i wonder this; if there is a stop loss already on the books at x price and a HFT enters a market order at that price when a stock is falling, which order will get filled first? i feel like answering this question would sort of answer the argument you guys are making?

as for useful work... we should really just be honest with ourselves/each other [and machine learning/ai might help us to do this] about what is actual useful work. it begs to challenge freedom, but ultimately i think we're headed for an efficiency level that will make the most efficacious worker look lazy af...