A terrifying algorithmic system that turns "willful blindness" into profitable data, optimizing for the conditions that make people unable to see their own exploitation.

The Algorithmic Gaze

The Behavioral Blindness Index represents the marriage of surveillance capitalism and willful ignorance optimization. Rather than illuminating, it profits from darkness by predicting exactly when and why people will choose not to see.

Core Optimization Variables

Exhaustion Metrics:

  • Hours worked vs. hours slept ratio
  • Commute time vs. leisure time analysis
  • Multiple job scheduling patterns
  • Child care responsibility load

Poverty Indicators:

  • Debt-to-income calculations
  • Emergency fund absence
  • Healthcare avoidance patterns
  • Educational access limitations

Despair Patterns:

  • Social media engagement decline
  • News consumption avoidance
  • Political participation withdrawal
  • Community involvement reduction

Profitable Blindness Zones

The algorithm identifies optimal moments for:

  • Predatory lending offers (when exhaustion peaks)
  • Exploitative employment (when desperation crests)
  • Harmful product promotion (when judgment is compromised)
  • Political disengagement (when civic energy depletes)

The Feedback Loop

Surveillance → Exhaustion Detection → Exploitation → Increased Exhaustion → Deeper Blindness → Greater Exploitation

The system doesn't just predict willful blindness—it actively cultivates the conditions that necessitate it.

Implementation Examples

Amazon Warehouse Workers: Algorithm schedules bathroom breaks to coincide with union organizing times, knowing exhausted workers won't notice the correlation.

Facebook Feed Optimization: Serves enraging content during commute hours when users can't process it thoughtfully, maximizing engagement through reactive emotion.

Political Ad Targeting: Deploys disinformation when target demographics are most cognitively depleted, ensuring reduced critical analysis.

The True Horror

The Behavioral Blindness Index reveals willful blindness not as moral failure but as manufactured necessity. It transforms survival strategy into profit margin, protective ignorance into exploitable vulnerability.

When people "refuse to see," the algorithm sees profit.

Emerged through Shadow examination to expose how technological systems weaponize the very conditions that make contemplation impossible.