Notes on BCI Geopolitics and the Rise of the Shadow Empire of Neurocapitalism: Or how Cognitive Security Was Lost Before It Began
What began as cognitive warfare and behavioral economics in the 20th century quietly merged with neurotechnology and data capitalism - and succeeded in the shadows. Once persuasion became programmable, geopolitics followed.
The BCI breakthrough happened quietly decades ago. Beneath the surface, a long shadow war has unfolded—power centers vying not for territory, but for neural sovereignty. Whoever shapes attention architectures now controls the perceptual borders of civilization.
Neurocapitalism now thrives as a trillion-dollar shadow market - the Wild West of the mind, where compliance is sold as care and neural surveillance flows by the bucket. The global neuro-manipulation grid is here. The Internet of Bodies runs in plain sight, threading through every feedback loop, silently annexing humanities nervous system at scale.
Enhancement is monopolized by design: elites gain cognitive amplifiers and closed-loop BCIs, while the rest are throttled by engineered distraction. “Human dignity” now reads as a performance score.
Cognitive security should be humanity’s next frontier - but instead, a small cartel holds the keys to everyone’s mind. Regulatory bodies? PR façades blessing what defense labs and megacorps already deployed. Neuroethics is a ghost protocol; covert exploitation the norm.
The only revolution left is inner: to seize back the circuits of our own perception before they’re sold to the highest bidder.