TFARCHIVE FORUMS

As of 6:38pm, the news reports on something known as "future trading" (or something thereabouts). What exactly is this future trading? It's simply betting on events, the possiblity of what might happen. It's often done with things such as how well a movie will do in the box office, or what politition will be elected to office, that sort of thing. The news, however, was reporting on a new variation of the betting: Terrorism.

At this point I almost spit out the soda I was drinking. What the heck were they thinking?! Supporters claim this betting can help prevent terroris; Politicians protest that it is stupid and a rediculus idea. I, as unfortunately and scary as it seems, agree with the politicians. The idea of betting on whether a form of terrorism will happen seems like a sick joke.

The logic behind the supports seems to be that by people thinking of ideas of how the US might be attacked by terroris will help the US to defend against it. How exactly the betting fits into this eludes me. I can think of more than a couple of senarios of how this will do nothing to benefit anti-terrorist actions taken by the government. For starters, consider what happens if the government does consider these ideas being concocted. In all possibilities, the government could become so focused on defending against these 'thoughts' of possible terroris that they aren't prepared for a real act of terrorism that is in no way similar to the synthesized ideas.

And consider this possiblity: Alkida (sp?) goes to the Future Trading website and bets lots of money on an idea they submit. Alkida waits for other people to bet, then attacks the US in the fore-mentioned way. Even if the attack is not sucessful, Alkida still recieves plenty of money from the bets to fund their next little endevor...


Future Trading on Terroris: Support or Protest. Let me know your opinion.

Doesnt really seem like a good idea to me... just the way I dont agree with hte fact "911 happened. Lets increase security at airports, and make sure we know everything our citizens are thinking". That doesnt help solve the root of the problem... that people dont like the USA. We dont need to focus on specific ways we mgiht be attacked, because if we face it, Terrorists can be inventive. They can come up with new tactics. We, on the other hand, would wait till we had seen those tactics work before admitting that they might be a threat...

So I think its a bad idea, future trading on terrorism... for the reason I mentioned above - they can be inventive.

That's so disgusting that it made me laugh. It tickled the evil in me.

looks like its been cancelled

http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,1 ... 15,00.html

Originally posted by Aero Blade
Alkida (sp?)

That's Al Qaeda, just FYI.

Good points above, however. The potential for terrorists winning millions by betting on their own endeavors is extremely high under such a system.