Surveillance capitalism continuously intensifies the means of behavioral modification
Evidence
In the coming chapters we will follow the growth and dissemination of these operations and the instrumentarian power that sustains them. Indeed, it has become difficult to escape this bold market project, whose tentacles reach from the gentle herding of innocent Pokémon Go players to eat, drink, and purchase in the restaurants, bars, fast-food joints, and shops that pay to play in its behavioral futures markets to the ruthless expropriation of surplus from Facebook profiles for the purposes of shaping individual behavior, whether it’s buying pimple cream at 5:45 P.M. on Friday, clicking “yes” on an offer of new running shoes as the endorphins race through your brain after your long Sunday morning run, or voting next week. Just as industrial capitalism was driven to the continuous intensification of the means of production, so surveillance capitalists and their market players are now locked into the continuous intensification of the means of behavioral modification and the gathering might of instrumentarian power. — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 37
Categorization
- DEFINE: Introduces ‘instrumentarian power’ and the key parallel: intensification of the means of behavioral modification, mirroring industrial capitalism’s means of production.
- XREF: connects to: Surveillance capitalism moves from predicting behavior to actively shaping it in real time — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 481; Surveillance capitalists aim to capture every corner of human experience — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 756; Surveillance capitalism requires automated behavior modification, while feedback loops serve owners. — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 928 (+9 more)
Broader Connections
- Surveillance capitalism extracts behavioral surplus to predict and modify behavior.
#expands(0.85) — , The Braided Reading EPUB, 73 - Surveillance capitalism aims to produce guaranteed outcomes rather than impose behavioral norms
#corroborates(0.80) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 629 - Behavioral surplus extraction forms the core logic of surveillance capitalism
#expands(0.75) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 70