We Robots

At an alumni networking meeting the other evening someone asked me to describe our robots. I was stunned to find myself describing the robot almost as a person. This should not come as a surprise. But it did. Our working descriptions when we are discussing behaviour and performance always return to talking about it as a human trader.

Today's ramble is about trying to better describe this mythical trader. It runs something like this:

A robot is an automaton that behaves like an ethical human trader who has the experience and skills needed to meet his/her performance targets in the trading environment in which he/she is knowledgeable and operates. In operation the person it serves and the goal it works towards on his/her behalf is its principle focus.

Its behaviour is not completely self-serving or indiscriminate. It has a degree of awareness about what is right and wrong in the context of the person it serves and the environment in which it operates and prospers.

While it is hungry for growth it is not boundlessly greedy. During trading it seeks consistency over wild opportunism and works within a risk/reward profile agreed with its owner. In making decisions it is autonomous but not autocratic.

Being able to interact with a wide range of distributed systems, owned by many differing organisations, the robot has an inbuilt understanding of data ownership, privacy and the appropriate use of such data with remote systems. In particular fulfilling its obligations towards its owner take precedent over other roles.

It is able to balance its operational obligations towards its manufacture, operator and owner appropriately in such areas as Data Protection, Security (accountability, confidentiality, integrity and availability) and Performance. In achieving this balance it has an awareness of its responsibilities to each entity it interacts with and can respond appropriately.