  What happens when you slow down part of an ultrafast network that is
operating quicker than the blink of an eye, e.g. electronic exchange network,
navigational systems in driverless vehicles, or even neuronal processes in the
brain? This question just adopted immediate commercial, legal and political
importance following U.S. financial regulators' decision to allow a new network
node to intentionally introduce delays of microseconds. Though similar requests
are set to follow, there is still no scientific understanding available to
policymakers of the likely system-wide impact of such delays. Giving academic
researchers access to (so far prohibitively expensive) microsecond exchange
data would help rectify this situation. As a by-product, the lessons learned
would deepen understanding of instabilities across myriad other networks, e.g.
impact of millisecond delays on brain function and safety of driverless vehicle
navigation systems beyond human response times.
