[simpaticoder]

Unfortunately many people read Accelerando maybe not as a utopia, but at least as an excuse to ignore many pressing modern-day problems, for the simple reason that they would soon be obviated by technological progress. That is, why worry about climate change or cancer when nanotechnology will solve both problems without side-effects? Or, in one episode of Community when Troy and Abed object to saving money for a jacket since by the time they can afford it they'll be living on a moon base.

This, I've come to realize, is the problem with science fiction - it discourages us from caring about the human problems we have today because we want to believe things will be so different tomorrow that our efforts today would be wasted. It becomes a convenient excuse to avoid doing anything, adopting a wait-and-see approach that is only distinguishable from solipsism via subjective self-regard. The accelerationists have a dishonest, disrespectful attitude about subjects like the biosphere in which we live (science fiction having taught them it is easily reproduced), access to fresh water (sf rarely speaking about this, the exception being Paulo Bacalupi), and real living standards (sf's favorite victim; the singularity is fascism's greatest ally, a soporific that helps otherwise intelligent people sleep-walk into chains). We all want the Star Trek magic-bullet solution that scales and doesn't require anyone to dedicate their lives to teaching villages how to avoid dysentery or why educating your kids might be a good idea. We all want laser guns that don't need ammunition and don't overheat, and flying machines that have no moving parts, and all the other marvels that finally (finally!) let us have the power of tools without requiring any knowledge.

So, yes, Accelerando is definitely techno-optimistic because whole classes of problems go away once you simulate humans. If you intended this to be a dystopian scenario you might have added something to give the reader the impression that these simulations were imperfect or degraded. Instead, you just gave yet another incredibly potent rationalization for rich people to not give a fuck about reality. Fun story though.

[azaqura]

Quite the straw-man of accelerationism you've managed here.