Rather than Killing People, Let’s Make their Lives Living Hell

“I never would have thought, in my most extreme paranoid fantasies, that my software, and the others like it, would have enabled Wall Street to decimate the investments of everyone in my family.”

Michael Osinski’s piece in New York Magazine: “How I helped build the bomb that blew up Wall Street” is a chilling read. He wrote the software that turned mortgages into bonds – and he feels bad about doing it.

First, it’s rare to hear anyone take any responsibility for the mess we’re in. Second, it’s tough to really understand the long-term affects of decisions that seem entirely rational. His writing is so compelling and the small pieces of truth are astounding. You’ve got to read this article.

Our finances and the world we live in is more complex and demanding. As this quote points out it can lull us into not thinking ahead:

“The aim of software is, in a sense, to create an alternative reality. The power we all hold in our hands is shocking, yet it’s controlled by a few swipes of a finger. The drive to simplify the user’s contact with the machine has an inherent side effect of disguising the complexity of a given task. Over time, the users of any software are inured to the intricate nature of what they are doing. Also, as the software does more of the “thinking,” the user does less.”

He goes on to say:

“Nature does not give you explicit warning messages; her ways are more subtle and take a lifetime to penetrate. I forgot the day of the week but knew instinctively the tide and the phase of the moon.”

“It hurts when people say I caused this mess. I was and am quite proud of the work I did. My software was a delicate, intricate web of logic. They don’t understand, I tell myself. Perhaps it was too complicated. But we live in a world largely of our own device. How to adjust and control these complexities, without stifling innovation, is the problem.”

I read this and thought of how people doing simple jobs can cause incredible destruction. Hitler’s regime worked that way. Yet he could kill people and it’s easy to see the evil intent in his work. But what about the things we do unknowingly that hurt people, not suddenly, but over time? Even unintentionally. Can you imagine what a very smart person like Osinski could do to mess up the world if they were actually trying to? We may not be able to understand or discover, much less stop it from happening.

The thought is chilling.

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