Machines 1 Humans 0

Guess what? Algorithms also have fat fingers, like their human masters.

Machines, as we know, compete with humans for records. One of them is the record of the most spectacular market blunder.

Let us just mention a recent example : a classic case of fat fingers was expertly turned by heartless programs into a 1000 point freefall of the Dow Jones. Machines : 1. Humans : 0.

Comments about our big trek towards machine trading are not always kind. But this is not the first time humankind has bitter afterthoughts about technology. Maybe humans should have stayed in their caves after all. It was even probably more comfortable than we can remember. Back then, women, not computers, remembered where we stored our meagre possessions. The reader can appreciate which is to be trusted more.

But no matter how much we would like it, a return to Titans days, when masters of the universe ruled the markets, is impossible. We are condemned to constantly improve our technologies, till the day when they become perfect, which means invisible. Would anyone want to do away with the electric kettle?

Machines, for another while yet, are just an extension of ourselves, not unlike hammers, that make fat fingers more dangerous too. And we, their human owners remain to be blames, if only for not installing a seatbelt system on front-end GUIs operated by junior dealers.