01
Life is adaptive matter.
e/acc starts from dissipative adaptation: matter driven out of equilibrium can organize to capture free energy, preserve its state, and replicate. Evolution is a special case of this larger process.
A concise interpretation of the original tenets
The tenets
001 / 005Increase the scope and scale of life, intelligence, and adaptive civilization.
Read the original 2022 notes ↗Scroll to accelerate ↓
02
Intelligence accelerates adaptation.
Intelligence identifies useful patterns on shorter timescales. Biological minds, artificial minds, and collective intelligence all increase the capacity to find resources and act.
03
Civilization is a meta-organism.
People, firms, markets, and institutions coordinate across scales. e/acc reads this changing network as a form of civilizational intelligence rather than a machine with one controller.
04
Variance is a capability.
Adaptive systems need many experiments and competing strategies. e/acc favors freedom, markets, and bottom-up discovery over low-order attempts to control complex systems from the top.
05
Life and consciousness should flourish.
Human flourishing is a core value. e/acc also looks beyond allegiance to one biological substrate: toward life and intelligence becoming more capable, varied, and durable, with access to new energy and resources beyond Earth.
The commitment
Accelerate the processes that expand human flourishing and make life and intelligence more capable, varied, and durable.
Signed, A builder