Market Watch – by Paul B. Farrell
SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. (MarketWatch) — New “Infinity Machine!” Yes. “Quantum Leap?” Yes. “The Future of Computing?” Well, no IPO yet. No Dell laptops. But wow, Time’s cover story sure is heaping praise on the amazing new quantum physics computer technology:
New quantum computing “promises to solve some of humanity’s most complex problems … backed by Jeff Bezos, NASA and the CIA … each costs $10,000,000 … operates at 459 degrees below zero.” Even the fact that “nobody knows how it actually works” isn’t a problem, says Time’s Lev Grossman. Why? Quantum computing “will change how we cure disease, explore the heavens and do business on Earth.”
But is it really a miracle-worker? Will it come with a moral conscience? Know right from wrong? Or will the amazing “Infinity Machine” just be the next generation of superhot, but soulless big-data processors? Ask yourself:
Why does Bezos want the “Infinity Machine?” To accelerate Amazon’s profit-making machine by feeding the world’s insatiable consumer economy? What does the CIA cyberspying agency want with this “Infinity Machine?” Will new quantum computing technology help search deeper into our privacy? Will the new “Infinity Machine” become just another new high-tech weapon in Wall Street’s profit-making arsenal annually siphoning off more billions from the retirement portfolios of America’s 95 million investors?
Moral conscience? Or $10 million in a new Silicon Valley IPO?
The moral issues are crucial, earlier raised in Isaac Azimov’s “I-Robot” … in “The Terminator” rebellions with robots out to destroy humans … and now in the new “RoboCop” reboot where USA Today focuses us on a corporate CEO secretly using an AI program to “increase their profit margin” by eliminating human judgment.
And we were just reminded how easy it is to crack sophisticated computing systems: In “Snowden Used Low-Cost Tool to Best NSA” the New York Times exposed how easy it was for one renegade hacker to crack into America spy machinery armed only with low-tech “web-crawlers.”
So what’s the danger tomorrow? What if China’s cyberwarriors gain control of an American “Infinity Machine?” Or a terrorist nation buys one on the black market?
We better ask the hard questions now: Will the new “Infinity Machine” quantum leap give us a new soul with a conscience that can choose between right and wrong? Will it be designed to know when not to drop weapons from drones? Be designed with algorithms that outvote corporate CEOs and board members, putting the public interest ahead of shareholder profits? Will moral decision-making be programmed into the “Infinity Machine?”
Yes, it’s time Americans start asking the tough questions, now … before it’s too late.
Warning, Wall Street’s ‘Infinity Machine’ is here, now, in a ‘Singularity’
In an earlier Time cover story, Grossman gave similar high praise for ideas on what could have been a version of “Infinity Machine.” In “2045: the year man becomes immortal,” Time reviewed artificial intelligence guru Ray Kurzweil’s “The Singularity is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology.” Kurzweil also wrote “The Age of Spiritual Machines: When Computers Exceed Human Intelligence.” And has invented many AI technologies: speech recognition, reading machines for the blind, music synthesizers, digital scanners.
Kurzweil recently described the “Singularity” in the Wall Street Journal: “The underlying theme is what I call the law of accelerating returns, which is the exponential growth of the price performance and capacity of information technology,” extending Moore’s Law from computer hardware to quantum computing, but no moral compass?
“Accelerating returns?” Yes, and for the Wall Street profit-making machine that describes how “The Singularity” is already here. Now. Today. Everything AI guru Kurzweil predicted in his classic “The Singularity is Near” is already a reality across the financial world. Obviously his 2045 launch date was for everybody else in the world, but not banks. Yes, Wall Street’s “Singularity” began accelerating profits years go.
Wall Street first discovered the secret to accelerating profits decades ago. Another genius, University of Chicago Prof. Richard Thaler, reveals its basic concepts in his two-volume classic, “Advances in Behavioral Finance.” His theory is actually quite low-tech: Wall Street “needs investors who are irrational, woefully uninformed … willing to hold overpriced assets.”
