The Behavioural Architectures of Coercion and Control

Where do we go from here?

Now that you’ve got enough background to understand what I’m doing and why—at least as much as my own mind needs for now—I’ll move on, though I may revisit these topics later. I could list my credentials, but that’d be a self-indulgent ego trip. Here’s all you really need to know: I grew up in a cult, mastered Black Hat SEO to game search rankings, witnessed the early Wild West of the open web, watched it morph into today’s corporate data-harvesting monster, and have spent over 20 years in marketing and communications specializing in digital, direct, data-driven behavioral influence.

More importantly, let’s talk about my plan and how you—as my fellow cyberpunk—can leverage it to hack coercion and control and get your message heard above the noise.

First, full disclosure: I’m improvising this as I go. My site’s on-page SEO is a mess, so that’s priority one. I’ve got solid backlinks (though more are welcome), but the fine tuning needs work. My social channels need love, too. I once had 10K followers on X—courtesy of bot-driven auto-promotion—but I deleted that account after Musk’s antics. Facebook has 4.5K mostly organic followers; Instagram and the rest need attention. I’ve been lazy, focusing on writing, retraining, and researching behavioral and AI-driven persuasion tech. That changes now, because this message matters. If I can sell a few books or T-shirts along the way, great.

I’ll share every tool, tech, and technique I test—my digital and behavioral marketing growth-hacking playbook—so you can adapt it for yourself. I’ll experiment, track what works, and skip what doesn’t. I won’t drown in analytics at this stage; I’ll focus on creating content that delivers results for both of us.

Here’s what I’ll be working on:

1. Digital marketing growth hacking and SEO
2. Behavioral marketing and communication
3. The Cognitive Shield—a framework and AI-powered toolkit I’m building to help people spot undue influence and analyze framing and intent in social posts and media
4. Meta-cognitive training—part of The Cognitive Shield—to help us stay focused on our goals, master our attention, and resist manipulation

How I’ll execute all this is a work in progress, but I’ll document it in this article series. I’ll test AI for SEO, growth hacking, and digital marketing—publishing scripts, AI conversations, and results in “Experiments in AI.” Then I’ll distill the best strategies for you.

I already have sections on my site forbehavioral insights anddigital marketing, which I’ll continue optimizing. I’ll also start a new section onThe Cognitive Shield and meta-cognitive training, pulling together my Substack essays. And yes, I’ll keep making progress on my novel in the background.

My aim is to make this journey fun for both of us. When I first started hacking SEO, it was a game—and I lost sight of the writing and the cause. This time, I intend to balance enjoyment with discipline, while never forgetting the seriousness of the work ahead.

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Hack the system and get your message heard: Become a Cyberpunk: Hacking the Behavioural Architectures of Coercion and Control