Monday, October 11, 2010

Handing Over Our Future to the Machines

CBS's Sixty Minutes had a segment on robot traders on Wall Street:



The CBS story focuses on insider trading and money made by this new technology. That worries me less than the unintended consequences of increasing automation. With the "flash crash" in May 2010, a taste of how robots can run amok. Nobody in his right mind wants to install robot traders that cause a meltdown, but it has occurred and if you listen closely they mentioned many other "mini flash crashes" have occurred since May. This is a train wreck waiting to happen!

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