Behavioral surplus forecasting power drives a second imperative beyond extraction

Evidence

For surveillance capitalists, this transition is not a choice. Surveillance profits awakened intense competition over the revenues that flow from new markets for future behavior. Even the most sophisticated process of converting behavioral surplus into products that accurately forecast the future is only as good as the raw material available for processing. Surveillance capitalists therefore must ask this: what forms of surplus enable the fabrication of prediction products that most reliably foretell the future? This question marks a critical turning point in the trial-and-error elaboration of surveillance capitalism. It crystallizes a second economic imperative—the prediction imperative—and reveals the intense pressure that it exerts on surveillance capitalist revenues. — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 620

Categorization

• DEFINE: Introduces and defines the ‘prediction imperative’ as the second economic imperative of surveillance capitalism.
• XREF: The prediction imperative ties directly to the reader’s stated focus on prediction markets and behavioral surplus as defining features of the digital economy. — connects to: Volume economies of behavioral surplus gave way to quality of prediction — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 621; Behavioral surplus extraction extends from virtual spaces into physical life — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 623; Behavioral surplus flows back to shape driver behavior and feed prediction futures markets — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 679 (+7 more)

Broader Connections

• Behavioral surplus flows back to shape driver behavior and feed prediction futures markets #expands (0.88) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 679
• Platforms extract behavioral surplus from human activity to predict and modify it. #expands (0.85) — , The Braided Reading EPUB, 809
• Selling predictions of human behavior superseded serving genuine needs in web economics #expands (0.82) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 293
• Digital assistants convert inner life into calculable behavioral surplus for others’ profit #exemplifies (0.78) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 796
• Predictive behavioral surplus proved directly applicable to winning elections #exemplifies (0.75) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 391
• Algorithmic media have shifted from forecasting toward incubating collective uncertainty #qualifies (0.72) — Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou, Speculative Communities, 324