Fascinating and Scary TED Talk on Algorithms

By Jake • July 29th, 2011 • 6 Comments

So, this is a bit scary.

Interestingly, he mentions the no-button elevators I encountered at the Oracle office in Portland, which apparently use a bin-packing algorithm to determine how to distribute elevator cars to floors.

How algorithms shape our world


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  • http://twitter.com/oraclenerd oraclenerd

    One of the guys I worked with at the financial services start-up a few years ago told me a story similar to one that guy did.

    He worked for a hedge fund or something else I don’t quite understand and he described how they chose the location of their data center in proximity to NASDAQ. Very interesting stuff.

  • http://theappslab.com Jake

    Amazing really, given how small the increments of time in question are. In a big picture view, it’s another chapter in the book on the importance of money.

  • http://bexhuff.com bex

    Spooky…

    Have you read “The Selfish Gene?” Or “The Origin of Wealth?” Taken together, they kind of say the same thing: things that replicate dominate in nature. In biology, it’s the gene (not the species) that replicates… but ideas (memes) also replicate. In the market, it’s business models: ie, algorithms that make money and replicate. It’s just that now Wall Street is so electronic, it’s created an ecosystem where “pure” algorithms can make money without human intervention… as so what do investors do? Spend the profits on expanding that ecosystem to hopefully make even *more* money.

    I for one welcome our new digital overlords…

  • http://theappslab.com Jake

    Haven’t read either, will add to my queue of to-reads.

    A funny, in a nervous way, point about digital overlords. If the algorithms are allowed to trade on their own (vs. providing information to humans), what’s to stop the machines from going Skynet? Machines have no emotions to hamper their decisions. I know some traders would argue that emotions can help, but usually, they don’t.

    Machines make money on their own, stockpile case over the wire, use Stuxnet to take over manufacturing, etc. You’ve seen the movie.

  • http://bexhuff.com bex

    yes, but it’s a question of needs… “money” doesn’t exist in any real sense to a computer, it’s useful only because humans give it value. Algorithms don’t “need” anything, other than electricity and the ability to replicate.

    Also… by the time androids become an issue, I’m relatively certain that cyborg technology would be mainstream enough to  make the human/machine combo better than the android.

  • http://theappslab.com Jake

    Well, if you’re Skynet, money is inherently valuable bc of its value to humans, presumably the overlords the machines wish to overthrow.

    So, you’re thinking cyborgs can defeat the machines? How are the mechanical parts of the cyborg kept attack from the machines?