New York City residents are, by now, used to the subway version of the stop-and-frisk, to the sight of policemen manning the turnstiles to the city subway, subjecting passengers to ‘random’ searches of their bags and belongings. The rules are quite simple: if you don’t subject yourselves to the search you don’t get to enterContinue reading “Random Searches on the New York Subways: Getting Used to the Stop-n-Frisk”
Category Archives: Law and Legal Theory
Cyberflânerie Contd.
My post yesterday on cyberflanerie sparked a couple of thoughtful and interesting comments in response. John says: [T]he social web also permits us to make ‘friends’ on the basis of common interests. On blogs or on Twitter, we regularly see conversations between former strangers on subjects of common interest. And David Barry said: [T]o a smallContinue reading “Cyberflânerie Contd.”
Artificial Agents and Knowledge as Tractably Accessible, Usable Information
In commenting on my post on teaching philosophy by reading out loud in class, David Auerbach quotes Georges Dreyfus‘ The Sound of Two Hands Clapping on the process of the education of a Tibetan monk, which includes the memorization of scriptures, supplemented by active, repeated vocalization. Dreyfus’ quote–please read Auerbach’s comment for the full quote–concludesContinue reading “Artificial Agents and Knowledge as Tractably Accessible, Usable Information”
How Low Can You Go? The Market for Regulatory Fees
The close, unholy, and corrupt relationship between Wall Street and Capitol Hill isn’t really news any more. And so inured have our sensibilities become to the giant, rigged con-game that is today’s financial-political system, that exposure to yet another one of its details fails to induce any suitably condemnatory reaction. Still, that said, when aContinue reading “How Low Can You Go? The Market for Regulatory Fees”
Concurring Opinions Online Symposium on A Legal Theory for Autonomous Artificial Agents
Remember that New York Times article about all the legal headaches that Google’s autonomous cars are causing? Well, if you found that interesting, you should read on. On February 14-16, the Concurring Opinions blog will host an online symposium dedicated to a discussion of my book A Legal Theory for Autonomous Artificial Agents. (Many thanksContinue reading “Concurring Opinions Online Symposium on A Legal Theory for Autonomous Artificial Agents”
Nietzsche on CEOs And Insider Trading
CEO hagiography has a long and well-established tradition in our time. Despite the–sometimes really well-written–mountains of evidence to suggest that they do little to deserve the size of their pay packets–which grow ever more obscene and disconnected from reality, and despite a nagging feeling that especially in the world of modern finance, a CEO’s successContinue reading “Nietzsche on CEOs And Insider Trading”
Nina Paley’s “Sita Sings The Blues”
This past weekend’s viewing pleasures included a long-standing, and much-awaited, resident of my movie queue: Nina Paley‘s 2008 graphically and musically eclectic reworking of the Indian epic Ramayana, Sita Sings The Blues. The movie incorporates four elements: a reworking of the traditional narrative of the Ramayana; a Mystery Science Theater-like commentary on the Ramayana carriedContinue reading “Nina Paley’s “Sita Sings The Blues””
FOSS Licenses: Hackers As Legal Maestros
Over at Concurring Opinions, Biella Coleman writes a very good post on her anthropological work on hackers. In it Biella states what many of us who have looked at the world of free and open source software think: [M]any developers are nimble legal thinkers, which helps explain how they have built, in a relatively shortContinue reading “FOSS Licenses: Hackers As Legal Maestros”
Jaron Lanier and the Web’s “False Ideals”
Jaron Lanier’s Op-Ed in the New York Times today is a classic piece of muddled Lanier writing that allows him to train his sights, yet again, on his favorite bugaboo and strawman: ‘free content.’ And in persisting with this notion of the demand for ‘free content’ being the true threat to the ‘Net, Lanier showsContinue reading “Jaron Lanier and the Web’s “False Ideals””
Megan McArdle’s Defense Of Property Rights
In the Atlantic, Megan McArdle offers a long, tilting-at-strawmen defense of (intellectual) property rights. (In what follows, I’m not going to attempt line-by-line rebuttals; McArdle rambled too much for that. I’ve simply directed my ire against the two aspects of the post that stood out the most: the attack on a strawman argument and theContinue reading “Megan McArdle’s Defense Of Property Rights”
Samir Chopra 