LegalHub: theory: Difference between revisions
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==The problem== | ==The problem== | ||
===[[Rent-seeking]]=== | ===[[Rent-seeking]]=== | ||
We’re yet to find a [[reg tech]] provider who has figured out a business model for how to be paid, other than by extracting [[rent]]. This they commonly justify by reference to the ''value'' their product provides, which they equate to the ''total cost of labour and infrastructure it saves''. | We’re yet to find a [[reg tech]] provider who has figured out a business model for how to be paid, other than by extracting [[rent]]. This they commonly justify by reference to the ''value'' their product provides, which they equate to the ''total cost of labour and infrastructure it saves''. Historians, and lovers of crushing irony, will note the resemblance of this notion to the [[labour theory of value]] — that the economic value of a service is equals the total amount of labour required to produce it — or in this case, that you would have to hire to produce it ''without this new piece of kit''. | ||
In any case you might wonder how they can know how much money their technology will save a specific client, much less what the indirect costs of implementation of their “solution” will be. | |||
But should we be so overjoyed at cutting the wage bill of a handful of school-leavers in Sarajevo, only to pay a guy in Old Street for code he bought from some school-leavers in Bucharest, if it means he can then intermediate our process for the hereafter, adding nothing but the cheerful chime of a clipped ticket each time his machine spits out another document, or while it collects dust on his server?<ref>This is called “hosting” and it seems to be a cash cow. But aren’t terabytes of data storage, like, ''pennies'' these days?</ref> | |||
Wasn’t the promise of the [[Information technology|information revolution]] something grander than that? Wasn’t stuff meant to be ''free'', not just ''marginally cheaper and more complicated''? | |||
Wasn’t the promise of the information revolution something grander than that? Wasn’t stuff meant to be ''free'', not just ''marginally cheaper and more complicated''? | |||
===[[Iatrogenic|The cure and the disease]]=== | ===[[Iatrogenic|The cure and the disease]]=== | ||
'''''[[Iatrogenic]]''''' — it is a cure that is worse than the disease<ref>This is a super concept and if you haven’t come across it you owe it to yourself and {{author|Nassim Nicholas Taleb}} to read about it in his superbly bombastic {{br|Incerto}} series.</ref> — in that in promising to ''alleviate'' the [[tedium]] of the [[boilerplate]], pernickitiness and low-level wrangling over [[representations and warranties]], technology throws open the window wide on a panoramic vista of unlimited low-level tinkering. The cost of infinite pedantry has ''dropped through the floor''. | '''''[[Iatrogenic]]''''' — it is a cure that is worse than the disease<ref>This is a super concept and if you haven’t come across it you owe it to yourself and {{author|Nassim Nicholas Taleb}} to read about it in his superbly bombastic {{br|Incerto}} series.</ref> — in that in promising to ''alleviate'' the [[tedium]] of the [[boilerplate]], pernickitiness and low-level wrangling over [[representations and warranties]], technology throws open the window wide on a panoramic vista of unlimited low-level tinkering. The cost of infinite pedantry has ''dropped through the floor''. | ||