Conversational interfaces are prized because casual talk renders experience as surplus

Evidence

“Conversation” stands alone in its promise to dominate raw-material supply, and the rewards to the One Voice would be astronomical. Casual talk helps to blur the boundaries between “it”—the apparatus saturated with commercial agents—and us. In conversation we imagine friendship. The more we fancy the apparatus as our confidante, nanny, governess, and support system—a disembodied, pervasive “Mrs. Doubtfire” for each person—the more experience we allow it to render, and the richer its supply operations grow. Communication is the first human joy, and a conversational interface is prized for the frictionless ease in which a mere utterance can trigger action, especially market action: “Let there be light.” “Let there be new running shoes.” What could be dreamier than to speak and have it be so? — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 811

Categorization

• DEFINE: Explains how the conversational interface functions as a raw-material supply operation for surveillance capitalism.
• XREF: Connects to the book’s earlier discussions of behavioral surplus and the supply operations that extract it. — connects to: Voice interfaces translate service interactions into low-cost automated processes funneling behavioral surplus — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 810; Voice assistants sit between lived experience and its auctioning — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 812; Private speech is converted into behavioral surplus via content and delivery — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 813 (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• Social interaction proved a stronger attention lure than traditional content #expands (0.85) — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 723
• In sociable conversation talk becomes an end in itself, not a vehicle for content #qualifies (0.80) — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 381