Against Acceleration
And for rest
I was told recently by an enthusiastic advocate of AI that this technological juggernaut is going to rapidly advance at an astounding pace regardless of our desires and intentions. And as a result, human experience is also going to radically change, including how we understand human nature. Hartmut Rosa has argued that one of the main marks of “modernity” is acceleration, technology and the pace of human life and our experience of life goes faster and faster until we live at a dizzying and disorienting pace. Acceleration, in my opinion, is another way in which we live in a “Liquid Modernity,” which is Zygmunt Bauman’s language. Everything is shifting beneath our feet. And that is certainly how living through the acceleration of AI feels.
But acceleration is more than just technological progress. It is a choice that particular people make to live in certain ways. It is a choice that institutions make to operate at certain speeds and efficiencies. And those choices always come with tradeoffs. One of the greatest tradeoffs which acceleration forces us to make, particularly as it reaches higher speeds and efficiencies, is rest. And as we will see, with rest comes a sense of the world’s solidity and coherence in God, an awareness of our sin and need of a Redeemer, and an awareness of the grandeur of God and his creation. When we learn to rest in God, the uncertainty and liquidity caused by acceleration is held in check by the reality of God and his sovereignty and love. But we must cultivate temperance through rest.
