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The Stock Market: Now With 100% More Lasers, Strictly for Communication, of Course

Buy! Sell! Pew pew!

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If you needed any more evidence that the pace of the stock exchange is blinding, traders on the cutting edge of technology are now making use of military communications lasers to transmit data, because fiber optics and microwaves are just too darn slow. Just nobody tell them light is faster in a vacuum, OK? I like having air to breathe.

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The laser transmitters and receivers being installed on the rooftops of commercial and residential buildings in New Jersey as we speak were developed by AOptix Technologies Inc for military use and by another company called Anova. The military uses the system to send data back and forth between jets and command centers, but soon they’ll be carrying your financial future.

Aside from speed, AOptix’s system has the advantage that its beam can be dynamically aimed at the receiver, which eliminates the problem many similar data systems encounter when the tower they’re attached to sways or moves due to weather conditions. That means they can be placed almost anywhere.

The ones being installed right now in New Jersey will be used to directly connect two New York Stock Exchange data centers that are 35 miles apart. Yes, the competition to be the fastest stock trader has finally come to shooting data back and forth in beams of light, so there’s really not much better they can do until they figure out instantaneous psychic trading.

Aside from the technical limitation of “that’s probably not possible,” (a minor detail) psychic communication would also probably be maddening, so lasers are really the way to go for the future of communications. Or just the future of anything, because if school picture day taught me anything, it’s that everything is better with lasers.

(via Gizmodo, image via AOptix Technologies Inc)

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Dan Van Winkle
Dan Van Winkle (he) is an editor and manager who has been working in digital media since 2013, first at now-defunct <em>Geekosystem</em> (RIP), and then at <em>The Mary Sue</em> starting in 2014, specializing in gaming, science, and technology. Outside of his professional experience, he has been active in video game modding and development as a hobby for many years. He lives in North Carolina with Lisa Brown (his wife) and Liz Lemon (their dog), both of whom are the best, and you will regret challenging him at <em>Smash Bros.</em>

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