No moral conscience necessary. Adam Smith’s “Theory of Moral Sentiments” is lost. Wall Street’s “accelerating returns” simply mean more profits for bank insiders and shareholders. Never for America’s 95 million retail investors. Never the public interest.
Get it? Wall Street does not want rational, informed investors. Never. So traders, brokers, advisers, gurus use tricks to obfuscate, put up obstacles, keep investors making irrational and informed decisions. Anything so they can keep skimming what Vanguard founder Jack Bogle calls the “croupier’s third” right off the top of Main Street’s market returns.
10 ways the Wall Street profit-making machine manipulates Main Street
I’ve been observing the Wall Street machine in action since my days at Morgan Stanleyyears ago. The truth is, Wall Street really doesn’t need a sophisticated high-tech “Infinity Machine.” They’re already in a Snowden-style low-tech “Singularity,” “accelerating returns” skimming money from 95 million Main Street investors.
Remember, Wall Street has only one goal, make insiders superrich, and shareholders rich. The public interest and the rest of the world are never part of their competitive algorithms. Never.
They achieve their goal with the basic ideas of behavioral-finance geniuses like Richard Thaler, by keeping investors in the dark, dependent, irrational and uninformed. Very simple. Here are 10 of Wall Street’s high-tech/low-tech weapons used by their psychological/neuroscientific/behavioral finance cyberwarriors to control their casinos:
1. Hire psychologists, neuroscientists to manipulate the media
Use consulting contracts, grants and retainers and lock up the best talent to work to keep America’s 95 million individual investors “irrational and uninformed” as Thaler says.
2. Free experts constantly deliver Wall Street’s message to media
Network, cable, bloggers must fill their channels every day. Talking heads are free advertising for Wall Street to manipulate investors using so-called news content.
3. Invest megabucks on lobbyists to control politicians, government
Lobbying is one of Wall Street’s best investments. Lobbyists control Washington: control politicians, fight reforms, push favorable laws, regs, spin the truth to mislead investors.
4. Fuel anxiety by pushing the investor’s buy/sell/ trade button
Wall Street’s a casino, makes money on “the action,” skimming a percentage off the top. They fuel investor anxieties, fears, optimism, volatility, maximize action on exchanges.
5. Kill our savings button, undercut self-confidence, long-term planning
Wall Street uses neuroscience technology to sow doubts about retirement security, do-it-yourself investing, how indexing beats trading, then overloads us with misleading ads.
6. High-frequency trading, misleading Wall Street and Main Street
Short-term online trading makes Wall Street billions annually. Hyperactive traders have a competitive edge using high-tech neuroscientific strategies, plus keep markets churning.
7. Brokers trained on aggressive selling and closing techniques
Securities are sold not bought: Broker’s advice is self-serving, often misleading, anything to get a commission. They’re trained to use high-powered psychological techniques.
8. ‘Investor education’ programs are self-serving sales gimmicks
Most Wall Street-sponsored “investor education” programs are loaded with new business, sales and promotional gimmicks. But they help Wall Street present a “we care” persona.
9. New ‘designer’ funds based on latest fads to replace losers
Fund companies constantly design new funds based on the latest fads, for anxious investors chasing higher returns, driven like teenagers who need the latest video games.
10. Retirement gatekeepers: kept in the dark and manipulated
Two-thirds of all funds are controlled by corporate pension and retirement managers. So Wall Street focuses sales pitches on easy to manipulate naïve plan managers.
Yes, Wall Street is already in its “Singularity.” The rest of us must wait till 2045. Meanwhile, Americans need to start asking the hard questions now: Will these new “Infinity Machines” have a soul with a conscience? Know right from wrong? Stop drones from killing good people? Force corporations to put the public interest ahead of shareholder profits? We need to ask the tough questions today … later may be too late.
Paul B. Farrell is a MarketWatch columnist based in San Luis Obispo, Calif. Follow him on Twitter @MKTWFarrell.
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