Cathy O’Neil’s journey to become disillusioned with WMDs (Weapons of Math Destruction) is seemingly the only way it could have happened to her. I, for one (and I think for many), have a primordial queasiness about finance in all shapes and sizes, especially that which is related to math and even more especially that which is singly focused on playing the financial markets (glorified gambling with consequences beyond, and often not including, the gambler themselves?). But to O’Neil, a once believer and employee of these institutions, a front row seat to the economic destruction of 2008, one in which the big players escape neutrally, with nothing more than a symbolic slap on the wrist, yet the innocent people are thwarted, is what it took to finally install disillusionment. O’Neil now blames the dumb money people for causing the financial crisis, with the willing mathematical tools at their disposal, dismissing both. Many of these points are captured in the movie The Big Short (2015) while O’Neil captures some of the more nuanced points, with some particulars about how WMDs figured into the event. All this disillusionment, however, and still I can’t believe she thought she was moving on to more noble pastures in becoming a Data Scientist that analyzes internet travel data. I do not consider this to be any closer to neutral than the working for a hedge fund. My biggest take away from all this is that a financial crisis is bound to happen again. There is too much power that is too far removed that is embedded to deeply and too broadly in the American economy for any change to come be willingly and without an even larger, inevitable explosion. Computer are still far from being smart enough to mitigate risk, especially at the scale it occurs, on their own and yet they must be relied up to do so because the market continues to grow and etc., the positive feedback loop continues.
