ABSTRACT
The role of technology in shaping financial crises is fundamental and systemic. This chapter develops a theoretical model for such technological interference in the financial markets, based on principles of systems theory. It describes systems as objects of study in general and identifies further propositions that emerge directly from prominent scholars in the field of systems theory. The chapter connects the role of technology in dominating financial decision-making and develops the conceptual synthesis that ties in technology and financial instability. 'Living systems' refer to biological entities, 'psychic systems' refer to minds of human individuals. Technology is set up in order to assist in the automated execution of tasks, but is then recursively affected by the output of such automated executions; it 'accepts' such output as if the financial transactions represent an un-interfered financial reality of strictly controlled technological operations. Self-reference denotes the ability of systems to refer to themselves and replicate the system/environment distinction internally.
