I'm not generally a fan of viewing the world in terms of an extended version of the social struggle from high school, but given that this actually does do a reasonably accurate caricature of human market makers versus HFT firms, this has always confused me regarding HN's reaction to HFT.

In one corner, we have sweaty alpha male jocks [+]. In the other corner, we have geeks with computers. The geeks ran the table on the jocks primarily because the geeks can do math faster. The jocks complain that the geeks are cheating, because how can they be expected to out-math a computer and, also, isn't math just a little suspicious? And HN sides with the jocks?

[+] People might think I'm exaggerating. Videos exist of the daily life of a market maker. Here's a representative day at the office, circa 2000, in Chicago's open outcry options pit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvx3xM02iUs In stocks and bonds, you generally got to be sweaty in your own office (open plan, frequently) and yell at someone over the telephone rather than straight to their face.