LegalHub: theory: Difference between revisions

The reg tech proposition is obvious: replace this laborious, error-prone, analogue process with an authenticated, governed, audited, straight-through processed, ''fast'' online digital interaction. So why doesn’t it work, and what can we do about it?

[[Reg tech]]’s shortcomings present in different ways but boil down to the same thing: ''[[rent-seeking]]''.  

*'''It’s [[iatrogenic]]''': Because the provider’s primary interest is its annuity, ''[[iatrogenics|the cure tends, in practice, to be worse than the disease]]''.

*'''It’s expensive''': Every participant is in it to make a turn. That didn’t happen with email, oddly.

*'''It’s inflexible''': The [[proprietary]] nature of conventional [[reg tech]] means it is tightly controlled, top-down managed and targeted ''abstractly'' at a ''perceived'' demand and an ''anticipated'' future state,<ref>[[Thought leader]]s are no better at predicting the future of [[Legal services delivery|legal services]] than they have been at anything else.</ref> neither of which will neatly address the exact problem a ''specific'' user is trying to solve as that problem develops. Therefore [[reg tech]], requires continual maintenance. And maintenance means ''rent''.

*'''It’s prone to obsolescence''': Being high-maintenance makes it innately prone to [[planned obsolescence|unplanned obsolescence]]. The future imagined by [[thought leader]]s of the [[reg tech]] space was forged in the ''past''. As with other imagined futures in the past — flying cars, self-cleaning tablecloths, colonisation of Mars — predicting the future is hard. The answer is not to try: to leave the architecture open to users to imagine as they go.<ref>The internet was revolutionary because it imagined ''no'' future, but left that — and continues to leave it, right? — to users.</ref> But “leaving everything to the user” doesn’t leave a [[rentier capitalist]] much to do, so rent-seeking businesses constrain their businesses, requiring paid-for development, and consigning themselves to ultimate [[obsolescence]].