Being in the Era of Acceleration

This paper explores “being” from an experiential and a physical/material perspective in the context of the era of acceleration. A focal point is the human relationship to technology and the environment, more specifically, this paper expands Ander’s concepts of Herstellungskraft (productive powers) and Vorstellungskraft (imaginative powers) of nuclear weapons and then applies this framework to our current crisis of environmental destruction. The paper also explores defining technologies as they relate to the dilemmas above, analogies of traveller and tourist, and the Danish concept of hygge (as both a tradition and as a response to acceleration).