The Hummingbird Project tells a story about speculation, dreams, technology, capital and destiny.
Visionary and speculator Vincent Zaleski, and his cousin, genius programmer Anton Zaleski, resigned from Eva Torres' fund after persuading venture capitalist Bryan to build a line from the New York Stock Exchange to Kansas Electronics. The optical fiber line of the stock exchange Kansas Electroonic Exchange shortens the transaction time to 16 milliseconds, which is the time it takes for a hummingbird to flap its wings once, thereby obtaining high-frequency risk-free arbitrage in securities trading and obtaining high returns, which is the so-called Hummingbird plan .
Throughout the story, there are several characters:
Avid dreamer and speculator, Vincent Zaleski. He believes that the Hummingbird Project is what he must do in his life. Even after finding out that he has stomach cancer, he still chooses to postpone the treatment, resolutely promote the project, and do whatever it takes for his dream, even his own life.
This makes one wonder, what is the reason and motivation for Vincent Zaleski to be so fanatical?
At the beginning of the film, Vincent Zaleski told a short story when he persuaded venture capitalist Bryan. He said that when he was in college, in order to earn tuition and living expenses, he worked for a plumber. He had an accident and was stunned by the pipe. , in a trance, he saw a man say "The line" to him. I don't know if the story is true or not, who is the man who said "The line", whether it is real or not, but the plumber I guess should be Vincent Zaleski's father, Vincent Zaleski described the pipeline like this work:
“And my boss takes me to this basement in Queens. I mean, I could, I could smell the funus. And he asked me to unscrew this , like, 100-pound steel pipe. You know, he's sipping coffee in the corner of the room while he asked me to unscrew this massive thing by myself, you know, for minimum wage, OK?”
This is a small foreshadowing that hints at the important influence of Vincent Zaleski's father on him.
At the same time, there is also a scene in the movie. After Vincent Zaleski, with the help of engineer Ophelia Troller, solved the problem of digging pipes in the swamp forest area, during the process of taking an inflatable boat to the construction site, Vincent Zaleski confided about his family's relationship with growing up:
"My parents were born in Russia. Yeah, they moved here in the 60s, moved into a tiny apartment with 10 other Russian families. Two weeks after he got here, these police came, knocked on his door, threw him in the back of the car,thought we was a spy, which he wasn't. They interrogated him for, like 4 weeks or something. He never saw the light of the day. "
"That's insane! "
"Yeah! My mother said he became like a totally different person. He became, like, angry. Yeah, and I was born a few years later, so lucky! Yeah! He always told me the same thing. He said, "Whatever you do, make sure you own your freedom.""
"Own your freedom? Doesn't that kind of defeat the purpose of freedom?"
"Yeah, maybe. And he was always trying to, like, scare me or something into being, like... I don't know, like, successful. "
"So, you think you're doing this to prove your father wrong?"
"Wrong about what?"
"About being successful. It's a pretty crazy project you got going here. "
"It's just... it's just something I need to do."
There is a saying that goes like this: Money is the greatest tool of freedom. Perhaps for Vincent Zaleski, the Hummingbird Project is what makes sure he owns your freedom. In his consciousness, he is David, the giant Goliath, David's enemy, Eva Torres, the former boss who treats employees as disposable assets, a low social status, a violent institution in the United States, and a ruthless security. Trading is all oppression and unfreedom. However, fate made two jokes with him, two deadly jokes. Not long after the hummingbird project started, Vincent Zaleski was diagnosed with stomach cancer, and it was an advanced stage. He immediately began to receive treatment. Vincent refused treatment and insisted on the Hummingbird Project at the cost of his own life; another joke was even more deadly. When the Hummingbird Project was halfway through, Vincent's former boss, Eva Torres, with the help of a Chinese student, solved the problem of microwave transmission technology. The whole wave function problem, the construction of the microwave transmission line was completed before the Hummingbird plan, and the round-trip time from the Kansas Electronic Stock Exchange to the New York Stock Exchange was 11ms. to seven inches. Under the double whammy, Vincent fell into madness as expected, into despair and collapse. As an astute speculator, Vincent tried to defraud the insurance compensation by taking out insurance and buying a hummingbird plan when the matter was exposed, and then the goddess of luck seemed to completely stay away from him. The insurance company found out the whole story and refused to pay.
The route of the Hummingbird Plan passes through a farm, which belongs to a family of devout Christian believers. They believe that faster Internet and more advanced technology will not bring a happy life. They believe that the land under their feet is a gift from God. It's to serve God, so they refused Vincent Zaleski's fiber optic pipes to pass under their land, even though they lost $230,000. Vincent and his party later discovered that local state law required that construction could be carried out below ten feet without the consent of the landowner. At the end of the film, Vincent came to the farm again, accompanied by his cousin Anton Zaleski. Vincent told the farmer that the line had been taken out, and the faster internet speed would no longer disturb their lives; the farmer watched Vincent pale and Sick face, chose understanding. Finally, Vincent has this conversation with Anton:
"You know, sometimes I wonder, if all the time that was given to me was, like... like, 16 milliseconds... and I had no past memory... I had nothing carved into my mind before those 16 milliseconds ... and the only thing... that was left imprinted in my brain... were the images and the smells and the feelings of those 16 milliseconds... how do you think I would process that? "
"I don't know. I think your life would feel exactly as long as someone who lived for 100 years."
If your life is only 16 milliseconds, with only 16 milliseconds of thoughts, memories, feelings, then to you, your life will be as long as someone who lived 100 years. For the long river of time, it makes no difference whether it is 16 milliseconds or 100 years; for people, life is impermanent, and we often cannot determine the length of our life, although we can influence it to a certain extent, we can work and rest regularly, and don’t stay up late. , eat healthy, don’t overeat, eat more healthy food, but maybe a sudden disaster may change everything, maybe the length is not so important, the breadth and quality are more important, the starting point of healthy eating and regular work and rest may be more about life quality, not length. Put your heart and soul into life, whether we have 16 milliseconds or 100 years.
Capitalist, unscrupulous ex-boss Eva Torres, big-win venture capitalist Bryan.
With the same strong desire for profit, Eva Torres chose quantitative finance, high-frequency trading, and chose to shorten the transaction time as much as possible; Bryan chose venture capital, believed in one entrepreneur after another, and chose the Hummingbird plan.
With the same powerful control over social resources, Eva Torres bought Vincent's construction team in retaliation for Vincent and Anton, and arrested Anton through the FBI under the pretext of endangering the country's financial stability; Digging fiber optic pipes and obtaining permits through resources in the political world was difficult for Vincent, but a piece of cake for Bryan.
They are the people who stand at the top of American society, the people who own their freedom, and the masters of the game. As Eva Torres said to tech nerd Anton:
"You are so fucking boring. It's like there's a part of your brain that operates like a genius, and then there's another one that is handicapped. And this is why you needed me. This is why we were so good together. "
A man in science and technology, an otaku in technology, Anton, just like a programmer in life, has an excellent IQ, is obsessed with technology, is not good at communication, or disdains communication, and at the same time has his own set of values. This set of values It is often out of date and out of touch with the mainstream society, but anyone or anything touches the bottom line of this set of values, and the backlash and backlash are extremely fierce. Simple like a child, stubborn like a stone.
Some people say that this is an anti-technical progress movie, but they don't think so. It is precisely microwave communication and technological progress that ended the Hummingbird Project. As far as I want to come, the meaning of "Hummingbird Project" is about technology, not only technology. It is about choice, about merit, about money, about capitalism, about financial markets, about beliefs, about human nature, and about destiny, with a long aftertaste.
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