In my last entry, the conversation focused on how concerns/theories of freedom animate law tech debates surrounding blockchain technologies.
Two themes seem to run beneath most theories of freedom. First, usually freedom is oriented to how something can be monetised. Words like ‘disruption’, more often than not, just mean ‘privatisation’ or a call for shifting the service provider within the private sector (e.g., ‘hey money managers, invest in our tech platform rather than …’). Second, freedom tends to be seen as escaping formal modes of coercion (e.g., law/government). So we speak of freedom from government over-regulation, freedom from the weight…
This is meant as the first of a series of very brief reflections about ongoing conversations within the social media interface of ‘lawtech’.
In my experience, a reoccurring question echoes in a variety of ways through our law/tech discussions: ‘Can we develop relationships outside the confines of state-backed law?’
Beneath this question is an even heavier philosophical concern — that elusive Western grail, ‘Freedom’.
What do we talk about when we talk about freedom? I want to make two initial observations. In some crypto threads, ideas of freedom sometimes end up just meaning a) the freedom to accumulate more money…
