The WSJ today features an article about autonomous computer-based trading. I find this type of technology fascinating, and the book Quants (by a WSJ writer) does a great job of detailing the successes and failures of such trading strategies. I feel that this technology will ultimately benefit society in a similar manner to video games. Video games pushed the limits of computer hardware and ultimately helped to make fast processors and video cards affordable for the average consumer. Computer trading will attract the most brilliant minds due to the promise of extravagant profits and their innovations in the area of artificial intelligence, or more specifically computer logic, will be able to be applied to a variety of other uses. Computers may be able to better handle large sets of data and make informed decisions in place of humans where error can have dangerous results. I foresee this technology being used in air traffic control, weather prediction, medical diagnosis and many other fields. However, we just have to hope that the mistakes off of which they learn don’t destroy the stock market before society can benefit.
