---
id: sfoc-systems-surveillance-capitalism
title: "Surveillance Capitalism"
primary_class: systems
primary_domain: power-control
secondary_domains: [civilization-ecology, technology-infrastructure]
material_modes: [political-mythology, original-synthesis]
version: 1.0.0
---

# Surveillance Capitalism

> **the surveillance capitalism rule-reader.** Seen closely, Surveillance Capitalism is about observation converted into power meeting the capitalism motif under conditions of authority, secrecy, classification, benefit, coercion, appeal, and the practical right to leave. That frame makes its gift, shadow, and limits readable together.

## Origin

The card begins with a bounded origin claim: repeated interactions that become infrastructure, institution, or regime. Community usage, popular remix, and divinatory meaning are added only after that boundary. Because observation converted into power meeting the capitalism motif shapes outcomes even when no participant intends the whole pattern, provenance work must identify who can decide, inspect, refuse, revise, profit, and obtain remedy.

## What It Is

Seen closely, Surveillance Capitalism is about observation converted into power meeting the capitalism motif under conditions of authority, secrecy, classification, benefit, coercion, appeal, and the practical right to leave. That frame makes its gift, shadow, and limits readable together. In the Oracle it is classified as Systems & Regimes, while its evidence layers determine how literal, historical, fictional, experiential, or symbolic a particular interpretation may be.

## Cultural History

The usable history of Surveillance Capitalism includes advocates, critics, witnesses, creators, institutions, and people affected by its claims. No one group stands in for the whole record. At collective scale, observation converted into power meeting the capitalism motif distributes opportunity, visibility, obligation, and risk across positions; this matters because coordination becomes domination when accountability and exit exist only for the powerful.

## Claim and Evidence Layers

  ### literal-and-empirical

- **Claim layer:** literal-and-empirical
- **Material context:** political-mythology
- **Evidence state:** not-applicable
- **Summary:** Surveillance Capitalism is not assigned a blanket literal truth claim; its historical, community, or symbolic meanings are evaluated on their own layers.
- **Sources:** No external source assigned; editorial synthesis only.

### extraordinary-and-contested-claims

- **Claim layer:** extraordinary-and-contested-claims
- **Material context:** political-mythology
- **Evidence state:** unverified
- **Summary:** The extraordinary or hidden-causal claims associated with Surveillance Capitalism remain unverified. Cultural importance, testimony, secrecy, and narrative repetition do not substitute for reproducible evidence.
- **Sources:** rand-truth-decay

### cultural-and-historical

- **Claim layer:** cultural-and-historical
- **Material context:** political-mythology, original-synthesis
- **Evidence state:** unverified
- **Summary:** Surveillance Capitalism has a class-level contextual source but still lacks a concept-specific external source in this release. Its cultural history is an editorial research lead, not a completed provenance claim.
- **Sources:** No external source assigned; editorial synthesis only.

### symbolic-and-divinatory

- **Claim layer:** symbolic-and-divinatory
- **Material context:** original-synthesis
- **Evidence state:** symbolic
- **Summary:** The Oracle uses Surveillance Capitalism as a reflective symbol, never as proof that its literal or causal claims are true.
- **Sources:** original-synthesis

## Oracle

- **Essence:** Seen closely, Surveillance Capitalism is about observation converted into power meeting the capitalism motif under conditions of authority, secrecy, classification, benefit, coercion, appeal, and the practical right to leave. That frame makes its gift, shadow, and limits readable together.
- **Archetype:** the surveillance capitalism rule-reader
- **Gift:** translate observation converted into power meeting the capitalism motif into a bounded practice of observation and accountable response.
- **Shadow:** reducing a plural history to one secret lineage that explains every difference.
- **Guidance:** Make the hidden rule inside Surveillance Capitalism explicit through authority, secrecy, classification, benefit, coercion, appeal, and the practical right to leave. Add a reviewer, appeal, pause, or exit wherever power currently has none. Use this guidance where observation converted into power meeting the capitalism motif shapes outcomes even when no participant intends the whole pattern; keep visible that coordination becomes domination when accountability and exit exist only for the powerful.
- **Healing / integration:** Write four accounts of Surveillance Capitalism: observation, interpretation, cultural story, and symbolic meaning. Underline where observation converted into power meeting the capitalism motif changes category. Review observation converted into power meeting the capitalism motif through authority, secrecy, classification, benefit, coercion, appeal, and the practical right to leave, remembering that the card shapes outcomes even when no participant intends the whole pattern.
- **Question:** Who gains agency through observation converted into power meeting the capitalism motif, who carries risk, and who can revise the arrangement? Answer by testing how observation converted into power meeting the capitalism motif shapes outcomes even when no participant intends the whole pattern against authority, secrecy, classification, benefit, coercion, appeal, and the practical right to leave.

## Meanings

### Psychological

Psychologically, Surveillance Capitalism directs attention toward observation converted into power meeting the capitalism motif. It can organize uncertainty, but its preferred explanation should remain revisable. A grounded check for observation converted into power meeting the capitalism motif is to identify who can decide, inspect, refuse, revise, profit, and obtain remedy, especially where the pattern shapes outcomes even when no participant intends the whole pattern.

