted to develop technology, its ultimate purpose is to delay the moment of collapse that capital faces in its development. Because, from the perspective of capital, breaking through the bottleneck of resource finitude is the last line of defense for achieving infinite valorization.

除此之外，在加速资本主义社会中，科技发展更重要的意义在于对新型资源、新兴技术的开发与利用。然而，无论采取怎样的手段发展科技，其最终目的在于拖延资本发展面临的崩溃时刻。因为，在资本的视域内，突破资源的有限瓶颈是其实现无限增殖的最后防线。

The Illusion of "Slow Living" and the Essence of "Resonance"

“慢生活”的假象与“共鸣”的本质

In the process of capital's continuous valorization, the most important factor in the development of productive forces—the laborer—is neglected. Under the domination of capital power, the so-called freedom of the laborer is in reality nothing but an illusory bubble. In accelerated capitalist society, freedom has never belonged to anyone but the valorization of capital. Under the dual pressure of internal pressure and external competition, even all people in capitalist society have been reduced to the operating gears of the huge machine of capital valorization. Laborers are forced to engage in alienated labor, and capitalists are forced into endless competition.

在资本不断增殖的过程中，忽视了作为生产力发展过程中的最重要因素——劳动者，在资本权力的宰治下，劳动者所谓的自由实质上只是虚幻泡影。在加速资本主义社会中，自由从来只属于资本的增殖，在内部压力和外部竞争的双重作用下，甚至资本主义社会中的全体人皆沦为了庞大资本增殖机器的运转齿轮。劳动者被迫从事异化劳动，资本家被迫进行无休止的竞争。

While modern capitalist society accelerates, it also accelerates the painful experience of all people and the antagonism of class contradictions. Although capital attempts to reconcile the painful experience of the subject caused by social acceleration in accelerated capitalist society through so-called "slow living," the essence of "slow living" is "fast." Any "pause" that the subject borrows in "slow living" will be repaid doubly after returning to the fast pace of life. Because in accelerated capitalist society, "slowness" in the true sense contradicts capital's desire for valorization.

在现代资本主义社会加速的同时，也加速了全体人的痛苦体验与阶级间的矛盾对立。虽然资本试图通过所谓的“慢生活”调和加速资本主义社会中主体由于社会加速所造成的痛苦体验，然而，“慢生活”的本质是“快”。主体在“慢生活”中所借贷的“停留”，都会在其回归快节奏的生活步调后加倍偿还，因为在加速资本主义社会中，真正意义上的“慢”是与资本的增殖欲求相违背的。

Similarly, in accelerated capitalist society, the “resonance” strategy is also impractical. The so-called “resonance” strategy is to align the inner pace of the subject with the external social acceleration pace, attempting to form a subjective spiritual self-awareness at the level of experience. In other words, once human beings adapt to the fast pace of life, “speed” is no longer perceived, nor does it cause pain to the experiencer. This reformist strategy toward accelerated capitalism is merely “scratching an itch from outside the boot”[1]1 “Scratching an itch from outside the boot” (隔靴搔痒) is a Chinese idiom meaning to address a problem in a superficial or ineffective way, without touching the root cause. — in fact, it is a feeble and optimistic submission to capital.

同样，在加速资本主义社会中，“共鸣”策略也是不切实际的。所谓的“共鸣”策略是使主体的内心步调与外在的社会加速步调合拍，试图形成在体验层面上、主体主观上的精神自觉。换句话说，当人类适应快节奏的生活步调后，“快”就不会被察觉，更不会造成体验者的痛苦。这种对加速资本主义的改良策略只是“隔靴搔痒”，事实上是对资本孱弱的乐观臣服。

In short, “slow living,” like “resonance,” cannot truly dissolve the subject’s experience of time scarcity in accelerated capitalist society, because acceleration is the fundamental characteristic of modern capitalist society, and the phenomenon of acceleration originates from capital’s infinite drive for self-expansion. The accelerated expansion of capital depends on the accelerated manufacture of desires and the accelerated satisfaction of production, which inevitably leads to “the limits to growth.” Therefore, technological progress is the ultimate reliance of modern capitalist society. However, behind the illusion of “technological promise,” or rather, under the logic of acceleration in modern capitalist society, the fundamental purpose of accelerated technological progress remains the maintenance of the dominant position of capital power.

总之，“慢生活”与“共鸣”一样，不可能真正消解掉主体在加速资本主义社会中的时间匮乏体验，因为加速是现代资本主义社会的根本特征，加速现象源于资本无限的增殖欲。资本的加速增殖依赖欲望的加速制造与生产的加速满足，这势必将迎来“增长的极限”。因此，科技进步是现代资本主义社会的最终寄托。但是，在“科技承诺”幻象的背后，或者说在现代资本主义社会加速逻辑下的科技进步加速，其根本目的仍然是维持资本权力的统治地位。

In modern capitalist society, technology is in fact a tool for capital expansion. Even if capitalism, through the illusion of “technological promise,” breaks through the limits of resources, it still cannot break through the fetters of its own development, nor can it eliminate the painful experience of the subject under the domination of capital power. Therefore, the fundamental issue lies in the dismantling of capital power and the taming of the logic of capital: on the one hand, breaking the power position of capital; on the other hand, preserving and transforming the positive factors brought by capital’s development, so as to achieve a new form that transcends capitalist civilization.

在现代资本主义社会中，科技实为资本增殖的工具，即使资本主义通过“科技承诺”幻象突破了资源的限制，仍然无法突破其自身发展的桎梏，也同样不能消除资本权力宰治下主体的痛苦体验。因此，根本的问题在于对资本权力的瓦解与对资本逻辑的驯服，一方面破除资本的权力地位，另一方面保留并改造资本发展带来的积极因素，以达到超越资本文明的新形态。

Online editor: Paul

网络编辑：保罗