The Center for Governance and Markets hosted a talk by Brett Frischmann (Villanova University), on March 4, 2021, as part of the Future of Law in Technology and Governance virtual seminar series. Frischmann presented his research on infrastructure theory, “To What End? On Infrastructural Governance.”
His research focuses on the intersection of governance of the knowledge commons, engineering human choices, and the social value of infrastructure. When looking at new infrastructure possibilities, especially those deemed as smart technology, many designs aim for frictionless transactions for speed and efficiency. Frischmann strongly cautions against this, arguing that purposefully building friction into systems allows for humans to deliberately engage with normative questions including how smart should infrastructure be? Should it be a CEO or software programmer who decides the value or logic system of a particular smart technology? These questions don’t have a right answer and the answers will likely vary from community to community. As such, he shows, a polycentric and careful approach to designing smart infrastructure is necessary.