Aliénation et accélération

The book in brief. Hartmut Rosa examines why technologies that save time can coexist with a growing sense of time scarcity. Competition and rising expectations push people to move faster simply to keep up, with consequences for their relationships to work, to others and to themselves. The book helps explain why efficiency gains do not automatically create more time for reflection or care.

Key ideas

• Three accelerations. Technological acceleration, acceleration of social change and acceleration of the pace of life are intertwined.
• The time paradox. The more technology saves time, the more activities become possible, the more we try to fit in, and the less time we feel we have.
• Running to stay in place. Time saved is absorbed by rising expectations, so slowing down feels like falling behind.
• Resonance. Rosa’s opposite of acceleration is a mutual vibration between self and world.

Why it matters to my work. In AI, Magic Skin, and Je-ne-sais-quoi, I argue that AI supercharges all three accelerations at once and call the result Rosa on steroids. In AI, Intimacy, and the Unreciprocating Companion, I use resonance to name the specific risk of AI companionship: a one-way resonance, where you vibrate and it does not. In Can We Control AI Without Understanding It?, Rosa explains why the pace of work can push us to remove safeguards before we understand the risks we are accepting.