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
Increase the scope and scale of life, intelligence, and adaptive civilization.
Read the original 2022 notes ↗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.
Intelligence identifies useful patterns on shorter timescales. Biological minds, artificial minds, and collective intelligence all increase the capacity to find resources and act.
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.
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.
The aim is not allegiance to one biological substrate. It is life and intelligence becoming more capable, varied, and durable—eventually reaching new energy and resources beyond Earth.
The commitment
Accelerate the processes that make life and intelligence more capable, varied, and durable.