From: Max More (more@extropy.org)
Date: Wed Jul 01 1998 - 15:12:14 MDT
It was delight to this Sasha quoted in this piece -- and just while he is
staying with me and Natasha. He's out walking around Venice Beach, so it'll be
a nice surprise when he returns.
You can find Sasha's Hypereconomy article in the Dow Jones magazine? What's
the
exact citation, Sasha?
Max
Internet commerce could spur more and more economic swings
Copyright © 1998 Nando.net
Copyright © 1998 Reuters News Service
LONDON (July 1, 1998 1:04 p.m. EDT http://www.nandotimes.com) - Economic booms
and busts could become more frequent as shopping on the Internet takes off,
according to a study published on Wednesday.
Jeffrey Kephart and his colleagues at IBM's Thomas J. Watson Research
Center in
New York said that as consumers buy more goods and services online, they
increasingly turn to programs known as software agents to search for the best
prices.
"These agents tend to exaggerate the worst market swings and create disastrous
price wars," the New Scientist, reviewing the research, said.
Kephart said software agents are not subject to the restraints that normally
rein in economic activity.
"Their transactions take place almost instantaneously, cost next to nothing
and
distance is irrelevant," he said.
His research found that the rapid reaction of agents to price changes meant
"devastating price wars rage constantly, and providers' profits varied wildly
as they fought for business."
Alexander Chislenko, of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, ran similar
research models and got the same results, the New Scientist said.
He said "agent economies" tend toward the chaotic and "would be like trying to
control a car that was traveling at 500 miles an hour."
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