Fiber Optic Wires

In “Introduction: Communication Meanings and Social Purposes,” Greg Downey describes a key aspect of the information society known as infrastructure technologies. These infrastructure technologies differ from traditional infrastructures, like roads and bridges, because they are communication systems meant to invisibly enable social, political, and economic activities (Downey, 240).  One infrastructure technology that emerged in the 2000’s was fiber optic wiring. Tele-communication providers, like Verizon Communications, would fill television airtime with countless advertisements for fiber optic wires, and sought to improve television (social activity) within the United States. These cables are made out of glass which allows their upgraded signals to travel at the speed of light.

A look at light signals in a fiber optic wire

Most Americans found the high definition television that this wiring produced very appealing, but HFT firms sought to utilize fiber optic wiring in a much more economic manner. Lewis describes how HFT firms would produce their own infrastructure technologies made out of fiber optic wires in effort to, once again, improve the speed at which they could trade stocks. Lewis asserts this as an instrumental aspect to his thesis; that they were able to leverage trading speed to illegally front-run normal investors for self-profit.