I think the statement following this is much more important and interesting to HN:
> The tendency has become more and more prevalent under electronic auction systems.
While incidents like this are often used as examples of the failures of technocracy, I think the problem is elsewhere. A decision process has been out-sourced to a machine that is not smart enough yet to make a good decision. The decision might be good in a very localized and easy to measure sense (cheap), but lacks an understanding of other economical signals.
> The tendency has become more and more prevalent under electronic auction systems.
While incidents like this are often used as examples of the failures of technocracy, I think the problem is elsewhere. A decision process has been out-sourced to a machine that is not smart enough yet to make a good decision. The decision might be good in a very localized and easy to measure sense (cheap), but lacks an understanding of other economical signals.