Shing-Tat Chung says:

Would you trust a superstitious robot with your money? Can technology operate with human characteristics, interpreting data and information with basic human behaviors. The Superstitious Fund Project is an investment Fund that is run by a superstitious autonomous Algorithm. As a one year experiment it operates and trades purely on superstitious beliefs. Buying or Selling on Numerology and in accordance to Lunar Phases. For example it has the fear of the number 13 and a full moon. It also develops its own lucky ad unlucky values, just as we do all the time. We are hardwired to imagine patterns that give us the illusion of control. Win a tennis match, and we've got lucky socks. The Algorithm creates these patterns throughout the year, ranking and deranking superstitions. They are then used as a new logic in trading.

As a one year experiment, £4828.88 was invested from participants over 50 cities around the world. After the one year, the balance will be returned at either a profit or a loss.

The project provides an alternate viewpoint on how technology can operate, highlighting issues on algorithms in our world. The flash crash of 2010 is a good example of where we create these algorithms and soon become less privy to their following actions. The Crash was caused by trading algorithms - but we don't know why or how. There is a world in which a new world of algorithms exist that becomes less accessible to. The Fund also comments on our increasing irrational behaviors. Contrary to belief, we are actually becoming more superstitious due to a number of reasons, and as a result our world is shaping and has shaped around our irrationalities.

A Superstitious Fund

Here's an excerpt (PDF file) from the new O'Reilly book, Team Geek: A Software Developer's Guide to Working Well with Others, by Brian Fitzpatrick and Ben Collins-Sussman.

In a perfect world, software engineers who produce the best code are the most successful. But in our perfectly messy world, success also depends on how you work with people to get your job done.

In this highly entertaining book, Brian Fitzpatrick and Ben Collins-Sussman cover basic patterns and anti-patterns for working with other people, teams, and users while trying to develop software. This is valuable information from two respected software engineers whose popular series of talks—including "Working with Poisonous People"—has attracted hundreds of thousands of followers.

Writing software is a team sport, and human factors have as much influence on the outcome as technical factors. Even if you’ve spent decades learning the technical side of programming, this book teaches you about the often-overlooked human component. By learning to collaborate and investing in the "soft skills" of software engineering, you can have a much greater impact for the same amount of effort.

Read excerpt (PDF)

Buy Team Geek on Amazon

This is one in a series of essays about enthralling books. I asked my friends and colleagues to recommend a book that took over their life. I told them the book didn't have to be a literary masterpiece. The only thing that mattered was that the book captivated them and carried them into the world within its pages, making them ignore the world around them. I asked: "Did you shirk responsibilities so you could read it? Did you call in sick? Did you read it until dawn? That's the book I want you to tell us about!" See all the essays in the Enthralling Book series here. -- Mark

Blood Music by Greg Bear is one of the most enthralling books I've ever read.

I've been absolutely riveted and enthralled by many of Greg's books, but this one has a unique quality that I found most appealing. It's the vast breadth of the progression of the story, the shear imaginative distance traveled from where it starts to where it ends. And it's not a long book!

Published in 1985, the story begins in a very plausible modern setting and deals with the world of microbiology and genetic engineering. It is credited with being the first account of nanotechnology in science fiction. It quickly develops very interesting, realistic characters and intrigue. It starts to play like a fascinating thriller about containing a science experiment gone wrong. It accelerates steadily with increasing suspense and just as you are excitedly anticipating where you think it might be going, it leaps way over your expectations. The scope of imagination is mind boggling. It pours on more and more extreme departures from the expectations established by the modest, reality-based beginning. It turns upside down every aspect of the ideas and the genre it explores.

The book escalates like nothing I've ever read. It goes so far, so quickly, yet builds very cleverly from such a realistic and familiar context, it seems like it's really happening. Over and over again I was not only surprised, but shocked by the incredible imaginative leaps. I was genuinely freaked out at times. I actually found myself exclaiming aloud!

I could not stop reading it. I was taken far beyond my wildest expectations. The utterly un-anticipatable and mind bending conclusion inspired a truly transcendent experience. Like the characters in the book, I was completely transformed. I'm different now. In a good way.

Now you should read it. Or listen to it. It's also one of the best audio books I've ever experienced.

Buy Blood Music on Amazon