Cornering behavioral surplus is an orchestrated strategy, not merely a technical feat

Evidence

In this chapter we follow the consequences of the extraction imperative as it drives the elaboration of the new market form and its competitive dynamics. The imperative elevates surplus supply operations to a defining role in every aspect of the surveillance capitalist enterprise. This begins with a continuous parade of innovations aimed at cornering raw-material supplies. Cornering is not simply a technological achievement. Sustainable dispossession requires a highly orchestrated and carefully phased amalgam of political, communicative, administrative, legal, and material strategies that audaciously asserts and tirelessly defends claims to new ground. The success of these strategies, first at Google and later at Facebook, established both their feasibility and their rewards, drawing new competitors into an increasingly ruthless cycle of kidnapping human experience, cornering surplus supplies, and competing in new behavioral futures markets. — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 413

Categorization

• DEFINE: Formalizes ‘cornering’ as the amalgam of political, communicative, administrative, legal, and material strategies that asserts claims to behavioral surplus.
• XREF: connects to: Ed-tech firms openly link behavioral conditioning to profit-making from user action. — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 927; Predictive behavioral surplus proved directly applicable to winning elections — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 391; Behavioral surplus forecasting power drives a second imperative beyond extraction — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 620 (+4 more)

Broader Connections

• Platforms extract behavioral surplus from human activity to predict and modify it. #expands (0.85) — , The Braided Reading EPUB, 809
• Behavioral surplus forecasting power drives a second imperative beyond extraction #qualifies (0.80) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 620
• Instrumentarian power arises from converging surveillance capabilities and monetized behavioral surplus #expands (0.80) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1214
• Digital assistants convert inner life into calculable behavioral surplus for others’ profit #exemplifies (0.80) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 796
• Strategic moves work by constraining one’s own behavior to shape an opponent’s expectations. #qualifies (0.72) — Thomas C. Schelling, The Strategy of Conflict, 361