Algorithmic trading interfaces can render harmful working conditions invisible to users.
Evidence
Successful stakes in algorithmic high-frequency trading cast no light on the price movements that they trigger. They become visible to many through the (often sensationalized) volatility they seed in markets and the vulnerabilities they expose in society writ large by reallocating debt, or through the great environmental impact of high-frequency trading’s giant, energy-hungry data centers. How speculative technologies are wielded and to what purpose can make all the difference between profits and misery—just consider how Amazon’s and Uber’s deliberately ambiguous algorithmic interfaces work to make inhumane working conditions invisible to both their users and laborers (Bridle 2018, 118). — Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou, Speculative Communities, 281
Categorization
- XREF: Connects to Bridle’s ‘New Dark Age’ argument about algorithmic obscurity, and parallels the reader’s finance scholarship on how intermediation hides labor costs. — connects to: Dark pools and algorithmic trading remain opaque even to most traders — Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou, Speculative Communities: Living with…, 92; Platform algorithms mediate and restrict what buyers and sellers can see and do. — Yanis Varoufakis, Technofeudalism: What Killed Capitalism, 923; User interfaces hide the material code that structures digital capitalism. — Anna Kornbluh, Immediacy, or The Style of Too Late…, 74 (+2 more)
Broader Connections
- User interfaces hide the material code that structures digital capitalism.
#expands(0.95) — Anna Kornbluh, Immediacy, or The Style of Too Late…, 74 - Platform algorithms mediate and restrict what buyers and sellers can see and do.
#expands(0.85) — Yanis Varoufakis, Technofeudalism, 923 - Screen-based trading platforms mechanically enforce non-overlapping turn-taking among traders.
#qualifies(0.75) — Karin Knorr Cetina & Urs Bruegger, Global Microstructures, 111