Hugh Howey

Bestselling author of Wool and other books. Currently sailing around the world.

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Science Fiction Now (Satire Edition)

The Dow plummeted today on news that a bomb had gone off at the White House. The source of the news was a Tweet on the Associated Press account. Turns out the account had been hacked.

The reason the Dow took a hit was because automated trading programs scour news feeds for the first sign of trouble. In fractions of a second, they dump stocks ahead of an anticipated decline. Basically, we have artificial intelligence managing our markets. But with low IQ and a hair trigger.

I’m sure this will end well…

14 replies to “Science Fiction Now (Satire Edition)”

Well, it seems we don’t have to worry about the problems that arise in many sci-fi books around sentient AI and smart nanobots LOL

Honey, hate to burst your bubble, but we’ve had artificial intelligence with a low IQ managing our financial futures for some time now. Ask anyone who lived through the Great Depression, or the Gas shortages of 1973……

I see a story in this…

P.S. I note that you are 45% done with DUST! I’m not sure what continent you are on right now (perhaps you’re not sure either) but I’m glad you’re finding time to write.

I’m in the thick of stirring up trouble in Silo 2 with Karma and Rick and my 3rd WOOLiverse story, “Deep Justice.” Having a ball!

Now, “twitch trading” is largely controlled by electronic triggers keyed to algorithms based on news feed keywords. For the “small” retail investor, stock “trading” is a rigged game.

Hugh – Your commentary struck a chord with me, so I went back and looked at your short story “Executable” published a few months ago. It’d be funny if it wasn’t so scary true.

FYI for folks who haven’t heard of the story I refer to, it is opens the anthology “The End – Visions of the Apocalypse”

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