3 ms·
The answer is yes, by simple costs of communication. Communication is neither free in energy, nor instantaneous or faster than light. Fanout limits the speed to
by AstralStorm 5y ago
The answer is yes, by simple costs of communication. Communication is neither free in energy, nor instantaneous or faster than light. Fanout limits the speed too.
So essentially at some point the economy becomes unmanageable and unstable by pure lag. Earlier than that, by human reaction time and decision failures.
HFT is already riding on speed of light distance differences. If you grow the economy even more (in number of actors), the costs become exponentially higher.
And if you're talking real economy, then we're talking actual real resources which are even more finite and scarce than electricity and time lag.
- jollybean 5y agoI'm sorry to put it so crudely, but this doesn't make any sense. It does not cost more in 'communication' to convey a better idea. Moreover, communications cost is marginal, so even in an very theoretical scenario in which 'more economic activity requires more communication' - it's not applicable. "And if you're talking real economy, then we're talking actual real resources which are even more finite and scarce " Again this is completely false. Education, Entertainment, Legal Services, Financial Services, R&D - i.e. 'Services' are the 'Real Economy'. The 'Value Add' provided by applied intelligence is considerably greater than the raw, natural resources economy.