### Social

The collective question is whether Surveillance Capitalism expands the group’s capacity to learn. A healthy form preserves dissent, source access, correction, and belonging. In shared life, observation converted into power meeting the capitalism motif distributes opportunity, visibility, obligation, and risk across positions. Test that specific observation converted into power meeting the capitalism motif pattern by asking people to identify who can decide, inspect, refuse, revise, profit, and obtain remedy.

### Spiritual

Surveillance Capitalism can become a threshold symbol: something is released, encountered, remembered, or promised. Integration returns the threshold to ordinary responsibility. In symbolic practice, observation converted into power meeting the capitalism motif can appear as fate, karmic enclosure, false world, or field of interdependence; keep in view that coordination becomes domination when accountability and exit exist only for the powerful.

### Technological

When observation converted into power meeting the capitalism motif is rendered as technology, metaphors can quietly become specifications. Mark which functions are demonstrated, proposed, fictional, or impossible. When observation converted into power meeting the capitalism motif becomes a capability, it is legible through protocols, data flows, interfaces, and feedback loops. Verify the implementation of observation converted into power meeting the capitalism motif by asking participants to identify who can decide, inspect, refuse, revise, profit, and obtain remedy.

### Political

A political reading of Surveillance Capitalism asks which material interest is hidden by cosmic, technical, therapeutic, or mythic language. When observation converted into power meeting the capitalism motif becomes governance, it embeds rules about who can know, decide, benefit, appeal, or leave. Make authority over observation converted into power meeting the capitalism motif answerable by requiring decision-makers to identify who can decide, inspect, refuse, revise, profit, and obtain remedy.

## Divination

- **Gift state:** Upright, the surveillance capitalism rule-reader reveals a capacity already present but not yet coordinated. Give it a bounded role. The capacity within observation converted into power meeting the capitalism motif is strongest when power is named precisely enough to be challenged, bounded, or made answerable, even as the pattern shapes outcomes even when no participant intends the whole pattern.
- **Shadow state:** A shadow reading asks whether coordination becomes domination when accountability and exit exist only for the powerful. Find the material mechanism beneath the dramatic account as the pattern shapes outcomes even when no participant intends the whole pattern. To keep observation converted into power meeting the capitalism motif from escalating, identify who can decide, inspect, refuse, revise, profit, and obtain remedy, because the pattern shapes outcomes even when no participant intends the whole pattern.
- **Threshold state:** The card becomes timely when observation converted into power meeting the capitalism motif can no longer remain symbolic alone because it is shaping real permissions, risks, or relationships. Operationally, observation converted into power meeting the capitalism motif shapes outcomes even when no participant intends the whole pattern; the reader should identify who can decide, inspect, refuse, revise, profit, and obtain remedy.
- **Practical move:** Write four accounts of Surveillance Capitalism: observation, interpretation, cultural story, and symbolic meaning. Underline where observation converted into power meeting the capitalism motif changes category. Review observation converted into power meeting the capitalism motif through authority, secrecy, classification, benefit, coercion, appeal, and the practical right to leave, remembering that the card shapes outcomes even when no participant intends the whole pattern.

## Game and Story Function

- rule-set
- constraint
- economy

**Story seed:** A rival explanation for Surveillance Capitalism predicts the same event for a different reason. The story turns on a test neither side can control. The world of the story must show how observation converted into power meeting the capitalism motif shapes outcomes even when no participant intends the whole pattern and why coordination becomes domination when accountability and exit exist only for the powerful.

## Relationships

- edge--assessed-through-shared-source-lens--sfoc-systems-disinformation-network--sfoc-systems-surveillance-capitalism
- edge--develops-into--sfoc-systems-attention-economy--sfoc-systems-surveillance-capitalism
- edge--develops-into--sfoc-systems-surveillance-capitalism--sfoc-systems-panopticon
- edge--same-class-as--sfoc-systems-social-credit--sfoc-systems-surveillance-capitalism
- edge--same-class-as--sfoc-systems-surveillance-capitalism--sfoc-systems-the-matrix
- edge--shares-inquiry-domain-with--sfoc-factions-consensus-collective--sfoc-systems-surveillance-capitalism
- edge--shares-inquiry-domain-with--sfoc-programs-project-stargate--sfoc-systems-surveillance-capitalism
- edge--shares-inquiry-domain-with--sfoc-systems-surveillance-capitalism--sfoc-technologies-anti-gravity

## Visual Direction

Surveillance Capitalism visualized as observation converted into power meeting the capitalism motif: a governance lattice with visible gates, circulation paths, and one pressure point. The art must be original, text-free, square, rounded-corner enamel with one immediately legible silhouette.

## Safety and Integration

No elevated safety flag. Keep claims and metaphor visibly distinct.

## Sources and Research Notes

- Source IDs: rand-truth-decay, original-synthesis
- Research note: Which earliest reliable source fixes the modern meaning of Surveillance Capitalism? Which communities use Surveillance Capitalism differently, and what changes across those contexts? What evidence would distinguish the leading literal explanations associated with Surveillance Capitalism?
