Peer to Peer Magazine

64 PEER TO PEER: THE QUARTERLY MAGAZINE OF ILTA | SUMMER 2017 by John Alber The boat also has two huge dome compasses –– one at each helm station. You would think that with all the mapping technology on board, the compasses would fall into disuse. But they don't. Compasses are unparalleled orientation devices that not only tell me which direction I am heading, they also help identify the features and hazards surrounding me. A chart ploer might tell me a rock hazard lies 50 degrees off the starboard bow, but the compass leads my eyes to it, moving me from eyes on a chart to eyes on the world. And it is eyes on the world that keep you from hiing things. Losing Our Way in Law It is an easy time to get lost in legal technology. There is so much new stuff, with more coming every day. Artificial intelligence (AI) has taken hold in law now, with Watson and ROSS and RAVN and Neota and all the others, but AI is just the start of it. To use futurist Ray Kurzweil's terminology, we are surrounded by technologies moving past the "knee" of exponential growth curves, meaning steadily growing trends are hiing the point where their growth is becoming exponential and unpredictable. Finding the Compass in Legal Technology Finding the Compass in Legal Technology FROM THE FUTURIST Trends hiing their technological "knees" –– processing power, price/performance, network nodes, global bandwidth, micro-manufacturing capabilities and others –– will make their mark on legal technology. Even something as seemingly remote from law as 3-D printing will, at a minimum, come to influence patent modeling. The net effect of all this will make it seem like you are sailing your boat into an ocean of candy, but we have to think about peril, too. A beer analogy might be that you have landed in Maine's coastal waters: in the fog, surrounded by granite shoals. There are many wrong ways to go and only a few ways to steer right. How do you choose your path? Relating This to the Myth of Sissa Futurist Ray Kurzweil analogizes the myth of Sissa –– a hard worker offered a reward. He asks to be rewarded with rice, the amount calculated by starting with a single grain and then doubling it 64 times — the number of squares on a chess board. It is clear that there will be a lot of rice, but, by the 64th square, he will be owed more than all the rice in the world. The middle of the board is the "knee" of Sissa's growth curve. Each increment after the first 32 results in an astounding number. I live on a boat called Barefoot Lady and navigate waterways of all types. My boat is equipped with the latest technology such as chart plotters, navigation apps and digital radar. I've lived a life in technology, and Barefoot Lady reflects that.

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