[rrrrsss99]

I think it's inaccurate to put hft in the future tech division with darpa or porn. Maybe it will lead to fpga's/c++/microwaves being widely used for ML, but it seems unlikely that the low latency and minimal cross country transmission has has much value. If you're building a system to process lots of data quickly transmitting a few bytes between the UK and Belgium slightly faster than a wire won't be a constraint. Maybe it will lead to real time instance based learning, but I'm not aware of anyone going in that direction

[eggy]

Algorithms are also worked on, not just transmission or switching. And speed is always needed by some field or another, so I would argue it has its fruits beyond what you may have posited.