No matter where you go or what you do there’s a computer process that seems to be governing every part of life today. This week a computer break down at United Airlines left some algorithms non performing. From what I have read the news reports the back up system didn’t kick in, so tech interpretation of that is a server fail 
over got wrenched and there are a number of items that can cause that to occur, way too many to talk about with not having any further details, but when the queries stop running the data quits coming.
Software is nothing more than a big group of algorithms, and that statement was made a while back by Bill Gates. Whenever you are using software, algorithms are working to move and process data for decision making and automating processes that used to be handled by humans in many areas. When you go online to bank, more algorithms. When the doctor uses electronic medical records to enter and query data… more algorithms.
The issues though that we all face today though is that there are those that produce accurate results and there are those that produce “desired” results and the two are not always the same as they can be skewed. Wall Street for years has depended on the talent of the Algo Men and Women to create financial markets, trading software and so forth. Usually the software is set to run a default set of parameters but today you can build your own with user interfaces and that’s when the “desired” category gets a little touchy or in same cases it has been proven illegal with parameters set. In other words it comes back to the user as normally the software is set up to where it can be customized and the yield is in the hands of the user.
What has been a huge issue of late is the imbalance of technologies 
used. For example when we take the financial market, they have some of the mostly highly sophisticated algorithms in existence, and how do you think they shifted all the money around in the world, you got it, algorithms and they run silently on servers that you don’t even think about or forget they are around. We are not balanced with everyone having the same computing power so it’s kind of like a war with one side have single shot pistols and the other side having fully automated machines guns if you will for a simple comparison. Sure the single shots will make some progress but the automated machines gun group will run them over in a short amount of time and basically this is the world we live in today. Price Waterhouse did a study about losing our edge, not enough tangibles.
Study From Price Waterhouse States the U.S. Medical-Technology Business Is Losing It’s Edge-Time to Think About Priorities
“It is a technological arms race in financial markets and the regulators are a bit caught unaware of how quickly the technology has evolved”
I read where tax breaks are again on the agenda and the companies producing tangibles are the ones who would benefit the most as they create jobs with products we can use and everyone knows the shift of products to over seas has been growing steadily year by year. If we want to give out tax breaks that might be a good bet against all the software companies. I read the other day where the amount of time to get funded in the Silicon Valley according to one individual was down from 3-5 months to 3-5 days, so if you read the news and who gets funded that may not sound too outlandish.
We have a huge imbalance that can’t sustain forever with just putting money on software and algorithms. When I get sick I need a pill, a tangible product, not a social network link. Everyone plays their role but if device companies had a break then they could produce and sell products that we need at hospitals and I would hope that would also help them with the affordability. I like technology and all it does but we live on formulas alone and we are not balanced.
Biotech companies scramble to get funded and it is also long term versus investing in some algorithms on the web that will add a little convenience. I like those conveniences too but we can’t all live on them and eat them for dinner. Tax breaks are a tricky subject but if used as a lever to bring more balance and jobs to the US, then it might be worth a look. Software has value but not at what we are seeing today as given by the banks. When you stop and think about it due to transparency we are seeing this in front of our eyes, which with the mortgage 
formulas, they were hidden so open your eyes and see the next valuation game that’s in the works and how banks are driving it. The flip side of this is that now all of sudden the banks are finding their own stock worth less.
Technology has it’s place, a very important place but with everyone stymied as to why jobs are not being created just give that some thought. Start ups don’t all make it and thus many of those jobs are temporary and go away quickly with the exception of the few survivors, and they should not be so over valued as we see today. They have value but not with the tricky maneuvering we see out there, it’s fairy tale. Healthcare CIOs are feeling it, and yet we keep burning them up with higher expectations than what can be met in certain timelines.
CIO Confidence In Meaningful Use Drops-The New Left Curve of Technology That Arrives Daily Contributes-Don’t Burn These Folks Out
Lawmakers are lost due to digital illiteracy in being able to take advantage of some high tech computing power that would help them do their job and stop talking abortions all the time.
Digital Illiteracy Still Plagues Law Makers–Severe Focus on Abortion Rights Proves It–Is This Where Our Lawmaking Knowledge Leaves Off or Even Begins? Scary…
I wrote about our first US CIO and wondered if he suffered burn out and if I were in his shoes with what’s going on today I would certainly feel burned out and the lack of being able to accomplish much of anything. As humans we all need to have that feeling of accomplishment and people are being boxed in to where that cannot happen and they give up.
Vivek Kundra-US CIO To Resign And Take Fellowship at Harvard-Was He OverTaxed And Burnt Out, If So That is Allowed Today As This A True Reality for CIOs All Over the US
Even our legal system is not immune as all of a sudden they find out they have conflicts of interest as they just have not paid attention to mergers and acquisitions and that long time 10 year investment is not in the same type of company any more, I call this subsidiary watch.
3 Judges in Health-Care Lawsuits Caught Up In Potential Conflict of Interest-It’s Called Subsidiary Watch-Be Aware of Your Investments With Mergers and Acquisitions
When you even look at where the Gates Foundation is investing today, it’s a heavy push for technology companies that produce tangibles, vaccines for one and biotech drug discovery. Sometimes, too much technology without the ability to manage it effectively can yield some unintended consequences and I think the US has one big huge dose of this today.
So to explain myself and everyone chuckles and rightly so at my over use of the word “algorithms” it’s here to educate and get the point across to the layman as to 
what is happening around them, why is all their money going away and how mathematical formulas do that and if I few get tuned here than I have served some purpose I think. That’s been my whole lot from the beginning to open the door to the reality of what the world is today and how technology is in fact fleecing so many today. It is what it is and when used for strictly financial gain we have the pretty situation we all see around us today.
An over balance of investing in formulas is eroding human liquidity and jobs still are for people and create liquidity.
It’s just amazing when I see all the developers who are rich due to their composed algorithms, and then on the other side see our hospitals, doctors and nurses with so much funding removed it doesn’t make sense.
Sure there’s a lot of room for improvement and we are seeing that all over which is good in healthcare but marketing with trying to find the “magic” formulas is killing it and leaving those who work in the industry with that feeling of not being able to feel fulfilled with their work. Ask them and they’ll tell you. Yesterday we had nurses march on Wall Street, but did this make the news, nope but some new algorithmic formula start up company got funded for 20 million and that was all over the place and they don’t even have a product yet? See what I mean and this is the sad reality 
we have in the US. Their message was to try and get some “caring” and financial help with a small transaction tax from the street to help finance healthcare when funding is scarce.
Nurses Demonstrate on Wall Street Discussing Wages, Working Conditions - Addressing the Sad State of Healthcare Created by Financial Greed (Video)
In closing, until we regain some balance in the US the job situation is not going to improve and we lose our human liquidity, all for the sake of algorithms and software that runs through out veins. Again I like technology and use a ton of it and I used to write code but I’m still I think not over shadowed to see the reality of what we are living today without balance. BD
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