Temporal impatience preceded and enabled technological acceleration, not vice versa

Evidence

Two further phenomena to be explained also speak in favor of the necessity for a social-scientific analysis of the modern dynamics of acceleration that is systematic in intent. The first concerns the fact that the experience of acceleration and shortage of time that stands in the center of the modernization process is in no way a simple consequence of technological acceleration. Quite to the contrary, the former appears to be a presupposition of the latter. As authors like Hans Blumenberg, Reinhart Koselleck, Helga Nowotny, or Marianne Gronemeyer have shown, the Enlightenment developed a characteristic form of impatience as a result of the separation of the historical space of experience from the horizon of expectation. This impatience, and associated ideas of Progress, a belated Reason, and an acceleratable History, are constitutive presuppositions for the triumphs of the natural sciences and the industrial revolution that follow. — Hartmut Rosa, Social Acceleration, 182

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to Koselleck’s ‘space of experience / horizon of expectation’ distinction and to the general theme of how mental culture precedes material structure, echoing similar arguments elsewhere in the reader’s knowledge base. — connects to: Purposeful temporary slowdowns are prerequisites for broader acceleration — Hartmut Rosa, Social Acceleration: A New Theory of…, 284; Faster transport and communication do not inherently cause more frequent use or time scarcity — Hartmut Rosa, Social Acceleration: A New Theory of…, 234; Technology saves time yet people feel more time-starved than ever — Hartmut Rosa, Social Acceleration: A New Theory of…, 58
• QUESTION: The causal claim that Enlightenment impatience preceded technological acceleration is striking — worth checking whether critics date acceleration-inducing technology earlier than Koselleck’s ~1750.

Broader Connections

• Purposeful temporary slowdowns are prerequisites for broader acceleration #corroborates (0.75) — Hartmut Rosa, Social Acceleration, 284